Brian Channing Walters

Brian Channing Walters is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with additional appointments in the Program in Translation and Interpreting Studies and Program in Medieval Studies. He teaches Latin language courses alongside specialized offerings in Neronian Life and Literature, Roman Civilization, and Roman Material Culture.

His educational background includes:

• B.A. from University of Missouri (1998)
• M.A. from University of Kansas (2003)
• Ph.D. from UCLA (2011)

Walters' research centers on Latin literature of the late Republic and early Empire, specializing in Ciceronian oratory, political metaphor (particularly body politic imagery and disease metaphors), and classical reception. His scholarship explores how political violence and state instability were conceptualized through physiological analogies in first-century BCE Rome, with significant contributions to understanding Cicero's rhetorical strategies and authorship. He maintains active translation projects including Virgil's Georgics and Lucretius' De Rerum Natura.

Analysis of his publication record reveals consistent focus on political discourse in Republican Rome, with recurring themes of bodily metaphors in statecraft, reception of classical texts, and poetic translation. His work bridges philological analysis with political theory, demonstrating how disease imagery functioned as rhetorical weaponry in late-Republican power struggles.

Professor Walters actively contributes to academic discourse through invited lectures at major conferences including presentations on "Murdering the Fatherland" (2014), "Healing the State with Violence" (2013), and "Cicero's Post Reditum ad Populum" (2015). He serves as editorial peer reviewer for publishers including Bloomsbury and contributes to Illinois Classical Studies as both author and editor.