Vivian Jin specializes in the intersection of poetics and aesthetics in the Greco-Roman world, with particular expertise in Augustan poetry and Hellenistic epigrams. Her current book project, Virgilian Vision and Voice, investigates how vision in Virgil functions as both a sensory and poetic force, shaping memory, emotion, and identity through acts of seeing, being seen, and the visual language of the text itself. She has taught Greek and Latin at all levels, designed courses in translation, and worked in the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at the Harvard Art Museums. She is also passionate about bringing classical studies to a wider public, having published essays on topics ranging from the preservation of the Parthenon and the Summer Palace to the history of the heart emoji, led gallery talks on the ancient Mediterranean collection at the Harvard Art Museums, and is currently translating Ovid’s Amores into Chinese with support from the National Social Science Fund of China.
Education
- Ph.D., Classics
Harvard University - B.A., Philosophy, Classics
Cornell University
- Virgil
- Aesthetics
- Augustan and Hellenistic Poetry
- Ancient Theories of Vision and Perception
- Animal and Environmental Studies in Antiquity
- Classical Reception and Translation