Assistant Professor of Classics

Ph.D. in Classics, Trinity College Dublin
Office: 246
pamela.zinn@ttu.edu

Dr. Zinn is a Classicist whose research and teaching are broadly concerned with Latin literature, Hellenistic philosophy, Greco-Roman intellectual history, and the Classical Tradition.

She specializes in Golden Age Latin poetry, with particular emphasis on Lucretius and his De rerum natura. Her scholarship focuses on the Roman contribution to Hellenistic philosophy, animals in antiquity, and ancient theories about the mind and senses. She is currently working on a monograph, provisionally entitled Lucretius On Animals.

Dr. Zinn teaches Latin language and literature courses at all levels, as well as courses on Classical Civilization, such as 'Animals in Ancient Thought', 'Plagues and Perceptions in Ancient Greece and Rome', and 'Classical Mythology'. She is interested in supervising both graduate and undergraduate research on Latin poetry, Epicureanism, Hellenistic philosophy, Animals, the late Roman Republic, and Roman cultural and intellectual history, as well as on the Classical Tradition. 

In addition to her research and teaching in the Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures, Dr. Zinn has a range of affiliations at Texas Tech. These include the Women's and Gender Studies Program, ''The Animal' in the Humanities' Working Group, the Honors College's Program in Inquiry and Investigation (Pi Squared) and Undergraduate Research Scholars program, and The Humanities Center at Texas Tech. Dr. Zinn also co-organized 'Animal/Language: An Interdisciplinary Conference', an international conference held at Texas Tech from March 21st-23rd 2019.

Academic Publications

Articles and Book Chapters

• ‘Lucretius in Plutarch's Gryllus: An Intertext on Animal Rationality' (forthcoming), in G. Kazantzidis (ed.) forthcoming. Lucretian Receptions in Prose. De Gruyter.
• 'Lucretius and the Salty Taste of Sea Air', in Classica et Mediaevalia 69 (2021): 173-217.
• 'Lucretius On Sound', in S. Butler and S. Nooter (eds). 2018. Sound and the Ancient Senses. Routledge. pp. 130-49.
• 'Lucretius On Time and Its Perception', in Kriterion: Special Issue - New Developments in Philosophy of Time, F. Fischer (ed.), 30.2 (2016): 125-51.
• 'On the Early Printed Editions of Lucretius', in B. M. Da Rif (ed.) 2009. Civiltà italiana e geografie d'Europa: XIX Congresso A.I.S.L.L.I.,19-24 Settembre 2006, Trieste, Capodistria, Padova, Pola: relazioni. Firenze: Leo S. Olschki. pp. 234-7.

Reviews

• Németh, A. 2017. Epicurus On the Self. Routledge: Issues in Ancient Philosophy, London, New York , in Syzetesis 5.1 (2018):107-11.
• Maso, S. 2015. Grasp and Dissent: Cicero and Epicurean Philosophy. Turnhout, in Hermathena 195.2 (2013 ) [2018]: 83-88.
• Fratantuono, L. 2015. A Reading of Lucretius' De rerum natura. Lanham, Boulder, New York, London, in Classical Philology 112.4 (2017): 501–6.
• Cobbold, G. B. 2016. Lucretius, The Nature of the Universe: A translation of De rerum natura by Titus Lucretius Carus. Mundelein IL, in Classical Outlook 91.3 (2016): 106-7.
• Mazzocco, G. (ed.) 2006. Interpretations of Renaissance Humanism. Brill: Leiden, in Vivarium 47.1 (2009): 143-44.
• Cristoforo Landino. 2008. Poems. trans. M. P. Chatfield. Villa I Tatti Renaissance Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, in Renaissance Quarterly 62.4 (2009): 1208-09.

Recent Awards & Honors

• Loeb Classical Library Foundation Fellowship (2021-22)
• Scholarship Catalyst Program Grant, Office of Research and Innovation, Texas Tech University (2020)
• American Council of Learned Societies: Project Development Grant (2019-20)
• One Course Buyout Fellowship, The Humanities Center at Texas Tech (Sp.2020)
• 'Certificate of Recognition for Excellence in Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity', Office of Research and Innovation, Texas Tech University (Nov. 2019)
• Alumni College Fellowship, The Humanities Center at Texas Tech (2019)