The John and Penelope Biggs Department of Classics is thrilled to announce that Dr. Bryan Y. Norton, S.J., who completed his PhD in Classics at Washington University in St. Louis in December 2025, has accepted a tenure‑track position in the Department of Classics at Georgetown University.

Dr. Norton’s dissertation, Echoes of the Dead: The Ancestral Motif in Pindar’s Victory Odes, explores how themes of mortality, ancestral memory, and poetic tradition shape the construction of heroic legacy in ancient Greek lyric poetry. His research illuminates the ways Pindar employs ancestral motifs to link cultural memory with commemorations of athletic success. 

A scholar of Greek lyric poetry with particular focus on Pindar, Dr. Norton’s broader work engages questions of poetic time, cultural inheritance, and the formation of the classical past. His interdisciplinary background includes a BA in Philosophy from Williams College, formation within the Society of Jesus, theological study in Paris, and extensive teaching and conference experience, including presentations at CAMWS and the Society for Classical Studies. 

His research continues to develop new perspectives on poetic memory and the dynamics of tradition and innovation in Greek lyric. At Georgetown University, Dr. Norton will join a department known for its interdisciplinary engagement with the ancient Mediterranean world, where he will contribute both as a scholar and as a dedicated teacher. 

The department is also pleased to share that Dr. Norton will offer a public lecture based on his dissertation on Thursday, February 12 at 5:30 PM. This lecture, titled "Composing a Classic: Ancestral Timecraft in Pindar’s Fourth Nemean Ode," will explore how ancestry and temporal imagination function within Pindaric song. 

The Biggs Department celebrates this major milestone in Dr. Norton’s career and looks forward to the contributions he will continue to make to the field of Classics.

Congratulations to Dr. Bryan Norton on this outstanding achievement!