Brandon Bourgeois

Summary Statement of Research Interests

Brandon Bourgeois’ primary research interests concern the Roman political tradition from the Republic to late antiquity/early Byzantium, and include law, political and institutional history, and rhetoric and communication. He also maintains interests in topics pertaining to ancient Mediterranean religion and classical reception, particularly the reception of classical antiquity among members and communities of the African diaspora.

His current book project surveys and analyses the political history of Roman imperial accessions. The project maps the gradual shifts in the emperorship’s electoral base and ultimately attempts to answer the questions: How did emperors introduce themselves to their subjects and obtain their consent? What were the rhetorical tools of legitimation beyond brute force?

Brandon is the founder and creative director of “The Hype4Homer Project.” The Project translates and adapts ancient Greek epic and lyric poetry from its original language into musical audiobooks and live performance-pieces using the linguistic, cultural, and artistic idioms of contemporary Hip Hop and R&B. The project, while deeply informed by scholarship, offers entertainment in order to advocate for the wider and more inclusive engagement of the general public with the classical world. Currently, the Project is staging performance art adapted from, inter alia, its first full-length work-in-progress: an unabridged translation of Homer’s Iliad into the world’s first Hip-Hop audio book—The Trilliad.

Research Specialties

the Roman political tradition; Roman Republican and imperial history and literature; late antique/early Byzantine history and literature; rhetoric and oratory; reception studies; Classica Africana (“black classicism”); religions of the ancient Mediterranean