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Curtis Dozier

@curtisdozier.bsky.social
1.5K followers 451 following 688 posts

Documenting White Nationalist Appropriation of Greco-Roman Antiquity at pharosclassics.vassar.edu

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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 6h
It was the worst of times it was the best of times. Marco Rubio is on about the superiority of western civ in the shadow of the parthenon blah blah blah and Anne Carson wins the Nobel prize
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Agree with this, so many people now tied to reactionary and even neofascist politics, but I wonder when the "morph" happened: CLT, I think, was always that way. And I have found white-nationalist adjacent promoters of "Classical education" going back to the 80s
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
CFP for contributions to a special issue of Radical History Review on "The Politicized Premodern Past." I'm confident they would stretch the 500 CE boundary earlier for an ancient or late antique contribution. www.radicalhistoryreview.org/the-politici...
Banner of Radical History Review webpage showing the proposal due date of October 15, 2026
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
You guys know I'm trying to get out of the business of debunking but I remember standing there on the acropolis having this explained to me as a marvel of ancient wisdom(TM) and it made no sense to me and I couldn't see it at all www.theguardian.com/science/2026...
theguardian.com
UK mathematician debunks myth around Parthenon’s optical illusions
Study challenges belief that temple’s curves were designed to correct optical illusions that would have ruined its clean lines
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Now out in print! global.oup.com/academic/pro...
global.oup.com
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
As @letsgomathias.bsky.social notes, Rufo "often gets treated as a 'respectable' conservative." (see his constant platforming in NYT and elsewhere). Part of that respect comes from him going around promoting "Classical" Education. Stop falling for it
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This is the last week to submit an application to attend "New Perspectives on Classics and Race: A Workshop for Teachers and Researchers" in April 2027. classicalstudies.org/scs-news/cal...
Cover image of "The Cambridge Companion to Classics and Race" showing the head of the Apollo Belvedere sculpture
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
More on Epstein's white supremacy. Read about his related fascination with Greco-Roman antiquity at Pharos: pharos.vassarspaces.net/2026/07/27/j...
pharos.vassarspaces.net
Ancient Greece and Rome in the Epstein Files
The Epstein files reveal Epstein's deep fascination with Greco-Roman antiquity, making this notorious sex criminal a sobering illustration of how easily the prestige of
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
If you, ahem, think about the Roman Empire a lot you want someone like @gaius.bsky.social as guide to that history: smart, engaging, *and* (what not every channel does) well attuned to the politics of doing history. Honored to have "The White Pedestal" featured so prominently in his YT background
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The old way is to say antiquity created the West. This subtitle gets it right
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Did you know there's a very well funded and active right wing media in this country? So there are a lot of hate reviews of "The White Pedestal". But last week I got a fair shake in The Times Literary Supplement. "A bracing, important book." www.the-tls.com/classics/the...
the-tls.com
Juvenal delinquency
In 2017, Curtis Dozier, an expert in Roman rhetoric at Vassar College, founded Pharos: Doing justice to the classics. A watchdog website for ancient
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Louis Römer @lromeranth.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Op-eds like these might be the slickest elements in the campaign to dismantle academic freedom by getting the public to associate it with arguments, persons, and ideas that are wrong AND vile AND weird.
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
This was provocative bc fascists are always saying that their worldview is "natural" and anything else is naive or deviant. A main reason they love ancient Greece & Rome is that it allows them to point to ancient history to say “this is how things really are/should be.” see my "White Pedestal" 1/
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
At Horace Epistles 2.1.163 Shackleton Bailey's apparatus reports that the form "Aeschylos" appears in C pr. R Ψ. What does the pr. mean? It's in italics...I thought of "praeter" but that doesn't make sense because R is not a subset of C (they're both individual mss I think?)
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
At least where I teach it's frowned upon to just deliver lectures from a script. But if Don Fowler hadn't just read a script of his lectures on Horace we wouldn't have them reprinted in a journal. So if you're that great a critic you should type out your lectures www.jstor.org/stable/44698...
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
I was on @theozywh.bsky.social with @sentypurr.bsky.social , @richardcole.bsky.social and other great scholars not on bluesky for a great discussion about Nolan's Odyssey
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
When I wrote about Sellner on Pharos in 2020 it was just about his weird stunt to drive from Austria to Greece in order to recreate Thermopylae against refugees coming from Turkey. Now his ideas have been taken up in mainstream US and Europe pharos.vassarspaces.net/2020/04/24/g...
pharos.vassarspaces.net
Ancient Greece a Symbol to Rally Neo-Nazis
As the worldwide coronavirus pandemic has spread, so have xenophobic and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories blaming the spread of the virus on immigrants or Muslims or calling it a Jewish plot. One of t...
