Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Faculty of Language, Literature and Humanities - Alexander von Humboldt Professorship

CV and publications

Chiara Thumiger, born in Milan, 20/10/1975

Research Interests

  • Ancient Medicine (especially Hippocrates, Galen, Caelius Aurelianus)
  • Ancient views of mind, mental health and mental disorder
  • History of psychiatry; history of psychology; psychiatric nosology and taxonomy
  • Ancient disabilities
  • Patient cases and their history
  • Ancient Emotions
  • Greek Tragedy
  • Ancient animals
  • Theories of cognitive embodiment and their application to the hermeneutics of ancient texts
  • Literary theory

 

Higher Education

2000-2004: PhD. Department of Classics, King’s College London. Supervisor: Prof. M.S.Silk.

1994-1999: Laurea in Greek Literature (MA equivalent). Università Statale di Milano.

 

Institutional Employment

  • 2015- Wellcome Research Fellow, University of Warwick (Classics). Research Project ‘Ancient Histories of Phrenitis’); Visiting Scholar at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Klassische Philologie, research Project ‚Philosophy of the Body, Medicine of the Mind‘)
  • 2010-2015 Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin (Research Associate/Lecturer) at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin (Klassische Philologie, research Project ‚Philosophy of the Body, Medicine of the Mind‘) (full-time).
  • 2009-2010 Lecturer in Classics at University College London (full-time).
  • 2008-2009 Visiting Lecturer at University College London, Royal Holloway, Reading University, King’s College London (part-time)
  • 2007-2008 Lecturer in Classics at University College London (full-time).
  • 2006-2007 Lecturer at Queen Mary (University of London) (part-time).
  • 2006-2007 Head of Latin at Abercorn School (London) (part-time)
  • 2005-2006 Teaching Fellow at Queen Mary (University of London) (part-time)

 

Publications

Authored Books

  • A History of the Mind and Mental Health in Classical Greek Medical Thought. Cambridge University Press (2017). 505 pp.

Review: Jessica Wright on BMCR

Review: W.V. Harris on the TLS

Review: Peter Jones on Classics for All

  • Hidden Paths. Notions of Self, Tragic Characterization and Euripides’ Bacchae (BICS Suppl. 99, London 2007).

Co-edited Books

  • Mental Illness in Ancient Medicine. From Celsus to Caelius Aurelianus (co-edited with P. Singer). Brill, Leiden (2018).
  • Eros in Ancient Greece (co-edited, with C. Carey, N. Lowe, and E. Sanders). Oxford University Press (2013). 349 pp.
  • Approaches to the Patient in the Ancient World (co-edited with G. Petridou). Brill, Leiden (2015). 210,000 words ca.

Under submission

  • Ancient Holisms. Contexts, Forms and Heritage. Cambridge University Press.

