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Interests
Latin and Greek Literature of the Late Republic and Early Empire (1st century BCE-1st century CE)Gender Studies in Antiquity (especially sisterhood and representation of female voices)
Intertextuality
Reception
Lien Van Geel, originally from Belgium, graduated in May 2016 summa cum laude with honors in Classics and English from Mississippi State University. Her senior honors thesis focused on Shakespeare's use of Ovidian myth in Titus Andronicus and The Winter's Tale, more particularly in terms of female agency and speech.
During her doctoral studies at Columbia (2016-2022), Lien has taught various classes ranging from elementary and intermediate Latin and Greek courses to a civilization course on the worlds of Alexander the Great. She received a graduate certificate in Gender Studies through the Institute for the Study of Sexuality and Gender (Spring 2019) and completed the Foundational Track of the Teaching Development Program at the Centre for Teaching and Learning (Spring 2020), where she also served as a Lead Teaching Scholar (2021-2022). From Fall 2020 until Spring 2021, she was a fellow in academic administration in Academic Affairs at Columbia College.
Lien received her PhD in Classics at Columbia University in June 2022 after she defended her dissertation titled "Augustus' sister: Octavia Minor's lives and afterlives," in which she examined the different and changing roles, narratives, and representations of Octavia during the triumviral period and beyond. During the 2022-2023 academic year, she teaches and conducts postdoctoral research as an Early Career Follow in Classics.