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
I'm hosting a workshop in April at @vassar.bsky.social: attend seminars w/ contributors to the new Cambridge Companion to Classics & Race. Goal is to incorporate the volume's findings in teaching/research. Travel stipends for all & paid lodging/food. Apply now! classicalstudies.org/scs-news/cal...
Cover of the Cambridge Companion to Classics and Race showing the head of the Apollo Belvedere
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Thank you @christophicus.bsky.social ! [When I did the index I tried to include references to every ancient author mentioned however briefly just in case something might fit in a classroom]
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
@profgabriele.com & I were quoted in an @apnews.com piece on right-wing politics driving the adoption of a new Western Civ textbook at military base schools. The reporter shared some quotes from it that are pretty similar to things I find on white nationalist websites apnews.com/article/defe...
apnews.com
AP Exclusive: US military base schools put new emphasis on Western civilization and Christianity
The Department of Defense is introducing a course centered on Western civilization and Christianity this fall in the schools it operates for military families.
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
genius
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
The @splcenter.org 's latest "Year in Hate and Extremism" report has classical columns on the cover. They're more apt for this report than even the report's authors know. curtisdozier.substack.com/p/classical-...
curtisdozier.substack.com
Classical Symbolism and American Identity
The cover of the SPLC's latest Hate and Extremism Report is even more apt than its authors know
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
And there's an element of the whole landscape of sports as traditionally defined is constructed to favor men's physiologies. There are sports where even the best men in the world can't beat women but I'll bet these guys say "well that's not a normal sport" www.usatoday.com/story/sports...
usatoday.com
Rachel Entrekin makes history in ultramarathon, beats every man in 3-day race
Rachel Entrekin, 34, set a course record of 56 hours, 9 minutes, and 48 seconds, beating her previous time by 7 hours.
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
I was interviewed yesterday on "Dr. L's Podcast" about white nationalism and Greco-Roman antiquity and what it tells us about America, with a bit in the middle about Nolan's Odyssey www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4rY...
youtube.com
The Odyssey Controversy w/ Curtis Dozier
YouTube video by Dr. L's Podcast
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D E McCoskey @denisemccoskey.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
@curtisdozier.bsky.social 's review is one of the absolute best things I've seen so far on Nolan's film. Read it now! pghrev.com/nolans-odyss...
pghrev.com
Nolan’s Odyssey and the Constraints of the Past - Pittsburgh Review of Books
I was apprehensive when I went to see Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey last week. Not because I’m one of those classical scholars who obsesses over errors and
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Last Spring I met a scholar who had been collecting references to ancient Greece and Rome in the Epstein files. There's a lot there and I invited them to write it up for Pharos. Content warnings apply. pharos.vassarspaces.net/2026/07/27/j...
pharos.vassarspaces.net
Ancient Greece and Rome in the Epstein Files
The Epstein files reveal Epstein's deep fascination with Greco-Roman antiquity, making this notorious sex criminal a sobering illustration of how easily the prestige of
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Further on the omission of Amirenas from major ancient history encyclopedias
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
All kinds of reviews of Nolan's film have been written (including by me) but if the kind you want is an expert meticulously detailing departures from/similarities with sources (and who's also smart about the political implications of those choices) no one is better than @spencermcdaniel.bsky.social
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Gregory Stringer @gregorystringer.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
And don’t forget Emma Vanderpool’s novella Kandake Amanirenas, Regina Nubiae which is introducing her to lots of high school Latin students!
Image of the cover of Emma Vanderpool’s novella showing Queen Kandake holding two swords in front of a pyramid with a foot on a decapitated statue of Augustus
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Classical scholars are all like "how can you not know there were Africans in Greco-Roman antiquity?" but it looks to me like there isn't an entry for Amanirenas (African queen who took on Augustus in Roman occupied Egypt) in either OCD4 or Brill's New Pauly
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
On which see further my review of Nolan's Odyssey! pghrev.com/nolans-odyss...
pghrev.com
Nolan’s Odyssey and the Constraints of the Past - Pittsburgh Review of Books
I was apprehensive when I went to see Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey last week. Not because I’m one of those classical scholars who obsesses over errors and
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Is this map actually the key to understanding why America is the way it is www.thekitchn.com/most-popular...
thekitchn.com
This Map Shows the Most Popular Ice Cream in Every U.S. State (One Brand Swept 27 States!)
Did your favorite come out on top?
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Knowing that white nationalists loved Nolan's "Dark Knight" and that they do love Homer's Odyssey, I was apprehensive about Nolan's new film. My review from that perspective at @pghreviewofbooks.bsky.social pghrev.com/nolans-odyss...