Articles and Chapters

  • ‘A most acute, disgusting and indecent disease’: Satyriasis in ancient medicine’. In Mental Illness in Ancient Medicine. From Celsus to Caelius Aurelianus (co-edited with P. Singer). Brill, Leiden (2018) 269-284.
  • ‘Stomachikon, Hydrophobia and eating disorders: volition and taste in late-antique medical discussions’. In Mental Illness in Ancient Medicine. From Celsus to Caelius Aurelianus (co-edited with P. Singer). Brill, Leiden (2018) 245-268.
  • ‘Introduction’. In Mental Illness in Ancient Medicine. From Celsus to Paul of Aegina (co-authored with P. Singer). Brill, Leiden (2018) 1-32.
  • ‘The professional audiences of the Hippocratic Epidemics. Patient cases, in ancient scientific communication’. In The Greek Medical Text and its Audience: Perception, Transmission, Reception, ed. by P. Bouras-Vallianatos and S. Xenophontos. Tauris (2017) 48-64.
  • ‘The view of madness in the Ancient Greek and Roman tradition’. In G. Eghigian (ed.) The Routledge History of Madness (London: Routledge, 2017), 42-61.
  • ‘The tragic prosopon and the Hippocratic facies: face and individuality in Classical Greece’. Maia. Rivista di Letterature Classiche 3.3 (2016) 637-664.
  • ‘Mental disability? Galen on mental health’. In C. Laes (ed.) Disabilities in Antiquity. London: Routledge (2016) 267-282.
  • ‘Fear, Hope and the definition of Hippocratic Medicine’. In W.V. Harris (ed.) Popular Medicine in the Graeco-Roman World: New Approaches. (Columbia Studies in the Classical Tradition 42) (Leiden: Brill, 2016) 198-214.
  • 'Grief and Cheerfulness in early Greek medical writings'. In Bosman, P.R. (ed.) 2016. Ancient Routes to Happiness. Acta Classica Supplement 7. Pretoria: Classical Association of South Africa, 95-116.
  • (with Ph. van der Eijk and Orly Lewis), ‘Gradualism and mental health in ancient medicine’. In G. Keil, and L. Keuck and R. Hauswald (eds.) Gradualist Approaches to Mental Health and Disease. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2016). 7,500 words
  • ‘Patient function and physician function in the Epidemics cases’. In G. Petridou and C. Thumiger (eds.) Approaches to the Patient in the Ancient World. Leiden: Brill (2015) 107-137.
  • ‘Introduction.’ In G. Petridou and C. Thumiger (eds.) Approaches to the Patient in the Ancient World. Leiden: Brill (2015), 1-22.
  • ‘Animals in tragedy’. In G. Campbell (ed.) Oxford Handbook of Animals. Oxford: Oxford University Press, (2014) 84-98.
  • ‘Metamorphosis: human into animal’. In G. Campbell (ed.) Oxford Handbook of Animals. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2014) 384-413.
  • ‘Mental insanity in the Hippocratic texts: a pragmatic perspective’. Mnemosyne (2014) 1-24.
  • ‘Vision and knowledge in Greek drama’. In D. Cairns, N. Rabinowitz, S. Blundell (eds.) Vision and Viewing in Ancient Greece. (Special Issue of Helios, 40, 2013, 223-46).
  • Entries ‘Ancient and modern views on character and personality’, ‘Madness’, ‘Concept of Mind’, ‘Animals and animal imagery’, ‘Vision and knowledge’, ‘Bacchae’. In H. Roisman (ed.) Blackwell Encyclopedia of Greek Tragedy. Oxford: Blackwell (2013) 206-12; 785-7; 849-51; 112-4; 1466-7; 353-9.
  • ‘Hallucination, Drunkenness and Mirrors: Ancient Reception of Modern Drama’. In A. Bakogianni and M. Edwards (eds.), Dialogues with the Past 1: Classical Reception Theory and Practice. BICS Supplement 226-1. London (2013) 39-60.
  • ‘The early Greek medical vocabulary of insanity’. In W.V. Harris, (ed.) Mental Disorders in the Classical World. Leiden: Brill (2013) 61-95.
  • ‘Mad Eros and eroticized Madness in Tragedy’. In E. Sanders, C. Thumiger et al. (eds.) Eros in Ancient Greece. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2013) 27-40.
  • ‘Introduction’. In E. Sanders, C. Thumiger et al. (eds.) Eros in Ancient Greece. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2013) 1-8.
  • ‘Metatheatre in modern and ancient fiction’. Materiali e Discussioni per l’Analisi dei Testi Classici 63 (2009) 9-58.
  • ‘Epidemia tra le Baccanti di Euripide, Tucidide e il Corpus Hippocraticum’. Studi Italiani di Filologia Classica 7(2) 2009.
  • ‘anagkês zeugmat’ empeptôkamen: Greek Tragedy between Human and Animal’. Leeds International Classics Seminar (2008).
  • ‘Personal Pronouns as Identity Terms in Ancient Greek: The Surviving Tragedies and Euripides’ Bacchae’. Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 104 (2008).
  • ‘Visione e identità nelle Baccanti di Euripide’. ACME II (2007) 3-30.
  • ‘Animal World, Animal Representation, and the “Hunting-Model”: Between Literal and Figurative in Euripides’ Bacchae’. Phoenix 60.3-4 (2006) 191-210.

