After receiving his Ph.D. from Ohio State University, Benjamin John is thrilled to return to the University of New Mexico, where he previously received his B.A. and M.A. He studies the concept of the soul and afterlife in early Ancient Greek poetry and philosophy, especially Homer and Parmenides. His other research interests include ancient Mystery religions, Plato and the Platonic tradition, and Indian philosophy. His first book project shows how the use of Homeric psychological terms and concepts of the mind or soul in the fragments of the philosophical poem of Parmenides are deployed to cast the protagonist as a psychological hero in the model of Odysseus. 

Education: 

2024: Ph.D. in Greek and Latin from Ohio State University. 

2018: M.A. in Classics, Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies from the University of New Mexico. 

2012: B.A. in English, Minor in Latin from the University of New Mexico.

Forthcoming Publications:

“Homeric Psychology and the Autonomic Nervous System.” TAPA 156 (2026): 253-281. 

“Pneumatic Channels and the Embodied Soul in Plato’s Timaeus and the Chaldean Oracles.”

Select Conference Presentations:

2026    “Heroic Immortality in the Proem of Parmenides.” Classical Association of the Middle West and South. Mobile, Alabama. March 12, 2026.

2026    “Homeric Thumos and Psuchē as Smoke from an Inner Fire.” Society for Classical Studies. San Francisco, California. January 10, 2026.

2025    “Pneumatic Channels and the Embodied Soul in Plato’s Timaeus and the Chaldean Oracles.” International Society for Neoplatonic Studies. Athens, Greece. June 19, 2025.

Teaching:

Beginning to advanced ancient Greek and Latin; Greek Mythology; Underworld Odysseys, Ancient Greek Orality and Literacy and our Post-Literate Society.