Amit Shilo
About:
“How do individuals and societies create and sustain values? Can these values be made more equitable?”
I have been preoccupied with versions of these ethical and political, but also literary questions for decades. They have led me to work on the societally disruptive aspects of Athenian tragedy (especially Aeschylus), Plato, Homer, and Greek political thinkers. Other research topics include Seneca, the Hebrew Bible, and Kafka. In each field I bring to bear modern debates over ethical philosophy in literature, political philosophy, and the work of a wide range of theorists and critics. In the current era of immense violence and oppression, I have been working on responsible activism with stakeholders as well as scholarship that seeks new ways of addressing problems and living in mutual flourishing.
Having traveled, worked, and studied, mostly around NYC and Europe after college (NYU, English Lit./History), I received my Ph.D. in Classics (also from NYU, 2012). There I worked as a Language Lecturer (2012-13) before a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard’s Mahindra Humanities Center (2013-14), from which I joined UCSB.
My first book is Beyond Death in the Oresteia: Poetics, Ethics, and Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2022). It analyzes the multitude of views on the afterlife in the trilogy, ranging from oblivion to ghostly returns to one of the earliest examples in Western thought of postmortem judgment. Among the book’s central arguments is that specific ideas about the afterlife function as ethical checks for the living against political violence.
An article on the afterlife in Greek tragedy and Plato has appeared in ThéoRèmes (2013). Another, on the Ghost of Clytemnestra and ethical thought appeared in the American Journal of Philology (2018). In it, I take the Ghost’s claims seriously, as the Erinyes do. I find that crediting this undead, lying, murdering character entails a literary-philosophical provocation past normative ethical assumptions. [links to each article below]. I have published a book chapter in Wiley’s Companion to Aeschylus (2022), entitled “Ghosts, Demons, and Gods: Supernatural Challenges.” A third article, “The Chained Demons of Creation: Literalism and Unetymology in Genesis 1” (in press at ThéoRèmes) combines biblical Hebrew philology, literary criticism, and religious studies. It argues that the first creation story structures its own “literal” reception through simultaneously stripping the dangerous names of nature divinities and drawing attention to its technique. A recent article at Arethusa, “Unanimous Gods, Unanimous Athens: The Oresteia’s Challenge to Democracy,” engages more directly with modern political-theological theories and political philosophy. I am co-editing a book under contract, Reconciliation in the Greco-Roman World and am the head editor of a proposed special issue, Cathartic History. My next monograph is provisionally entitled “Polytheism and Democracy: Ancient and Modern.” In it I compare the plural theologies, values, and practices of Greek polytheism and the theories, institutions, and processes of Athenian Democracy.
My research has recently also expanded in diverse directions: In environmental humanities I am writing on ancient views of life and the modern search for life in space; as well as on the materiality, religious and political dimensions of classical bone-reburials. Following a long-standing interest in digital humanities and NLP and collective translation projects in graduate school, I have joined our brilliant Professor Annie Lamar and the LOREL lab on several projects related to testimonies of displacement, arising from the Nakba (one has been published, see below). In comparative work I have been privileged to work with colleagues and students on projects related to Indian and Japanese mythology and religion. I am an affiliate of UCSB’s Religious Studies and History Departments, and of the Centre de Recherche Écritures, Université de Lorraine, France [https://ecritures.univ-lorraine.fr/].
I have been fortunate that my teaching has often furthered my research, including graduate seminars on “Greek Democracy and Its Critics” and “Classical Tyranny,” as well as graduate and undergraduate courses on Greek tragedy, Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Herodotus, the ancient afterlife, Greek intellectual revolutions, and mythology.
A year studying Ancient Greek material culture, art history, and excavation as the Phillip Lockhart Fellow at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens (2007-08) has greatly benefited my teaching and research.
In 2016 I co-founded Classics and Social Justice (CSJ) with Prof. Nancy Rabinowitz (Hamilton College) and a steering committee of talented young scholars. Its mandate is to connect all aspects of the discipline with self-critical, positive social change. This includes amplifying the remarkable activism of scholars and teachers, as well as helping the profession become more equitable. It has grown into an SCS affiliated group with meetings across the US and in Europe. I have co-organized a number of CSJ events at SCS/AIA annual meetings, including the three-part workshop “Classics and Civic Activism” (2020) and the panel “Activisms Ancient and Modern” (2022). Recently I have been working with the Women’s Classical Caucus and other affiliated groups on creating a hardship fundraiser for Classics (at the bottom of the page).
At UCSB I am involved with a variety of mentoring and social justice projects, such as the Promise Scholars, the Gaucho Underground Scholars, and the Odyssey Project.
In the face of ongoing atrocities I am dedicated to working with non-violent peace activists the world over for change for a better, sustainable future. I have worked to support internationally and bring to our campus real dialogue with stakeholders from “the Land,” Israel-Palestine, such as Salt of the Earth. I actively help a number of organizations that bring together Israelis, Palestinians, and others to work for human rights, peace, and sustainable coexistence: Activate Yourself for Peace: Three Steps.
With mutual respect and welcoming, I invite inquiries from all students (including prospective ones) concerning the above or related topics.
Publications:
Book
- Beyond Death in the Oresteia: Poetics, Ethics, and Politics, (Cambridge University Press 2022) [link]
Articles, Book Chapters, and Reviews
- “Cognitive Geographies of Catastrophe Narratives: Georeferenced Interview Transcriptions as Language Resource for Models of Forced Displacement” (Co-authored with Annie K. Lamar (lead author), Rick Castle, Carissa Chappell, Emmanouela Schoinoplokaki, Allene M. Seet, and Chloe Nahas, published in the Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Nakba Narratives as Language Resources, 2025 [link])
- “Unanimous Gods, Unanimous Athens: The Oresteia‘s Challenge to Democracy” (Arethusa, Volume 56, Number 1, Winter 2023, pp. 27-75) [link]
- “Ghosts, Demons, and Gods: Supernatural Challenges” (in A Companion to Aeschylus, 2022, Wiley Press) [link]
- “The Chained Demons of Creation: Literalism and Unetymology in Genesis 1,” (forthcoming, ThéoRèmes)
- Review: The Mortal Voice in the Tragedies of Aeschylus by Sarah Nooter,” Classical World, Vol. 112, Num. 2, Winter 2019 [link]
- “The Ghost of Clytemnestra in the Eumenides: Ethical Claims Beyond Human Limits” (American Journal of Philology, Vol. 139, Num. 4, Winter 2018 [link])
- “From Oblivion to Judgment: Afterlives, Ethics, and Unbeliefs in Greek Tragedy and Plato,” ThéoRèmes, Vol. 5, 2013 [link]