 

In press

  • ‚The Hippocratic Patient‘. In P. Pormann (ed.) Cambridge Companion to Hippocrates. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2018). 8,000 words.
  • Chapter on ‘Animals’. In L. Totelin (ed.) The Berg/Bloomsbury Cultural History of Medicine. Volume on Antiquity. London: Bloomsbury (2018). 11,000 words.
  • ‘A History of the Mind and Mental Health in Classical Greek Medical Thought. A Resume’. History of Psychiatry (forthcoming).
  • ‘Liebe als Krankheit’. In N. Reggiani and F. Bertonazzi (ed.) Parlare la Medicina: fra lingue e culture, nello spazio e nel tempo. Atti del Convegno Internazionale (Parma, 5-7 Settembre (2016). Firenze: Le Monnier, 2018. Collana "STUSMA - Studi sul Mondo Antico".
  • ‘Animality, Illness and Dehumanisation: The Phenomenology of Illness In Sophocles’ Philoctetes’. In G.M. Chesi and F. Spiegel (eds.) Undoing the Human: Classical Literature and the Post-Human. Bloomsbury.
  • ‘Ancient therapies of the word’. In White, R., Xenophontos, S., et al. (eds.) Other Psychotherapies. Special issue of the journal Transcultural Psychiatry.
  • (With L. Graumann) ‘Children and The Art Of Medical Storytelling: Contemporary Practice And Hippocratic Case-Taking Compared’. In Cases and Anecdotes, ed. by M. Asper et al. (forthcoming)
  • ‘Aretaeus’ Stomachikon: a parodistic vein in a nosological description’. In Kazantzidis, G. (ed.) Morbid Laughter.

 

In preparation (invited, under contract)

  • ‘Hiding the body: the expression of shame in ancient medicine’. In Kazantzidis, G., Spatharas, D. (ed.) Medical Understandings of Emotions.
  • ‘The transmission of information in ancient medical belief systems: the case of phrenitis’. In C. Meyns (ed.) Information and the History of Philosophy. Routledge.

 

Book Reviews

 

  • H. Bartoš, Philosophy and Dietetics in the Hippocratic On Regimen: A delicate Balance of Health. Leiden (2015). Isis.
  • I. Israelovich, Patients and Healers in the High Roman Empire. Baltimore (2015) CW.
  • V. Zajko, E.O'Gorman (eds.), Classical Myth and Psychoanalysis: Ancient and Modern Stories of the Self. Oxford (2013). CW (forthcoming).
  • M. Ahonen, Mental Disorders in Ancient Philosophy. Berlin (2014). CW (forthcoming).
  • Laes, C, Goodey, C.F., Lynn Rose, M. Disabilities in Roman Antiquity. Disparate Bodies a Capite ad Calcem. Amsterdam (2013). CR 62.2 (2014) 527-9.
  • Oberhelman, S.M. (ed.). Dreams, Healing, and Medicine in Greece: from Antiquity to the Present. Ashgate (2013). BMCR. 2013.11.33.
  • Holmes, B. The Symptom and the Subject. CW (2013) 291-2.
  • Gerolemou, Maria. Bad women, mad women: Gender und Wahnsinn in der griechischen Tragödie. Classica Monacensia, Bd 40. Tübingen: Narr Verlag. BMCR 2012.11.12.
  • Colleen Chaston, Tragic props and Cognitive Function. Aspects of the function of Images in Thinking. CR 61 (2011) 375-7.
  • Richard Buxton, Forms of Astonishment. Oxford (2009). CR. 23-6.
  • Luigi Battezzato, Linguistica e Retorica della Tragedia Greca. Rome (2008). CR 60,01 (2010), 13-15.
  • Barbara Goward, Telling Tragedy. In Journal of Hellenic Studies 125 (2005) 163-4.

