Born in Canada and raised in France, Marianne Govers Hopman studied at the École Normale Supérieure (Ulm), the École Pratique des Hautes Études, the Sorbonne, and Harvard University. She was the first Classicist to receive a double doctorate from the Sorbonne (Greek Studies, 2005) and Harvard University (Classical Philology, 2005). Recent honors and fellowships include the 2005 graduate John J. Winkler Memorial Prize and a 2009 grant from the Loeb Classical Library Foundation. Since September 2005, Hopman has been an assistant professor in the Classics Department at Northwestern University, where she is also part of the core faculty in Comparative Literary Studies.
Her research focuses on the modalities and pragmatics of storytelling in ancient Greece, especially in epic and tragedy. She has published articles on the Orphic Hymns, Juvenal’s Fifth Satire, the Niobe figure in Sophocles, Euripides’ Medea, and Aeschylus’ Persians. Her current book project, entitled Scylla: Myth, Gender, and Monstrosity from Greece to Rome, investigates the trope of the Mischwesen as a cultural symbol. Through an investigation of the semantics associated with the sea-monster Scylla in texts and images ranging from the Odyssey to Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the book shows that Scylla embodies the uncanny porosity of three concepts (sea, dog, and woman) that are metaphorically related in Greek imagination. By arguing that metaphors are constitutive of mythical narratives, the project challenges structuralist models based on binary oppositions and seeks to define a new way of approaching mythical figures.
Together with Renaud Gagné (University of Cambridge), Hopman recently organized a conference on "Choral Mediations in Greek Drama" held at Northwestern University on October 30-31st, 2009.
Prof. Hopman’s teaching is closely connected to her research and focuses on the three areas of Greek and Roman poetry, Greek myths, and the reception of the Classical tradition. She regularly offers lecture courses on “Classical Mythology” and “Poetic Genres in Ancient Greece.” Upper level undergraduate seminars include courses on “The Odyssey,” “Myth and Context in Euripides’ Medea,” “Ovid’s Metamorphoses,” and “Metamorphosis from Homer to Kafka.” Graduate seminars include “Theoretical Approaches to Greek Myth” and “The Odyssey in the Twentieth Century.”
An avid hiker and traveler, Marianne enjoys discovering new people and places. She also finds that one can happily cope with Chicago winters by playing the piano, listening to opera, and dancing tango.