William Mullen

Languages and Literature
Professor of Classical Studies

Bard College
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
mullen@bard.edu
845-758-7271

AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION

  • Greek and Latin epic and lyric poetry
  • rhetoric and public speaking, theory and practice
  • the Western classical tradition: great books curriculum, Italian Renaissance, American foundational period, German Hellenism
  • comparative Eastern and Western classics: Chinese, Indian, Greek, Roman, Hebrew, Mesopotamian, Egyptian
  • curriculum reform in liberal arts colleges
  • catastrophist interpretation of mythology and history
  • military theory and combat trauma, ancient and modern

EDUCATION AND DEGREES

  • Preparatory: Portsmouth Priory School, 1964
  • Undergraduate: Harvard College, B. A. 1968
  • Graduate: Univ. of Tex at Austin, Ph. D. in Classics 1972

EMPLOYMENT

  • Bard College, Professor 1989-, Associate Professor 1985-9, Chair of Classical Studies Program 1985-2000 , Director of Freshman Seminar Core Curriculum 1987-90, Chair of the Presidential Commission on the Curriculum 1990-1993
  • Univ. of California at Berkeley, Dept. of Comparative Literature, Visiting Associate Professor, Spring 1989
  • St. John's College, Tutor, Annapolis, Md. 1980-4, Santa Fe, N. M., Spring 1985
  • Boston University, Dept. of Classical Studies, Assistant Professor of Classics, 1974-1980
  • Center for Hellenic Studies, Junior Fellow, 1977-8
  • Princeton University, The Hodder Fellow in the Humanities (post-doctoral), 1973-4
  • Univ. of California at Berkeley, Departments of Classics and Comparative Literature and Division of Interdisciplinary and General Studies, Visiting Assistant Professor 1971-3

PUBLICATIONS

1. Ancient Greece

  • Choreia: Pindar and Dance (Princeton University Press, 1982)
  • Articles on "Choral Dancing" and "Dithyramb", The International Encyclopedia of Dance (Univ. of California Press, 1997)
  • "Introduction" to The Odyssey and Ancient Art, catalogue of exhibition at The Edith C. Blum Art Institute, Bard College (Caratzas, 1991)
  • "Herakles in Pindar", in HERAKLES: Passage of the Hero through a Thousand Years of Classical Art, catalogue of exhibition at the Edith C. Blum Art Institute, Bard College (Caratzas, 1986)
  • "Pindar and Athens: A Reading in the Aeginetan Odes", ARION N.S. 1/3
  • "Place in Pindar", ARION O.S. Winter 1967

2. The Classical Tradition

  • "Roses for the Rotunda", Modulus 16: The University of Virginia Architectural Review, 1983 [Jefferson and ancient Rome]
  • "Republics for Expansion: The School of Rome", ARION N.S. 3/3
  • "Jefferson and Rome", The Classical Tradition in the Americas, Vol. III (Tźbingen and Boston University, forthcoming)
  • "Nietzsche and the Classic", The St. John's Review, Winter 1982
  • "So Near and Yet So Far: The Chinese Classics in the American Classroom", co-authored with Prof. Michael Nylan (Ancient and Modern Literature, forthcoming)

3. Historical Catastrophism

  • "The Agenda of the Milesian School", in Natural Catastrophes during Bronze Age Civilisations, ed. Benny Peiser, Trevor Palmer, Trevor, and Bailey, Mark E. (British Archaeological Reports International Series 728: Archaeopress, Oxford, 1998)
  • "Worlds in Collision after Heinsohn", S. I. S. Review, Spring 1998
  • "Cenocatastrophism", published in Proceedings of the Immanuel Velikovsky Centennial Celebration 1895-1995 (Ivy Press Books, 1997)
  • "Literary Influence and Heinsohn's Dating", paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilization, Berkeley, June 1, 1989
  • "Structuring the Apocalypse: Old and New World Variations", in Velikovsky and Cultural Amnesia: Papers Presented at the Univ. of Lethbridge May 9-10, 1974, ed. E. R. Milton (Unileth Press: Lethbridge, 1978)
  • "Myth and the Science of Catastrophism: The Mesoamerican Record", PensŽe Fall 1974 (Vol. 4 No. 4)
  • "Myth and the Science of Catastrophism: A Reading of the Pyramid Texts", PensŽe Winter 1973 (Vol. 3 No. 3)
  • The Center Holds" [implications of historical catastrophism for physics, geology, paleontology, botony, psychology, mythology, history], PensŽe May 1972 (Vol. 2 No. 2), reprinted in Velikovsky Reconsidered, the editors of PensŽe (Doubleday, 1976)

4. Poetry

  • "Enchanted Rock", The Yale Review, December 1996, chosen for inclusion in The Best American Poems of 1998, ed. John Hollander (Scribners, Fall 1998)
  • "Ghazal", Phoenix Literary Supplement of The Boston Phoenix, March 1998
  • "The Jefferson Market Garden" [elegy for Robert Fitzgerald], Annandale, Fall 1991
  • "Bassai", ARION N. S. 1977

