William Johnson, Professor

William A. Johnson works broadly in the cultural history of Greece and Rome, with particular interest in ancient books, readers, and reading, and with a general interest in how literary pursuits intersect with cultural context in antiquity.

Contact Info:

Office Location:	236 Allen Building, Durham, NC 27708
Office Phone:	+1 919 684 2082
Email Address:
Web Page:	http://www.profwilliamjohnson.com

Office Hours:

Office hours only appointment, on Zoom

Education:

Ph.D.	Yale University	1992
M.A. in Greek Literature	University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill	1981
BA in English Literature & Latin Literature	Oberlin College	1978

Research Interests:

Greek historiography; Greek and Roman literature and cultural history; ancient books and readers; ancient music; literary papyri

Keywords:

Athens (Greece)--Intellectual life • Books and reading • Libraries • Literature and society • manuscripts, greek (papyri) • Manuscripts, Greek (papyri) • Music, Greek and Roman • Readers • Second Sophistic movement

Curriculum Vitae  Bio

Representative Publications   (More Publications)

1. Johnson, W, Ancient Literacies: The Culture of Reading in Greece and Rome, edited by Johnson, WA; Parker, H (2009), pp. 1-448, Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780199793983 [doi]  [abs] [author's comments]
2. Johnson, WA, Bookrolls and scribes in oxyrhynchus (January, 2003), pp. 1-414, University of Toronto Press, ISBN 9781442626416  [abs] [author's comments]
3. Johnson, WA, The Oxyrhynchus Distributions in America: Papyri and Ethics, BASP (2012)
4. Johnson, WA, Libraries and Reading Culture in the High Empire, in Ancient Libraries, edited by Woolf, G (2013), Cambridge University Press
5. Johnson, WA, Pliny Epistle. 9.36 and Demosthenes' Cave, Classical World, vol. 106 no. 4 (2013), pp. 665-668  [abs]
6. Johnson, WA, Cicero and Tyrannio: Mens addita videtur meis aedibus (ad Atticum iv.8.2), Classical World, vol. 105 no. 4 (2012), pp. 471-477 [doi]  [abs]
7. Johnson, WA, Teaching the Children How to Read: The Syllabary, Classical Journal, vol. 103 no. 4 (2010), pp. 445-463, Classical Association of the Middle West and South, Inc (CAMWS) [doi]
8. Johnson, WA, The Ancient Book, in The Oxford Handbook of Papyrology, edited by Bagnall, R (2009), Oxford University Press
9. Johnson, WA, Hesiod's Theogony: Reading the Proem as a Priamel, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies, vol. 46 no. 3 (2008), pp. 231-235
10. Johnson, WA, The Posidippus Papyrus: Bookroll and Reader, in The New Posidippus: A Hellenistic Poetry Book, edited by Gutzwiller, K (2005), Oxford University Press
11. Johnson, WA, Reading cultures and education, in Reading Between the Lines: New Perspectives on Foreign Language Literacies, edited by Patrikis, P (2002), Yale University Press
12. Johnson, WA, New instrumental music from Graeco-Roman Egypt, Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists, vol. 37 (2000), pp. 17-36 (Appeared 2001.)
13. Johnson, WA, Musical Evenings in the Early Empire: New Evidence from a Greek Papyrus with Musical Notation, Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. 120 (2000), pp. 57-85, Cambridge University Press (CUP) [doi]  [abs]
14. Johnson, WA, Toward a sociology of reading in classical antiquity, American Journal of Philology, vol. 121 (2000), pp. 593-627 (Appeared 2001. Winner of the 2000 Gildersleeve Prize..)
15. Johnson, WA, Dramatic Frame and Philosophic Idea in Plato, The American Journal of Philology, vol. 119 (1998), pp. 577-598
16. Johnson, WA, Oral Performance and the Composition of Herodotus' Histories, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies, vol. 35 (1994), pp. 229-254 (appeared Fall 1995.)

Conferences Organized

• AAH Panel, "The History of Books and Reading in Greco-Roman Antiquity", May, 2012  
• Semple Symposium, Constructing Literacy among the Greeks and Romans, Organizer, April, 2006  
• APA panel on "Classics, Computers, and Pedagogy, Organizer, December, 1996  
• APA panel on "Classics and the Internet", Organizer, December, 1995