Lectures in Ancient Greek

Nissa Maria Flanders is a doctoral student in Greek & Latin at the Catholic University of America, where she teaches elementary Greek. Over the past several years, she has enjoyed taking part in a spoken Greek & Latin group at CUA, which she currently co-organises with William Linney; she has also attended Homer Camp (Ancient Language Institute), Σύνοδος ἑλληνική (Polis Institute), and, of course, LLiNYC. Her research focuses primarily on reception and character development in the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes. 

John James is a PhD student in Classics at SUNY, Buffalo. He received his BA in Classical Studies from Hillsdale College and his MA in Ancient Philology from the Polis Institute in Jerusalem. At Polis he also taught immersive ancient Greek courses ranging from absolute beginner to advanced reading and composition courses. His MA thesis, “The Greek and Hebrew Background of σπλάγχνα in the New Testament,” explored the Greek bodily and emotional metaphors connected to the Greek word σπλάγχνα from Homer to early Christianity. John’s current research focuses on ancient Greek grammarians and rhetoricians, poetics, and ancient literary criticism. He is always eager to talk about language pedagogy, linguistics, literature, and music, especially in Ancient Greek.

Ἰωάννης Ἰάκωβος, ἐπωνομασμένος Βοανεργής, σπουδάζει τά τε ἑλληνικὰ καὶ ῥωμαϊκὰ παρὰ τῷ τῆς Πολιτείας Πανεπιστημίῳ τοῦ Νέου Ἑβοράκου, ἐν Βουβάλοις (SUNY, Buffalo), κατὰ τὸν διδασκαλικὸν βαθμόν. Συντελέσας δὲ τὸν πρῶτον βαθμὸν τῆς τέχνης ἐν τῷ Λοφονάπης Διδασκαλείῳ (Hillsdale College) καὶ τὸν ἐπιστήμονα βαθμὸν τῆς τέχνης ἐν τῇ Πόλις κοινωνίᾳ (Polis Institute), ὅπου καὶ ἐδίδασκεν τὴν ἑλληνικὴν κατὰ τὴν Πόλις μέθοδον τοὺς μὲν ἐξ ἀρχῆς μανθάνοντας, τοὺς δὲ τὸν ὑψίστου βαθμοῦ ἀφιγμένους, ἔγραψε θέσιν (ἀγγλιστὶ) περὶ τοῦ σπλάγχνα ὀνόματος ἐν τῇ καινῇ διαθήκῃ· τί ἐστιν αὐτοῦ ἡ κατὰ σῶμά τε καὶ πάθος μεταφορικὴ χρῆσις ἑλληνιστί τε καὶ ἑβραϊστὶ ἀπὸ τῶν Ὁμήρου μέχρι τῶν πατέρων τῆς ἐκκλησίας. Νῦν δὲ συζητῶν τοὺς πάλαι γραμματικούς τε καὶ ῥητορικούς, τὰ ποιητικά, καὶ τὴν πάλαι κριτικήν, ἔτι ἐνθουσιάζει λαλεῖν περὶ τῆς διδαχῆς τῶν γλωσσῶν, γλωσσολογίας, φιλολογίας, καὶ μουσικῆς, μάλλιστα δὴ ἑλληνιστί.

Fernando completed a master's in Ancient Philology from the Polis Institute of Languages and Humanities and a master's in Classics from the Washington University in St. Louis. He also holds an M.A. degree in Literary Studies and a B.A. in Ancient Greek from the Federal University of Parana. Fernando has been teaching Greek since 2008, and his research interests are focused on the history of education, platonism, self-knowledge in antiquity, and second language acquisition.

Linguist Christophe Rico has a doctorate in ancient Greek and holds the French official accreditation to direct PhD research. Member of the Faculty of the University of Strasbourg, he is Professor of Greek Philology at the Ecole Biblique of Jerusalem. Since 2011, he is the Dean of the Polis Institute at Jerusalem where ancient languages (Greek, Latin, biblical Hebrew, Syriac, Coptic, classical Arabic) are taught through full immersion as living languages according to the “Polis method”. 

David Ring teaches Latin and Ancient Greek as living languages by using an eclectic mix of methods, ranging from the insights of Renaissance Humanist pedagogy (especially the advice of Erasmus) to the Direct or Nature method to (first and foremost) Teaching with Comprehensible Input.  Be it a discussion in Latin or Greek about a beautiful painting, or personal life conversation, or solving riddles, or paraphrasing poets into simpler prose, or storyboarding Lucian's True Stories -- David and his students aim to "get lost" in the joy of what they are doing, such that they "forget" they are speaking Latin or Ancient Greek.  He believes that the purpose of liberal education is to help young people grow in self-knowledge -- both individual and cultural --, to help them form sharp intellects, wise judgment, and greatness of soul.  He believes this is best done via direct encounters with the greatest minds and greatest stories of the last 3,000 years. 

Roberto Salazar is an experienced polyglot language coach and nomadic classicist, with a passion for teaching Latin and Greek as spoken languages, and an impossible desire to speak all tongues imaginable, and to teach them to those who want to learn them.

He has taught Latin, Greek, Arabic, German and more in different places around the world, including various Paideia programs, online and on site. A former fellow of the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris, where he studied Classics and Philosophy, he's currently writing a PhD dissertation on the reception of Greek tragedy in the Arab World, Modern Greece and Latin America. He has also done research on European Classical Reception and Neo-Latin.

He has published fiction translations into French and Spanish from various languages including Swedish. In 2017, he was the head literary curator for the French-Colombian Year.

That's probably why he's still scrambling to complete his PhD at the University of Versailles.

He currently lives between Athens, Cairo and Saint Denis, France.

Jenny studied German and Slavic philology in Greifswald, European Cultural History in Frankfurt/Oder, and Classics at Humboldt University Berlin. She has been working as a Latin and Ancient Greek instructor for the Paideia Institute since 2019 and as a Curriculum Designer since 2022. Jenny is co-founder of the language school Τρίοδος Trivium and runs a popular Ancient Greek YouTube channel under the same name.