A Conversation with Professor Jessica Stephens

Since arriving at the College of William and Mary in 2016, Visiting Assistant Professor Jessica Stephens has become a well-loved and core member of the Classical Studies department, and her infectious energy and enthusiasm have attracted students across disciplines to the department. Over the past few years, Stephens has pioneered new courses that connect ancient history to contemporary issues, widening the scope of what has traditionally been considered “Classics.” Read on to hear about Stephens’ novel approach to this corner of academia as well as her efforts to foster community with students.

For how big of a Classical Studies enthusiast she is, you might be surprised to discover that Professor Jessica Stephens never read the “Percy Jackson” series — at least, not until this past year, when her students jokingly pressured her into engaging with the young demigod. Indeed, you might wonder how she missed out when Jackson became a cultural staple, regardless of any preexisting interest in Greek and Roman mythology. 

Perhaps it was because Stephens instead spent her time directly studying classical languages and history. After developing a love for Latin in high school, she decided to minor in Classical Studies at Truman State University. Her passion for Classics only grew, leading her to earn her first Master’s in Classics at the University of Colorado at Boulder and, eventually, a Ph.D. in Greek and Roman History at the University of Michigan. 

These intensive years of schooling and research ultimately prepared her for her role as Visiting Assistant Professor in the Classical Studies department at the College of William & Mary.

One of the most common misconceptions that Stephens encounters is that “Classics” refers to classical English literature written by authors like Jane Austen. Instead, the term traditionally has been used to refer to the study of ancient Greece and Rome. 

“The reason we’re called the ‘Classics’ is because elite Europeans thought that these texts by Aristotle and Plato and Tacitus and Livy, [and] the poets Catullus and Virgil, and the like, should be the canon, the classical canon,” Stephens said. “So our name as a field is really bound up with that history. And it’s not something that I think many Classics departments engage with.”

Stephens possesses a more expansive view of Classical Studies than most, which in turn, influences how she conducts her courses. Even in survey courses like the History of Ancient Greece and the History of Ancient Rome, Stephens strives to traverse the Mediterranean through time and space.

“One of the things that I like to try and do in the context of my courses is teach on a Mediterranean-wide basis and try to understand Greece and Rome within the context of a much broader series of cultures,” Stephens said.

In addition to widening the scope of what regions constitute Classical Studies, Stephens strives to connect the ancient world to modern society and highlight the constant relevance of Classics.

“Because we’re products of the Enlightenment, we are engaged with the Classical world — with Greece, with Rome — every day, whether we want to be or not,” Stephens said. “And understanding how that works is actually, I think, key to being able to understand why things are the way that they are, why there are certain social inequities, why there are certain ideas that culture values.”

Stephens further explained how crucial Classical Studies are to not only understanding contemporary societal structures and values but also challenging the foundation upon which these ideas lie.

“Because Greece and Rome remain cultural touchstones in Hollywood pictures, in film and TV, in literature, in philosophy, in math, in everything, and in our understanding of the history of biology, you have to go back to these texts,” she said. “In this part of the world that we call the West, these ideas tend to be foundational. We don’t have to accept them wholesale. We don’t have to accept them uncritically. But in order to criticize, in order to change, we have to know what they are.”

Two of Stephens’ most noteworthy courses, Comparative Slavery: From Antiquity to the Modern World and The Use and Abuse of Classics: Ethnicity in Antiquity and Race in the Modern U.S., exemplify her commitment to creating a more holistic view of Classical Studies not solely centered on Greece and Rome, as well as her meaningful alignment of the past with the present.

“More recently, in 2018, I introduced a course called Comparative Slavery. We look at slavery from basically as early as we can up into the modern world. And slavery in antiquity has always been a research interest of mine, in no small part because of how ubiquitous it was and how different it was in many ways as compared to slavery in the United States, which is always our cultural touchstone,” Stephens said. “And in crafting that class, I started thinking more about how the field in many ways was instrumental in creating the world that we have today post-transatlantic slave trade. And so out of that interest — in fact, out of one lecture in my Comparative Slavery course — I came up with an entire other course that looks at ethnicity in antiquity and racism in the modern U.S.”

