Jenn Finn

Degrees

B.A., University of Michigan
M.A., Columbia University
M.A., University of Michigan
Ph.D., University of Michigan
Ph.D., Ludwig-Maximilians Universitat

Research Interests

Ancient Near East, Alexander the Great, ancient warfare

Selected Publications

Recent books and articles:

• Much Ado about Marduk: Questioning Discourses of Royalty in First Millennium Mesopotamian Literature(Berlin: de Gruyter, 2017).
• Contested Pasts: A Determinist History of Alexander the Great in the Roman Empire (University of Michigan Press, 2022).
• Editor, Brill’s Companion to Courage and Cowardice in Ancient Mediterranean Warfare (under review).
• “The Center of the Earth in Ancient Thought.” Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History4 nos.1-2, 2017 (177-209).
• “Herodotus’ Poor Man of Nippur.” Classical World2, 2019 (13-38).
• “The Ship of Aeneas.” The Ancient History Bulletin1-2, 2020 (1-24).
• “Plutarch’s Themistocles: The Serpent of Hellas.” Histos14, 2020 (185-205).
• “Persian Collections: Center and Periphery at Achaemenid Imperial Capitals.” Studia Orientalia 2, 2021 (154-173).
• “The Grand Strategy of the Achaemenid Persian Empire.” Brill’s Companion to War in the Ancient Iranian Empires (forthcoming).
• “Alexander’s Military Propaganda.” Brill’s Companion to Alexander the Great’s Military Strategy (forthcoming)
• “Urbicide, Memory Sanctions, and the Perso-Macedonian Dynasty: The Destructions of Thebes and Persepolis in the Reign of Alexander the Great.” Colloquia Antiqua volume, Festschrift in honor of Ed Anson (forthcoming).

Recent Papers:

• “Near Eastern Military Empires and the Origins of Fake News in the Ancient World.” Workshop Organizer and Presenter, The Many Faces of War V, South Dakota State University (October 2019); invited lecturer at the University of Colorado-Boulder, Center for the Study of Origins (October 2020).
• “The Unruinable City in the Ancient Near East.” Invited workshop presenter at the annual meeting of the American Society for Oriental Research (November 2020).
• “Innovative and Experiential Pedagogies in Classical Studies.” Invited workshop presenter at the Focus on Teaching and Learning Conference, Loyola University Chicago (January 2022).
• “The Seven Wonders of the World and the Hellenistic Imaginary.” Invited Presenter at the Ancient Societies Workshop, University of Chicago (February 2022).
• “Greek Military Generals in the Service of Foreign Armies: Some Case Studies.” Invited Presenter at the Society for Military History (April 2022).
• “The Hoplite Enigma: Ancient Persian War Strategy and its Failures.” Invited Workshop Presenter, Conference on Ancient Military Strategy at Quantico (April 2022).
• “The Last Plans of Alexander the Great.” Invited Speaker at the Global Antiquities Workshop, Northwestern University (May 2022).
• “Virtual Empires: Cultural Heritage and the Politics of Power in the Ancient Mediterranean.” Invited Speaker at Stanford University (March 2023) and University of Texas-Austin (March 2023).

Works in Progress:

• The Great Man’s Grand Tour: Cultural Heritage and the Politics of Power in the Ancient World.