Chris van den Berg

Chris van den Berg, a professor of classical studies and 2020 Rome Prize Fellow in Ancient Studies, is the Interim Andrew W. Mellon Humanities Professor for 2026-2027. He has taught at Amherst College since 2010, where he is the Aliki Perroti and Seth Frank ’55 Professor of Classical Studies. 

Van den Berg’s scholarship bridges the disciplines of literature, rhetoric, and material culture, seeking to understand how Greco-Roman authors used the material environment, whether natural or built, to understand the affective and persuasive appeal of artistic language. He also studies the role of persuasion, cognition, and affect in modern rhetoric, with a particular interest in the histories of civic debate and political conflict. 

 In addition to dozens of articles and book reviews, he has published two books thus far: The World of Tacitus' Dialogus de Oratoribus: Aesthetics and Empire in Ancient Rome (Cambridge University Press, 2014) and The Politics and Poetics of Cicero's Brutus: The Invention of Literary History (Cambridge University Press, 2021). He has held fellowships from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), National Endowment for the Humanities, American Council of Learned Societies, Basel Fellowship in Latin Literature, and the American Academy in Rome.

He is at work on two different books projects. The first, Critical Matter, examines the relationship between physical objects (bodies, statuary, painting, architecture) and literary criticism broadly defined. A second book, Fightin’ Words: Why We Can’t Resist Rhetoric (and Should Stop Trying) speaks broadly to activists, politicians, academics, and engaged lay readers, asking them to reconsider the civic value of rhetoric and persuasion. 

A California native, van den Berg received a BA from UC Berkeley and a PhD from Yale, where he played water polo. At Amherst he has chaired major committees, was twice as Chair of Department, was elected to the Faculty Executive Committee, and has served twice on the Advisory Board of the Center for Humanistic Inquiry. He was elected to the Society for Classical Studies’ Program Committee (2025-2027) and is completing a six-year term as Chair of the NEH/Thesaurus Linguae Latinae Advisory and Fellowship Selection Committees.