Francisco Barrenechea

Francisco Barrenechea is currently an associate professor at the University of Maryland. He received his Ph.D. degree in Classics from Columbia University. Prior to his arrival in College Park, he taught at the University of Chicago, Bryn Mawr College, and the University of Texas at Austin.

Prof. Barrenechea's research interests include Greek drama, Latin epic, and the performance and reception of ancient theater, particularly in Latin America.  His book Comedy and Religion in Classical Athens: Narratives of Religious Experiences in Aristophanes' Wealth was published in 2018 by Cambridge University Press. He is currently working on his second book, on the reception of Greek tragedy in Mexico. A chapter offering a sample of his approach was published in the Oxford Handbook of Greek Drama in the Americas (2015). 

Other publications of his include articles on the reception of Old Comedy in the Second Sophistic, "Aelian and the Gods of Comedy" (Mnemosyne, published online in 2023); on representations of Greek religious experiences, “Sanctuary Influence in Classical Representations of Incubation: The Motif of the Witness Awake” (Phoenix, 2016); on reception, “Tragic Impostures: Greek tragedy and pre-Hispanic myth in the theatre of Rodolfo Usigli and Salvador Novo” (Classical Receptions Journal, 2016); and on Latin epic, “Didactic Aggressions in Lucan’s Nile Excursus” (American Journal of Philology, 2010).

Prof. Barrenechea has taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses, including courses in Greek and Latin languages and literature, humor, and myth. This fall 2023, he is teaching an introduction to major issues in Latin American Studies through the region's reception of Classical antiquity, and a course in translation on the contemporary relevance of Greek tragedy. In spring 2024, he will be teaching a lecture course on ancient myths and their contemporary influence, as well as an upper-level Latin course on Roman comedy.