Stephens hopes to build upon her Comparative Slavery course to contribute to academia. 

“I would love to write a sourcebook for my Comparative Slavery course. There isn’t one that looks at primary evidence from all the way back to today,” Stephens said. “I have collated a lot of sources from different places, but I’d love to put them in one volume. I’m not sure if that will ever happen, but it’s a dream.” 

Her current research examines assimilation and acculturation during the transition from the Roman Republic to the Roman Imperial period, particularly in terms of what that transition looked like at different times and places for people of varying statuses.

But Stephens has even bigger plans than these projects — she has made it her mission to continue diversifying and expanding the classes that the Classical Studies department offers, hoping to create even more courses like her Comparative Slavery and Ethnicity courses. 

“I hope that I can start offering a broader selection of the courses that we have on the books,” Stephens said. “We have a lot of classes on the website that we haven’t been able to offer in recent years. So I’d like to branch out into those, in addition to adding some more. I’ve been very fortunate in that the department has already allowed me to add these two new courses that are odd in some ways to be housed in the Classics department. I think I make a good argument for why they are in the Classics, but they’re not your typical Classics courses, so I’d love the chance to continue that tradition.”

Despite their significance, pioneering courses centered around such topics can be challenging. Stephens quickly recognized that she needed to build rapport with her students and turn the classroom into a safe space to enable productive discussion and comfortable engagement with the source material.

“[Having safe spaces is important] especially in a class where you’re talking about difficult topics like slavery or rape or racism ... I mean, these are fraught topics,” Stephens said. “And if you don’t come up with a way to become comfortable with one another, you’re never going to have real conversation. I do lecture, but I think conversation, in no small part, helps students articulate their ideas in a way that me lecturing for 50 minutes or 80 minutes will never fully achieve. So even in what I consider my lecture-based courses, there are still opportunities to dialogue.”

Stephens explained that she maintains tight-knit relationships with her students and facilitates long, fruitful discussions, even in bigger classes with upwards of 50 people. To achieve her goal, Stephens employs two crucial methods: infusing her personality into the classroom and getting to know her students as friends and equals.

“One of the things that I think I have always tried to be to my students is not just a professor, but a whole person,” Stephens said. “And as a whole person, I have an entire other world and an entire other life, aside from this job and from what I do on campus. And it’s always fun to sort of bring that into the classroom and become a little bit of a human because I think sometimes there’s a tendency to not think of professors very much as people. And so I’m always interested in getting to know my students a little bit more and allowing them to get to know me a little bit more. And I think that’s part of why I have so much fun, and I hope my students have so much fun in their learning.”

Stephens proudly noted that her students regularly check in with her about her gardening hobby and her beloved cat, who has become somewhat of a mascot for Stephens’ classes. 

“If someone’s had me before, they’ll usually ask the question, ‘How is Mr. Vincent doing?’ And that is my cat,” Stephens said with a laugh. “It’s sort of adorable because I try and put a picture of him in my PowerPoints every semester.”

When talking to Stephens, a self-proclaimed “glass half-full kind of person,” you’ll soon see that she radiates pure love and enthusiasm for the work she does on campus and in academia. She even failed to come up with even one thing she dislikes about her job. She stressed that a large part of what keeps her glass overflowing is the strong community she has built with her students through her warm and caring approach to teaching.

“Something that is kind of a recurring phenomenon is just my intense joy of working with you guys, with William and Mary students,” Stephens said. “This is the third university that I’ve taught at, and you students are remarkable. It is fun to work with you, fun to talk to you. And so teaching a new course and then getting feedback from students along the way, learning what is working for you guys, what isn’t working for you guys, is very much enjoyable for me.”