Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz
Professor of Comparative Literature Emerita (retired)
After receiving her doctorate from the University of Chicago, Nancy Rabinowitz began publishing on ancient Greek tragedy as well as modern literature. She has written two books, Anxiety Veiled (1993, Cornell) and Greek Tragedy (2008, Wiley and Blackwell), in addition to co-editing many others, most recently From Abortion to Pederasty: Teaching Difficult Topics in the Classics Classroom (2014, Ohio State University Press) and Sex in Antiquity: Exploring Sexuality and Gender in the Ancient World (2015, Routledge). In recent years, Rabinowitz has been an active member of the Hamilton Oneida Prison Education project, in which she teaches at Marcy Correctional Facility. She has presented her work teaching classics in prison at conferences and in print. Rabinowitz takes her inspiration from Rhodessa Jones’ Medea Project: Theatre for Incarcerated Women/HIV Circle. She began teaching at Kirkland College and joined the Hamilton faculty in 1978.
Recent Courses Taught
20th-Century Fiction
Literature on Trials
Literature and Ethics
Tragedy: Then and Now
“All Shook Up”: How Modern Theatre Transformed Western Notions of Gender, Sex, Class and Reality
The Straight Story?: Rethinking the Romance
Research Interests
Greek tragedy, 19th-century novel, 20th-century fiction, modern drama, feminist criticism, gay and lesbian studies
Selected Publications
- Co-editor with Sue Blundell and Douglas Cairns. Vision and Viewing in Ancient Greece. Special issue of Helios 40.1 and 2 (2013).
- Greek Tragedy. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2008.
- Among Women: From the Homosocial to the Homoerotic in the Ancient World (co-editor with Lisa Auanger). Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002. Paperback edition, 2009.
- Women on the Edge: Four Plays by Euripides. Translator and editor, Euripides' Alcestis. New York: Routledge, 1999.
- Anxiety Veiled: Euripides and the Traffic in Women. Ithaca, NY: Cornell, 1993.
- “Women as Subject and Object of the Gaze in Tragedy,” in Ancient Greek Viewing. Helios 40 (2013): 195-222.
- “The Expansion of Tragedy as Critique,” in Classics in the Modern World: A Democratic Turn?, ed. Lorna Hardwick and Stephen Harrison. Oxford: Oxford University Press [Classical Presences] 2013.
- “Structuralist Approaches” and “Feminist Approaches,” in The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Greek Tragedy, ed. Hanna Roisman. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013.
- “Ancient Myth and Feminist Politics: The Medea Project and San Francisco Women’s Prisons,” in Domina Illustra, ed. Barbara Gold, Donald Lateiner, Judith Perkins. New York and London: Routledge, 2013.
- “Greek Tragedy: A Rape Culture?” Eugesta 1 (2011).
- “O’Neill and Dove: The Civil War through Tragedy.” Logeion 1 (2011).
- “Male Medea.” Helios. 38.2 (2011): 27-42.
- “Sex for Sale? Interpreting Erotica in the Havana Collection,” in Greek Prostitutes in the Ancient World, ed. Madeleine Henry and Allison Glazebrook. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2011.
- “Women’s Bonds, Women’s Pots: Adornment Scenes in Attic Vase Painting” (with Sue Blundell). Phoenix 62 (2008): 115-41.
- “The Medea Project for Incarcerated Women: Liberating Medea.” Syllecta Classica 19 (2008): 237-54.
- “Tragedy and Terrorism.” Helios 32 (2005) 29-54.
- "Politics of Inclusion/Exclusion in Attic Tragedy," in Women’s Influence on Culture in Antiquity, ed. Fiona McHardie and Eireann Marshall. New York: Routledge, 2004.
College Service
- Committee on Academic Policy, 2012-present
- Chair, Harassment Grievance Board, 2010-11
- Mentor, Hamilton Posse 7, 2007-11
- Chair, Kirkland Endowment Advisory Committee, 1995-98, 2007-10
- Director, Kirkland Project for the Study of Gender, Society, and Culture, 1995-2005
- Posse Advisory Committee, 2001-05
- Chair, Harassment Grievance Board, 2002-04
- Advisor, Sexual Assault Coalition, 1999-2000
- Faculty, Summer Starter Program, 2000-02
- Committee on Appointments, 1996-99
- Women's Studies Committee member, 1981-2005
- Chair, Community Relations Board, 1996-2000
Professional Affiliations
American Philological Association (APA)
Women's Classical Caucus of APA
Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Caucus of APA
Appointed to the Faculty
1974Educational Background
Ph.D., The University of Chicago
M.A., The University of Chicago
B.A., The City College of the City University of New York
