Michael Brumbaugh

Michael Brumbaugh is an Associate Professor in Classical Studies and a member of the Core Faculty in the Stone Center for Latin American Studies. He currently serves as Chair of the Professor of Practice Review Committee in the School of Liberal Arts, Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Classical Studies, and a long-time member of the Curriculum Committee at the Center for Public Service. In addition to language courses in ancient Greek and Latin, he has taught TIDES and COLQ courses on restorative justice practices in ancient Athens and modern New Orleans as well as a service-learning course on ancient Greek drama as a form of storytelling, communal therapy, and reintegration for combat veterans.

His research examines political thought in ancient Graeco-Roman literature and the ways in which such literature featured in subsequent political discourses from the Hellenistic era to the early modern period. He is especially interested in examining these dynamics in contexts where diverse wisdom traditions and sources of authority collide. In addition to a variety of articles, he is the author of two books: The New Politics of Olympos (Oxford, 2019) and Josep Manuel Peramàs: A Treatise on the Guaraní System of Government in Comparison with Plato’s Republic (Harvard, 2024). The latter is the inaugural volume in the new series Texts from the Early Americas, which aims to establish an accessible cannon of primary sources related to the Indigenous Americas for scholars and general readers alike. He is currently at work on a third book project, Plato in Paraguay, that interrogates the early modern fascination with Mediterranean antiquity in the context of political and social reform movements during the so-called Age of Revolutions (1775–1848). He has won numerous grants and fellowships from the Loeb Classical Library Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fondation Hardt, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, as well as the School of Liberal Arts Research Award, the Stone Center Summer Research Award, Lavin Bernick Grants, and Lurcy Grants.

Michael grew up in Oregon and was among the first in his extended family to earn a bachelor's degree. He received his Ph.D. and M.A. in Classics from the University of California, Los Angeles (2011 and 2007) and his A.B. in Greek and Latin from Colgate University (2004). Before coming to Tulane in 2013, he taught at Princeton University, Reed College, and UCLA.