Adele C Scafuro

Adele C Scafuro is a Professor of Classics at Brown University, where she has taught since 1983. Her primary affiliation is the Classics Department, and she serves on the Managing Committee of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. She holds a B.A. in English from Vassar College (1972), an M.A. (1974), and a Ph.D. in Classical Philology from Yale University (1983).

Her research focuses on intersections of law, civic institutions, and performance in ancient Greece, with specializations in Athenian legal procedures, Greek epigraphy, and drama. Notable works include The Forensic Stage: Settling Disputes in Graeco-Roman New Comedy (1997), a co-edited Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Comedy (2014), and translations of Demosthenes' speeches. Current projects explore Athenian trials by decree and epigraphic iconography in honorary wreaths.

Publications reflect interdisciplinary engagement with legal history, dramatic texts, and material culture. Recent work includes analyses of legal contracts in Plautus and Menander, Athenian judicial decrees, and cross-cultural reception of ancient comedy.

• Awards: Humboldt Fellow (1989, 2004), ACLS Fellowship (2003-2004), multiple Salomon Faculty Awards, and grants from the Arete Foundation and Loeb Classical Library.
• Grants: Includes funding for collaborative epigraphic projects in Messenia and research on Athenian legal history.

Teaching spans courses on ancient law, Greek drama (Euripides/Sophocles), Athenian orators, and international relations among Greek city-states. She has held visiting positions at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (2004-2005), Munich's Leopold Wenger-Institut, and lectured widely in Japan and Europe.

Collaborations: Works with Dr. Andronike Makres on the Inscriptions of Messenia corpus, blending epigraphy with historical analysis.