 

Conferences

Conferences organised

 

Recent and Forthcoming Conference Papers

  • October 2016, paper on Animality and illness in Sophocles’ Philoctetes. In ‘Departure from Humanity: homo selvaticus, Bestiality and Monstrosity’, conference organized by Francesca Spiegel and Giulia Maria Chiesi, HU Berlin.
  • May 2016, paper on ‘Performance’. In ‘Classics and Cognitive Theory’, seminar organised by P. Meineck and E. Eidinow, Nottingham University/NYU.
  • December 2015, paper on ‘Hope in early Greek Medicine’. Conference on ‘Hope in the ancient world’, organised by G. Katzantzidis and D. Spataras, University of Crete.
  • November 16th-17th 2015, paper on the Hippocratic Epidemics within a workshop on ‚patient cases and anecdotes in Greece and China‘, organised by M. Asper, Topoi and Humboldt Universität.
  • March 24-27, 2015, paper on ‘Cognitive embodiment and medical ideas on mental disorder in Classical Antiquity’ within the conference ‘Psychology and the Classics’, KU Leuven (Belgium).
  • December 12-13, 2014, paper within the conference ‘The Greek Medical Text and its Audience: Perception, Transmission, Reception‘, Université Libre de Bruxelles (organized by P. Bouras-Vallianatos and S. Xenophontos).
  • 7 October 2014, paper on ‚Sex and mental disorder‘ and ‚Food and mental disorder‘ within the Workshop on  ‘Mental Diseases in Ancient Medicine’, Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung and Topoi.
  • September 11-13, 2014, paper on ‘The Doctor-Patient Relationship’ within the Workshop organized by P. Pormann towards the preparation of the Cambridge Companion to Hippocrates. Manchester University.
  • September 8, 2014, paper on ‚Der Wahnsinn beim Wort genommen – Geistige Ausnahmezustände in der Literatur‘ within the PRO SCIENTIA Sommerakademie devoted to the topic ‚WahnSinn‘, Mariazell (Österreich), 5-11 September 2014.
  • July, 5/6 2014, Mainz, Tagung Alte Medizin 2014, ‘Patient function and physician function in the Epidemics cases’.
  • June 23, 2014, ‘Mental disorder in classical Greek medicine’. Monday Seminar, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin.
  • May, 15 2014, ‘The Hippocratic Epidemics’. BabMed Seminar, Freie Universität.
  • May, 5/6, 2014, TOPOI workshop Terminology in (Ancient) Science, ‘Medical terminology of aisthesis disruption: the problems of voluntariness, subjectivity, mode and degree’.
  • April 18/19, 2014, Columbia University, New York, paper within the conference ‘Popular Medicine’, ‘Prometheus' gift: healing and hope in popular and technical reflections on medicine’
  • January 20, 2014, ‘Patient function and physician function in the Epidemics cases’. Monday Seminar, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin.
  • 14 October 2013, ‘πρόσωπον in Hippocratic prognosis and fifth-century theatre’. Monday Seminar, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin.
  • July 2013, Mainz, Tagung Alte Medizin 2013, ‚Eating disturbances in fifth- and fourth-century medicine‘.
  • February 2013, ‘Psychiatric disorders and bodily functions in the Hippocratic patient: Food and drink’. Monday Seminar, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin.
  • October 2012, paper within the conference ‚Ancient medical views on mental health and flourishing‘. CFP: 13th Unisa Classics Colloquium, Pretoria, 25-27 October 2012.
  • July 2012, paper on ‘Patients and physicians in the Epidemics narratives’. Homo Patiens. Approaches to the patient in the ancient world. Institut für Klassische Philologie, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin.
  • April 2012, paper on 'Mind and body in the ancient patient; history and the limits of individual psychology'. Crossing Boundaries. New directions in the study of Ancient History. Columbia University, New York.
  • March 2012 paper (co-presented with Orly Lewis) on aspects of Galen’s De Sanitate Tuenda within the conference ‘Gradualist Approaches to Health and Disease. Philosophical, Medical and Legal Perspectives’, Humboldt-Universität Berlin.
  • August 2011: ‘Some remarks on mental insanity in the medical texts’. 'Approaches to Ancient Medicine', University of Exeter.
  • May-June 2011: participation in the Workshop Psychology for ancient and mediaeval historians at Columbia University.
  • 28-29 April 2011, participation in the conference on ‘Situating Mental Illness’ at the ICI (Institute of Cultural Inquiry) in Berlin.
  • January 2011: ‘Orestes’ mania and Orestes’ synesis: models of madness in Greek tragedy’. ‘Neues aus der Altertum’, Ringvorlesung des August-Boeckh-Antikezentrums, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
  • July 2010: ‘Speciesism and poetic imagery: reading poetic animals’. 'Animals in the Greek and Roman world', Celtic Conference in Classics, Edinburgh, co-organised with Sarah Hitch.
  • March 2009: ‘Eros as madness’. Eros. International Conference, UCL & ICS. London.
  • November 2008. ‘Approaches to ancient madness’. Seminar Series, Department of Classics, University of Nottingham.
  • July 2008. ‘‘Rather than seeing he was seen by them’. Views and viewers in Euripides’ Bacchae’. Celtic Conference in Classics (Cork, Ireland).
  • June 2008. ‘Hallucination, drunkenness and mirrors: ancient reception of modern drama’. The Reception Of Ancient Greek And Roman Drama: International Conference, ICS, London.
  • May 2008. ‘The other tragedy: animals and animal imagery in Greek drama’. Humans and non-human animals in antiquity, Leeds International Classics Seminar.
  • March 2008. ‘The epidemia of Dionysus in Euripides’ Bacchae. Between stasis and plague’, UCL Departmental Seminar Series.
  • March 2008. ‘Animals and animal imagery in Greek tragedy’. Classical Association Conference, Liverpool.