5. Translations

  • Pyramid Spells [from the pyramid of Unas, Fifth Dynasty], Sui Generis Spring 2001
  • "Pindar's Tenth Olympian Ode", Metamorphoses: The Five College Journal of Translation, Fall 1998
  • Du Fu, "Spring Prospect" and "From the Lake Tower", Metamorphoses: The Five College Journal of Translation, Spring 1998
  • "Sophocles' Trachiniae, First Dance", Sui Generis Spring 1998

WEBSITES

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

1. Greek Poetry, Drama, Dance, and Athletics

  • Organizer of Symposium, "CHOREIA: Words, Music and Dance in Ancient Greece", Boston Univerity, November, 1974.
  • Translator and Chorus Trainer for performance of Sophocles, Women of Trachis 93ff and Pindar, Olympian Ten, at Herakles Exhibit, Bard College, March 1986.
  • Dramaturge, "Maiden Songs: Sappho and Alkman", performed by the New York Greek Drama Company at the St. Mark's Performance Space, New York, May 14-17, 1987, reviewed in the New York Times, May 19, 1987, by Jennifer Dunning.
  • Literary Director, "Songs of Sappho", video by the New York Greek Drama Company.
  • "The Civic Dimension of Ancient Athletics", lecture and slide presentation to the Institute for the Study of Classical Architecture at the New York Academy of Arts, June 29, 1994, followed by membership of the jury appraising the twelve final architectural projects.

2. Joint Seminars with Military Academies

 

I initiated the format of the Joint Seminar in 1982; it normally consists of ten to twenty volunteer students each from a U. S. military academy and a liberal arts college, meeting once at each campus for two hour seminars led by myself and a faculty member from the Academy, on texts related to war.

1) U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis and St. John's College

  • Spring 1982, Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, and John Keegan, The Face of Battle.
  • Spring 1984, Clausewitz, On War, and Col. Harry Sommers, On Strategy: A Clausewitzian Analysis of the Vietnam War.

2) U. S. Military Academy at West Point and Bard

  • Spring 1986, Homer, The Iliad.
  • Spring 1999, Clausewitz, On War.
  • Spring 2000, Informational Speeches and Military Funeral Orations, plus panel on role of public speaking at Bard and West Point.
  • Spring 2001, and Fall 2002, Homer, The Iliad, and Jonathan Shay, Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character.
  • Fall 2001, "Napoleon in Russia", excerpts from Tolstoy, War and Peace , and Clausewitz, On War and Memoirs of the Campaign of 1812.
  • Fall 2003 [in planning], Homer, The Odyssey, and Jonathan Shay, Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming.

3. Combat Trauma

  • Seminar on Homer, The Iliad, and Jonathan Shay Achilles iVietnam,for instructors of guards of juvenile delinquents at the Eddie Parker Division of Youth Training Academy, Red Hook, N. Y., August 1998.
  • Consultant and interviewee for "Achilles in Vietnam", 90-minute documentary by Charles Berkowitz on the book by Jonathan Shay.
  • Consultant for "Odysseus in America", documentary by Charles Berkowitz on the book by Jonathan Shay [in progress].
  • "Achilles in Vietnam: The Book, the Film, the Seminars between West Point and Bard", talk given to Yale University Dept. of Classics, Oct. 16, 2002, and Univ. of Southern California, Feb. 11, 2003.

4. Prison and Juvenile Delinquent Residence Work

  • Seminar on public speaking, Mid-Orange Correctional Facility [medium-security prison], Dept. of Correctional Services, State of New York, Warwick, N. Y., April 22, 1998.
  • Public speaking exchange, Bard and Eddie Parker Division of Youth Training Academy, Red Hook, N. Y, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002.

5. Curriculum in Higher Education

  • Panelist, National Endowment for the Humanities, Division of Regional and National Grants, Washington D.C., September 1982.
  • "The Curricula of Jefferson and Plato", Address to the Association for Graduate Liberal Studies Programs, September 1985.
  • Chair, Presidential Commission on the Curriculum, Bard College 1991-3 [resulting in the New Bard Curriculum, 1993-].
  • Director, Freshman Seminar [core curriculum for all freshmen], Bard College, 1989-92.

HONORS

1. Best American Poems

  • "Enchanted Rock" (originally published in Yale Review), chosen by John Hollander, ed., for inclusion in The Best American Poems of 1998 (Scribners, Fall 1998).

2. Marquis' Who Who

  • Who's Who in the East, 1997-2000.
  • Who's Who in America, 1998-9.
  • Who's Who in the World, 1998-present.

3. International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, England

  • Inclusion in The Director General's Honours List (1998).
  • The Order of International Fellowship.
  • International Man of the Year and Twentieth Century Award of Achievement, 1997, in recognition of services to "Poetry, Scholarship and Education".

4. American Biographical Institute

  • Inclusion in Five Hundred Leaders of Influence-- Seventh Edition (1998).

5. Harvard College

  • Bowdoin Prize 1968 [best undergraduate essay].
  • Graduated Magna Cum Laude 1968.
  • Phi Beta Kappa 1967.

6. Preparatory School

  • Best Affirmative Speaker, New England Prep School Debating Championship, 1962.