Brooke Holmes

Brooke Holmes is the Susan Dod Brown Professor of Classics at Princeton University and Director of the Gauss Seminars in Criticism. She holds primary appointment in the Department of Classics and is affiliated with the Department of Comparative Literature, Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies, and University Center for Human Values, with additional associations to the Program in the History of Science and Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies.

Dr. Holmes earned her B.A. in Comparative Literature from Columbia University, followed by M.A. and Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Princeton University, and a D.E.A. in Études grecques from the Sorbonne. She has taught at Princeton since 2007 and previously directed the Interdisciplinary PhD Program in the Humanities (2015-2018).

Her research centers on the history and philosophy of concepts related to the physical body, nature, and life in ancient Greek and Roman sources, with particular focus on their reception in twentieth and twenty-first century continental philosophy. Her work with the Postclassicisms network examines how contemporary communities conceptualize relationships to the Greco-Roman past, spanning ancient medicine, philosophy, literature (especially Homer and tragedy), and theoretical frameworks from medical humanities to gender studies.

Her publications including Postclassicisms (2022), Antiquities Beyond Humanism (2020), and The Symptom and the Subject (2015) demonstrate her interdisciplinary approach that bridges classical scholarship with contemporary theoretical concerns.

• Guggenheim Fellowship (2018)
• Classics Collaborative Humanities Grants

Professor Holmes remains actively engaged in interdisciplinary scholarship through the IHUM Executive Committee and Gauss Seminars in Criticism, advancing research that connects ancient concepts with modern ethical, political, and philosophical questions while mentoring students in classics and related fields.