Brian S. Hook, Associate Professor (B.A. University of South Carolina 1986; Ph.D. Duke University 1992).  Dr. Hook is a native of the Carolinas.  He came to the University of North Carolina at Asheville in 2001, and both Asheville and UNCA now feel like home.  Dr. Hook received the 2007-2008 Award for Distinguished Teaching in the Humanities.  He and his wife have two daughters.

His academic interests are broad and include Greek and Latin epic and tragedy, rhetoric and philosophy, and Christianity and heroic literature. Current research interests focus on Roman satire, especially Juvenal, irony, and ancient philosophy, especially Plato.  He is particularly interested in the appropriations, applications, and contortions of philosophy in ancient literature.  He is also collecting material for a book on the representations of the Trojan prince Paris in ancient literature and art.
Recent publications include:             “Umbricius Caligatus: Wordplay in Juvenal 3.322” in Collection Latomus: Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History, vol. 14 (2008) 365-374; "Oedipus and Thyestes Among the Philosophers: Incest and Cannibalism in Plato, Diogenes, and Zeno” Classical Philology 100 (2005) 17-40; Heroism and the Christian Life: Reclaiming Excellence, co-authored with R. R. Reno (Westminster John Know, 2000); "Nothing Within Which Passeth Show: Character and Color in Senecan Tragedy" in Seneca in Performance (Duckworth, 2000).  Dr. Hook was one of the three editors for The Asheville Reader: The Ancient World (2004) for UNC-Asheville's Humanities 124 course and is currently serving as the coordinator for the course.  He has recently reviewed P. Campana’s commentary on Juvenal, Satura X (Classical Review 58 (2008) 166-167) and F. Jones, Juvenal and the Satiric Genre (for Classical Journal); he is reviewing another Italian commentary on Juvenal for Classical Review.

Recent Presentation: “The Socratic Sneer: Plato and Roman Satire” Tenth Annual Comparative Literature Conference at the University of South Carolina: “Plato and Platonisms: The Constitution of a Tradition,” March 20-23, 2008, Columbia, SC

Work in progress includes articles on Juvenal’s fifteenth satire; poetry in Cicero’s Pro Archia; the ending of Persius’ first satire; and an etymology in Augustine’s Confessions.

Email Dr. Brian Hook (bshook@unca.edu)