Robert Boughner, PhD

Professor of Classics
PhD, John Hopkins University

Phone: 215-596-8504
Email: r.boughn@usp.edu

Prof. Robert Boughner, Professor of Classics, earned an BA in Classical Studies from Duke University and an MA and a Ph.D. in Classical Studies from The Johns Hopkins University. He has been at USP since 1999, teaches various courses in classics, and participates in the Intellectual Heritage Program. Prof. Boughner, also, offers to read Greek or Latin with any willing student who comes to USP with at least a year of study in one or the other language. Prof. Boughner typically meets with these students one-on-one, two or three times a week in an independent study.

Prof. Boughner began his scholarly career by working on patristic literature. He was particularly concerned with Tertullian’s reception of Juvenal. He moved from there into Latin poetry of the first century BCE and produced a textbook on Catullus and Horace which has now sold more than 25,000 copies. At present, he continues his study of Catullus, in which he focuses on the cultural context of Catullus’s poems and their impact on modern American poetry. He has also an abiding interest in Marcus Aurelius.

Prof. Boughner offers students each summer the opportunity to participate in a study-travel program to Greece or Italy.