Tom Zanker

I received my undergraduate degree from the University of Canterbury (New Zealand), and then spent six years at Princeton University (New Jersey, USA) studying towards my Ph.D. I thereupon spent a further four years at Harvard University (Massachusetts, USA) as a College Fellow and subsequently as a Lecturer, before undertaking further postdoctoral work in Heidelberg (Germany) under the auspices of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. I then taught at Amherst College (Massachusetts, USA) as an Assistant and then as an Associate Professor. I arrived at the University of Western Australia in 2025.

1. Latin literature of the first centuries BC and AD.

2. Early Greek poetry (Homer and Hesiod).

3. Contemporary linguistics and philosophy of language.

4. Intellectual history and the reception of Greco-Roman antiquity.

In my first book, Greek and Latin Expressions of Meaning, I investigated the origins of the Greek and Latin vocabulary of meaning, with an emphasis on the way in which many classical verbs of meaning could be used of inanimate objects without minds (e.g. dreams and texts) as well as of human beings, just like the English "meaning" and "to mean". In short, I studied why expressions such as "to mean" have different meanings.

In my second book, Metaphor in Homer, I considered the metaphors lodged within a very early corpus of poetry - the Homeric epics. Were the metaphors that the Homeric singers composed by similar to or different from our own? For example, we speak of "going through" time and "approaching the weekend"; did the composers of the Iliad and Odyssey employ this conceptual metaphor as well? Did use of - and economy with - these metaphors play a role in the composition of the poetry?

My third book was a short study of Horace, one of my favorite poets. In it, I discussed Horace's background, use of genre, application of metaphor, and ethics.

I have just finished another book about the classicism of José Rizal and other writers and artists from the Philippines, such as Juan Luna and Nick Joaquin, who were well versed in Greco-Roman antiquity and who mobilized their knowledge in powerful and creative ways.

Ongoing projects include a contribution to a textbook on Roman poetry, and a new Loeb edition of Horace's Satires, Epistles, and Art of Poetry.

Besides these interests, I like to think about the textual points of contact between different authors; together with two German colleagues, Kathrin Winter and Martin Stöckinger, I have edited a volume on the relationship between Horace and Seneca.