About
Daniel Walden is an assistant professor in the Honors College and a member of the program in classical studies. Prior to working at UTulsa, he was a lecturer in classical studies at the University of Michigan, where he took his Ph.D. in 2021.
Walden’s research deals primarily with Greek epic poetry and Homeric philology. He is broadly interested in ritual and liturgical language and the communities who use such language, as well as the ethical questions particular to ritual speech. These interests have led him through Indo-European comparative philology and poetics, ancient conceptions of personal identity, political philosophy and the history of the reception of the Greek and Latin classics, especially among gay communities.
His current book project focuses on modes of characterization in the Homeric poems, investigating the role of the formulaic epithet system in fleshing out the characters of gods and heroes. He has also written on truth and kingly authority in Hesiod and on Roman testamentary law.
Education
- Ph.D., University of Michigan
Dissertation: To Sing the Deeds of Men: Epithet and Identity in Homeric Epic - A.B., Columbia University
Research interests and areas of expertise
- Archaic Greek poetry
- Comparative and historical linguistics
- Indo-European language family
- Comparative poetics
- Latin oratory and rhetoric
- Roman law
- Gay and lesbian studies
- Classical reception