Penn Classical Studies Professor James O'Donnell has been named the American Philological Association's president-elect for 2002.
The association, whose headquarters are located on Penn's campus, is the principal learned society for the study of ancient Greek and Roman languages, literatures and civilizations in the country.
As president-elect, O'Donnell, who is also the vice provost for information systems and computing at Penn, will spend the year training to become the association's president in 2003. He will oversee the organization's research, publication and education in the field of the ancient world.
O'Donnell said he aims to raise public awareness about the excitement and value of studying the ancient world.
"The ancient world is a more exciting, a more contemporary thing to study than you'd expect before you get into it," O'Donnell said. "That's why it's fun, and I do this because it's fun."
O'Donnell is the second Penn professor in recent history to be elected to the prestigious position in the APA. In 1987, Classics Professor Martin Ostwald served as the APA's president.
O'Donnell has published numerous books and articles on the cultural history of the late antiquity, the period between the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of Christianity.
He is particularly well-known for his three-volume edition and commentary on Augustine's Confessions, the autobiography of St. Augustine, an important figure in early Christianity.
O'Donnell won the 2000 Literary Award from the Philadelphia Athenaeum for his work on Augustine, one of the definitive ones in the discipline.
"Of all the people that lived before 1500 A.D., he's the one we know the most about," O'Donnell said. "He's controversial, influential and interesting."
O'Donnell's colleagues praised a man they call a visionary in the field who deserves and has earned this honor.
"The APA wants someone who can articulate the value of the Classics to a broader audience and who can be active in promoting the Classics," Classical Studies Department Chairwoman Sheila Murnaghan said. "Jim has enormous vision and energy in doing that."
Classical Studies Professor Ralph Rosen added that O'Donnell is sui generis, a Latin phrase that roughly translates to one-of-a-kind.
"He has a lot of the traditional values of the discipline, but at the same time, he's not afraid to think outside the box," Rosen said. "He's a futurist in a kind of way."
Many of O'Donnell's peers mention the odd combination of his fields of expertise -- O'Donnell is both a scholar of the late antiquity period and a master of cutting edge computer technology.
"He is internationally recognized in the field and at the same time is vice provost of computing at the University," Classical Studies Professor Brent Shaw said. "It's those sorts of things that mark him. He's so good at both."
But despite their obvious differences, O'Donnell sees definite similarities between his two areas of interest.
"I don't study, nor do my colleagues study, the ancient world to try and get away from the modern world," O'Donnell said. "We study the ancient world because it helps us better understand all of human history, including ourselves."
O'Donnell meshed his two passions in his 1998 book, Avatars of the Word: from Papyrus to Cyberspace, which examines the use of technology to manipulate ancient texts.
"It's a very different kind of book," Rosen said. "He's able to go from antiquity to the future in one kind of seamless transition."
O'Donnell did his undergraduate work at Princeton University and received his Ph.D. from Yale University. He began teaching at Penn in 1981.
He is currently completing a book entitled, What Augustine Didn't Confess: an Antibiography.
"It's more about the story he doesn't tell and more about the story he doesn't want us to know," O'Donnell said. "It's an interesting and provocative book that will make people think about him in new ways."
