Ruby Blondell


Ruby Blondell is professor emerita of classics and adjunct professor emerita of gender, women, & sexuality studies at the University of Washington; prior to retirement, they were the Byron W. and Alice L. Lockwood Professor of Humanities also at the University of Washington. Their research centres on Greek intellectual history, gender studies, and the reception of ancient myth in contemporary culture.
WWW classics.washington.edu/p...

Career

Blondell completed their BA and MA in classics at the University of Oxford, before receiving their PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in 1984. Their doctoral thesis was entitled Helping Friends and Harming Enemies: A Study in Sophocles and Greek Ethics.
Upon the completion of their PhD, Blondell was a lecturer at Harvard University, before moving to the University of Washington in 1985, where they have taught until retirement in 2019. Their teaching responsibilities were centred on topics of Greek literature, and Greek intellectual history and culture.
Blondell has held various positions within the Society for Classical Studies and the Women's Classical Caucus; and was a former treasurer for the Lambda Classical Caucus. In 2014 Blondell was awarded the inaugural Lambda Classical Caucus Activism Award; and, in 2019, they were also awarded the Women's Classical Caucus Leadership Award.

Research Publications

Blondell has published widely on topics of Greek intellectual history, gender studies, and the reception of myth in contemporary culture, including the following four monographs:Helen of Troy in Hollywood, developed from their 2015 Martin Lectures at Oberlin College.The Play of Character in Plato's Dialogues.Helping Friends and Harming Enemies: A Study in Sophocles and Greek Ethics, published under previous name Mary Whitlock Blundell.
Blondell has edited several collections focused on gender and sexuality in the ancient world:Humoerotica, co-edited with Sandra Boehringer.Ancient Sex: New Essays, co-edited with Kirk Ormand - part of the Classical Memories/Modern Identities series.Queer Icons from Greece and Rome.Ancient Mediterranean Women in Modern Mass Media, co-edited with Mary-Kay Gamel.
They have also produced several translations of the works of Sophocles and Euripides, including:Sophocles: The Theban Plays, Antigone, King Oidipous, Oidipous at Colonus; Updated Translations with Introductory Essay and Notes.Sophocles: Oidipous at Colonus, Translated with Introduction, Notes and Interpretive Essay.Women on the Edge: Four Plays by Euripides, co-authored with Bella Zweig, Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz and Mary-Kay Gamel.

Media

Blondell has featured in the following media broadcasts discussing their research:
  • Let's Talk about Myths, Baby!, Conversations: The Face that Lit a Thousand* Screens, Helen of Troy w/ Ruby Blondell.
  • Forgotten Hollywood, Episode 159, discussing 'Helen of Troy in Hollywood'.
  • Letter of Liberty Podcast, Episode 19, discussing 'Helen of Troy'.
  • Interviewed for 'Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines', directed by Kristy Guevara-Flanagan.