 

Teaching

Interpretation and translation courses based on original texts

  • ‚Montags-Colloquium. Medicine and Philosophy‘. (Postgraduate course, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Inst. für Klassische Philologie, 2015).
  • ‚Frauen in der griechischen Tragödie (Postgraduate course, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Inst. für Klassische Philologie, 2015)
  • ‘Die Menaechmi von Plautus’. Translation into German and interpretation/commentary (undergraduate course, co-taught with O. Overwien; Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Inst. für Klassische Philologie, 2012-13)
  • ‘Euripides’ Bacchae: translation and commentary’ (postgraduate course, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Inst. für Klassische Philologie, 2010-11)
  • ‘Latin Text A’ and ‘Latin Text B’. Cicero, In C. Verrem and Ovid, Ars Amatoria; translation, commentary and prose composition exercises (undergraduate course, University College London, Dept. of Greek and Latin, 2008-9)
  • ‘Greek Texts: the Homeric Poems’. Translation, commentary and interpretation, notes on Homeric language) (undergraduate course, King’s College London, Dept. of Classics, 2008-9)

 

Courses in translation. History of Medicine

  • ‘Körper und Körperlichkeit in der Spätantike’ (undergraduate course, co-taught with several colleagues; Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Inst. Für Klassische Philologie and Institut für Alte Geschichte, 2011-12)
  • ‘Das Leib-Seele-Problem in der Medizingeschichte’. Lectures on the history of ancient melancholy and on the history of hysterical suffocation and ‘Hysteria’ (undergraduate course, part of the module ‚Geschichte und Ethik der Medizin‘, co-taught with P. van der Eijk and R. Lo Presti; Charité. Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 2011-12).

 

Courses in translation. Ancient Myth and Culture

  • ‘Life and death in the Ancient World’. I was responsible for designing the course, and its leading lecturer; I coordinated the contributions of the other participants from various UCL departments of ancient studies (History, Archaeology, and Greek and Latin). The course was an introduction to the fundamental themes, sources, instruments and methodologies of classical studies for first-year students (undergraduate course, University College London, Dept. of Greek and Latin, 2009-10; I also co-taught it in 2007-08).
  •  ‘Greek Myth’ (undergraduate course, University College London, Dept. of Greek and Latin, 2008-9; 2009-10)
  • ‘Greek Myth’ (undergraduate course, University of Reading, Dept. of Classics, 2008-9)

 

