Amit Shilo

Amit Shilo is an Associate Professor in the Department of Classics at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). He holds affiliations with the UCSB Religious Studies program and the Centre de Recherche Écritures in France. His research focuses on ethical, political, and literary questions in ancient texts, including Athenian tragedy (Aeschylus), Plato, Homer, Seneca, and the Hebrew Bible. He explores intersections between classical thought and modern social justice issues, co-founding Classics and Social Justice (CSJ) to bridge academia and activism.

Education: PhD in Classics from NYU (2012), followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard’s Mahindra Humanities Center. He teaches courses on Greek tragedy, democracy, tyranny, and ancient afterlife concepts. Notable publications include his monograph Beyond Death in the Oresteia (2022) and articles published in American Journal of Philology and ThéoRèmes.

Research spans environmental humanities, digital humanities, and collaborative projects like the LOREL lab’s work on displacement testimonies. He actively engages in social justice initiatives, mentoring programs (e.g., Promise Scholars), and panels addressing economic inequality. His current projects include a monograph on Polytheism and Democracy: Ancient and Modern and comparative studies on Indian/Japanese mythology.