Tara S. Welch

Tara Welch, Professor of Classics, completed degrees in Latin and Greek at USC (B.A. 1990), Oxford University (M.A. 1993) and UCLA (Ph.D. 1999). At KU, she teaches Latin at all levels as well as courses in Roman and Greek literature and civilization. Professor Welch's research interests are in Latin poetry, particularly of the Augustan age; the city of Rome; and Roman mythology. Her publications include a book on the late poetry of the elegiac poet Propertius, The Elegiac Cityscape: Propertius and the Meaning of Roman Monuments (Ohio State University Press 2005) and articles on Propertius, Roman elegiac poetry, Horatian satire, and Vergil. In addition she co-edited the book Oxford Readings in Propertius for (forthcoming Oxford University Press 2012). Her latest book, Tarpeia: Workings of a Roman Myth (OSU Press 2015), is a comprehensive study of the myth of Tarpeia in Rome. This project, for which she was awarded the NEH Summer Stipend and the Hall Center Humanities Research Fellowship, mines Roman literature, architecture, coins, religious practice, and law to understand how Tarpeia's myth was a vehicle Romans used to explore their own identity, to consider tensions in their social and political ideology, and to scrutinize their relationships with each other and with other communities. Professor Welch is a member of the American Philological Association, CAMWS, the International Plutarch Society, and the Women's Classical Caucus. 

Professor Welch also serves as Department Chair.