Emily Blanchard West

Skype me at: emily.b.west
Office: Whitby 199 (through Jeanne D'Arc auditorium and out the back doors)

I have been teaching at the College of St. Catherine since the Fall of 2005, but I got my Ph.D. in Greek and Sanskrit from the University of Minnesota, so I have lived in the Twin Cities since 1994. Teaching at St. Kate's was my dream job, and I have loved every minute I have spent at the college.

Outside of work, my husband and I have a 7 year-old son, three cats, two rabbits, a newt, a frog, two tanks of fish, and a giant African millipede named Godot. The picture on this page shows me with my advisor and Sanskrit professor, Bill Malandra. For fun, I enjoy rock climbing, windsurfing, kayaking, slacklining and campus boarding (video courtesy of Doug Olson).

Current Activities:

Forum Editor, The Classical Journal

Member, Local organizing Committee, 105th Annual Meeting of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South, 2009, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Training:

• BA 1991 Kalamazoo College, History
• 1989-90 College Year In Nepal, University of Wisconsin
• 1991 Post-Baccalaureate Classical Studies Program, University of Pennsylvania
• MA 1994 University of Texas at Austin, Comparative Literature
• 1996 Committee on Institutional Cooperation Exchange Program, University of Chicago
• PhD 2004 University of Minnesota, Greek. Dissertation: "The Hero's Handmaid: Female Helpers in Indo-European Epic"

• Greek and Sanskrit Epic
• Composition and transmission of oral literature
• Relations between ancient Greece and Persia
• Pedagogy
• Fontography: Avestan and Pahlavi

• Latin 1110-2120
• Classical Mythology
• Women in Greece and Rome
• History of the Ancient World
• Honors Seminar: Medical History from Ancient Greece to the Enlightenment
• Medicine in the Ancient World
• History of Greece (Spring 2009)

• "The Goddess Takes the Reins: Diomedes' Aristeia and Bhisma and Ganga in the Mahabharata," Studia Indo-Europea 3 (2006) 237-258.
• "Married Hero / Single Princess: Homer's Nausicaa and the Indic Citrangada." Forthcoming in the Journal of Indo-European Studies.
• "An Indic Reflex of the Homeric Cyclopeia" Classical Journal 101.2 (2005) 125-60.
• "The Wild Man and the Courtesan: An Episode from Near Eastern Epic in the Mahabharata," co-authored with Tzvi Abusch. Forthcoming in Proceedings of the Sixth Symposium of the Melammu Project
• “Now Pass Your Paper to Your Neighbor…:” A Disrespected, Under-Utilized and Highly Effective Teaching Strategy.” Classical Journal 104.1 (2008) 59-62.
• Four entries (column, pillar, pilaster, and epistyle/architrave) for the Encyclopedia of Early Christian Art and Architecture, edited by Paul Corby Finney (Garland Press).

• 9/2/08 "Near Eastern Borrowings in the Mahabharata," with Tzvi Abusch, Sixth Melammu Symposium, held at New Bulgarian University, Sophia, Bulgaria
• "Two Wild Men Transformed: Towards a Comparative Model for Evaluating Proposed Narrative Parallels." Invited lecture, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts
• 4/13/07 “Lady in the Water: Ino, Eidothea, and their Indic Relatives,” 2007 Annual Meeting of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South, Cincinnati, Ohio
• 3/17/07 "The Wild Man and the Courtesan: An Episode from Near Eastern Epic in the Mahabharata," co-authored with Tzvi Abusch, 2007 Annual Meeting of the American Oriental Society, San Antonio, Texas
• 1/7/06 "Married Hero/Single Princess: Homer's Nausicaa and Indic Citrangada" 2006 Annual Meeting of the American Philological Association
• 1/7/05 "The Goddess Takes the Reins: Diomedes' Aristeia and Ganga and Bhisma in the Mahabharata,"2005 Annual Meeting of the American Philological Association
• 1/5/04 "Circe and Calypso's Indic Sister," 2004 Annual Meeting of the American Philological Association
• 10/13/00 "Puella ex Machina: Female Assistants in the Mahabharata"
  29th Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison, Wisconsin
• 10/15/99 "Women's Advice in Greek and Sanskrit Epic"
  28th Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison, Wisconsin