Dr. Joel Christensen

Joel Christensen (he/his) is Professor of Classical and early Mediterranean Studies at Brandeis University where he also serves as Senior Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs. Previously Joel served as Chair of Classical Studies and Chair of the Brandeis Faculty Senate. Joel previously taught for nine years at the University of Texas at San Antonio. His research interests include early Greek poetry, myth, and literary theory. With Elton Barker, Joel has published Homer’s a Beginner’s Guide (2013) and Homer’s Thebes (Harvard University Press 2020). Joel has also recently published The Many-Minded Man: The Odyssey, Psychology, and the Therapy of Epic (2020) with Cornell University Press and Storylife: On Epic, Language, and Living Things with Yale in 2025. Online, Joel spends time talking about the Iliad on his substack Painful Signs, sometimes updating sententiaeantiquae.com and chronicling the adventures of his cats Hermes and Mowgli on bluesky (‪@sentantiq.bsky.social‬).