Courses in Translation. Literature

  • ‘Greek Tragedy and Comedy’ (undergraduate course, co-taught, with N.Lowe; Royal Holloway, University of London, Dept. of Classics, 2008-9)
  • ‘Greek Epic’ (undergraduate course, co-taught, with I.Rutherford, University of Reading, Dept. of Classics, 2008-9)
  • ‘Ancient Greek Literature’ (undergraduate course, Queen Mary University of London, Dept. of English and Drama, 2006-7)
  • ‘Ancient Greek Myth & Epic’ (undergraduate course, Queen Mary University of London, Dept. of English and Drama, 2006-7)

 

Literary theory and Reception Studies

  • Lectures: ‘Dante and Homer’; ‘Latin Reception of Greek Literature’, ‘Cleaning up Homer: from antiquity to the Enlightenment’; ‘Modern reception of ancient myth’; ‘Theory of Reception: an introduction’; ‘Visit to the Courtauld Museum: art, classicism, collectionism’ (MA course, University College London, Dept. of Greek and Latin, 2007-8, 2008-9, 2009-10)
  • Course: ‘Uses and Abuses of Antiquity’. Reception of antiquity, from theory to practice and popular culture; I led the course and taught seven of the ten sessions. (undergraduate course, University of Reading, Dept. of Classics, 2008-9).
  • Lectures: ‘The Homeric Hymn to Demeter’ and ‘Roman Elegy’ within the course ‘Gender in the ancient world’, organised by H.King (undergraduate course, University of Reading, Dept. of Classics, 2008-9).
  • Course: ‘Classics and Literary Theory’. (undergraduate course; University College London, Dept. of Greek and Latin, 2007-8)

 

Language Courses

  • ‘Greek Language Intermediate’ (undergraduate course, University College London, Dept. of Greek and Latin, 2009-10)
  • ‘Greek translation’. Translation of prose and poetry; advanced level (undergraduate course, University College London, Dept. of Greek and Latin, 2008-9, 2007-8)
  • ‘Latin Intermediate’ (postgraduate course; Royal Holloway University of London, Dept. of Classics, 2008-9)
  • ‘Intermediate Latin A’ (undergraduate course, University College London, Dept. of Greek and Latin, 2007-8)
  • ‘Intermediate Latin B’ (undergraduate course, University College London, Dept. of Greek and Latin, 2007-8)
  • ‘Latin Translation’. Translation of prose and poetry; advanced level (undergraduate course, University College London, Dept. of Greek and Latin, 2007-8)
  • ‘Latin for Beginners’ (undergraduate course, Queen Mary University of London, Dept. of English and Drama, 2005-6; 2006-7)
  • ‘Latin Translation for Academic Purposes’ (postgraduate course, co-taught at the CELL, Centre for Editing Lives and Letters, Queen Mary University of London, 2006-7)
  • Latin for children. I was Head of Latin at Abercorn School (London). I was entirely responsible for the organization, teaching and assessment of Latin at a Preparatory School (years 5 to 8, 9 to 13 years old pupils). 2006-7.
  • ‘Beginners Latin’; ‘Beginners Greek’; ‘Intermediate Latin’; ‘Intermediate Greek’; ‘Greek Texts’. Intensive courses in Latin and Ancient Greek at the London Summer School of Classics, held in turn at University College London and King’s College London (2001-6).
  • Various language courses in Latin and Ancient Greek as a postgraduate teacher, beginners to advanced level (undergraduate and postgraduate; King’s College London and the School of Advanced Studies, University of London, 2001-4).

 

Mentoring, Teaching training and other part-time didactic activity

  • I advised and assessed undergraduate and year-abroad dissertations; I advised and assessed MA and undergraduate theses (University College London; Dept. of Greek and Latin 2007-10)
  • I acted as a Tutor for undergraduate students (University College London; Dept. of Greek and Latin 2007-10).
  • I followed a Training course on Moodle and on-line resources at the Centre for Digital Humanities of University College London (2007).
  • I attended a training course within the Teaching & Training Programme at King’s College (University of London) (2001).