Joshua Billings
I studied Classics, German, and Comparative Literature at Harvard and Oxford. Before coming to Princeton in 2015, I held a research fellowship at Cambridge, and taught at Yale.
My research focuses on ancient Greek literature and philosophy and modern intellectual history, with a particular concentration on tragedy. I have published two books: (Princeton 2014) traces the emergence of modern conceptions of tragedy and the tragic in the 18th and 19th century. (Princeton 2021) explores how Greek drama can be understood as a form of philosophical thought before the discipline of philosophy. This interest in fifth-century BCE intellectual history is also the impetus behind the (co-edited, with Christopher Moore), which was published in 2023.
My current research is focused on philology, as practice and theory: the practical side involves preparing a commentary on Euripides’ Hippolytus (under contract with Cambridge University Press); this informs work on a book, provisionally entitled Reading After Philology, which argues that the modern (post-1800) conception of philology is giving way to new modes of reading, and that scholars of (especially classical) literature should welcome the invitation to rethink the history, institutions, and practices of philology. Related is a growing focus on Platonic interpretation; a long-term project on “Plato’s Readers” discusses reading in Plato and the history of reading Plato.
I am currently Editor-in-Chief of , the research journal of the Society for Classical Studies. In this capacity, I have been particularly excited to work with graduates and younger scholars, and to encourage submissions that reflect the full richness of Classics research today, and the urgent questions and debates within the field.
Finally, I am committed to extending the university’s educational mission beyond its student body and immediate surroundings, and teach regularly through the .
