James M. Redfield (born 1935) is the Edward Olson Distinguished Service

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

Classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

. He has made numerous contributions to current scholarship on

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

and

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

, probably the most notable of which is his book, ''Nature and Culture in the Iliad: The Tragedy of Hector'' (University of Chicago Press, 1975), an anthropological reading of the

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...

with the stated goal of analyzing Hector's role in the work.

Biography

Redfield's father,

Robert Redfield Robert Redfield (December 4, 1897 – October 16, 1958) was an American anthropologist and ethnolinguist, whose ethnographic work in Tepoztlán, Mexico, is considered a landmark of Latin American ethnography. He was associated with the Universi ...

, was also a University of Chicago professor, teaching

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

and

ethnolinguistics Ethnolinguistics (sometimes called cultural linguistics) is an area of anthropological linguistics that studies the relationship between a language or group of languages and the cultural practices of the people who speak those languages. It exam ...

, and serving as Dean of the Division of the Social Sciences from 1934 to 1946. His maternal grandfather,

Robert E. Park Robert Ezra Park (February 14, 1864 – February 7, 1944) was an American urban sociologist who is considered to be one of the most influential figures in early U.S. sociology. Park was a pioneer in the field of sociology, changing it from a pas ...

, was also a University of Chicago professor, teaching

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

from 1914 to 1933 and playing a leading role in the Chicago School of sociology. James Redfield is a member of the Department of Classical Languages and Literature and the Committee on Social Thought at Chicago. He took his undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago in 1954, studied at New College,

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

from 1956 to 1958, and returned to Chicago for his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in 1961. He was appointed as a professor at The College at the University of Chicago in 1976. He retired in 2016. Redfield holds the distinction of having been awarded the University's Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching twice, once in 1965 and again in 1987.

Publications

*''Nature and Culture in the Iliad: The Tragedy of Hector'' (University of Chicago Press, 1975) *''The Locrian Maidens: Love and Death in Greek Italy'' (University of Chicago Press, 2004)

External links

Redfield's University of Chicago faculty page
Living people American classical scholars Classical scholars of the University of Chicago University of Chicago Laboratory Schools alumni Scholars of ancient Greek literature 1935 births {{US-academic-bio-stub