Image of linked article showing Agamemnon from Nolan's film
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
In my latest for @pghreviewofbooks.bsky.social I look beyond the question of casting in Nolan's Odyssey to what kind of story Nolan is trying to tell, and whether it will ever be possible to tell that story with the Odyssey. pghrev.com/nolans-odyss...
Image of the linked article, showing an image of Agamemnon from Nolan's Odyssey
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
I was interviewed (along with Rosa Andújar) for an article in @msmagazine.com about Nolan's Odyssey. Honored to make it into the pull quotes! msmagazine.com/2026/07/21/c...
Screenshot of the title page of the linked article, showing an image of Lupita Nyong'o playing Helen in Christopher Nolan's Odyssey
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Ferran Torres wore a "Make Spain Great Again" hat to the world cup celebration and it's being described as a satire of Trump. But not that long ago Spain's white nationalist Vox party was using that same slogan (plus classical references) without any irony pharos.vassarspaces.net/2019/05/24/p...
pharos.vassarspaces.net
Political party using antiquity to “Make Spain Great Again”
VOX is an anti-immigrant, Islamaphobic, homophobic, and misogynist political party in Spain that in 2019 won enough votes to elect twenty-four legislators to Spain’s Congress of Deputies. In a body of...
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
@yalepress.bsky.social has published my reflection on how "The White Pedestal: How White Nationalists Use Ancient Greece and Rome to Justify Hate", which I mostly wrote in 2022/23, holds up in 2026. Wish it held up worse. yalebooks.yale.edu/2026/07/20/w...
yalebooks.yale.edu
When in Rome: White Nationalists, Ancient History, and the White House - Yale University Press
Ancient Greece and ancient Rome have provided grounds for white nationalist ideas to take root in an age of classical education.
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Thinking about ancient Greece and its legacy for some reason? I wrote a piece about Trump's fascination with Classical Architecture — and what it tells us about America — for @kahlilgreene.bsky.social 's "History Can't Hide" historycanthide.substack.com/p/trumps-fas...
historycanthide.substack.com
Trump's Fascination With Classical Architecture Tells Us More About America Than It Does About Him
A guest op-ed by historian Curtis Dozier on why Trump's push for classical federal architecture is far more conventional, and far more tied to American racism, than his critics assume.
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
THIS These examples and so many more like them are why America (could be) a great country
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
I talked to @llassabe.bsky.social on the @americancampus.bsky.social about the concept of "The West" and its connection to the white nationalist narratives of history that I wrote about in "The White Pedestal" americancampuspodcast.buzzsprout.com/2396665/epis...
americancampuspodcast.buzzsprout.com
The West with Curtis Dozier - American Campus Podcast
Athens, Jerusalem, and sometimes Rome.References and suggested readings:Curtis Dozier. 2026. The White Pedestal: How White Nationalists Use Ancient Greece and Rome to Justify Hate. Yale University Pre...
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Thank you @rachelmalik.bsky.social! The link is here for anyone who's interested newbooksnetwork.com/the-white-pe...
newbooksnetwork.com
Curtis Dozier, "The White Pedestal: How White Nationalists Use Ancient Greece and Rome to Justify Hate" (Yale UP, 2026) - New Books Network
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Thank you @profligategrace.bsky.social ! Places to listen to interviews I've done in my pinned thread! (adding a few new ones this week)
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
I was on the "Review of Democracy" podcast of the Central European University of Vienna's Democracy Institute talking about how white nationalist intellectuals use Greece and Rome to make anti-democratic thought seem prestigious and respectable
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
I was on the @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social podcast talking about "The White Pedestal: How White Nationalists Use Ancient Greece and Rome to Justify Hate" newbooksnetwork.com/the-white-pe...
Cover of "The White Pedestal" showing the book's title on a red field with a weathered Greek column capital below it
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
One thing I say in "The White Pedestal" is that these comparisons from the left aren't the sick burns we think they are: narratives of decline, wherever they come from, nourish fascism because the more people that believe it, the more people are willing to put their hope in authoritarians.
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
New interview about my book "The White Pedestal: How White Nationalists Use Ancient Greece and Rome to Justify Hate" from @theozymandiasp1.bsky.social
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
My Vassar colleague!
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
This short thread articulates well some of what I tried to think through in "The White Pedestal," both as a Classical scholar and as a white man in America.
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
Not to mention the Coors Foundation's support for the Heritage Foundation going back to 1972! www.desmog.com/2024/08/14/p...
desmog.com
6 Billionaire Fortunes Bankrolling Project 2025
More than $120 million from a few ultra-wealthy families who have spent years working to promote climate change denial has powered the Heritage Foundation and other groups that created the plan to rem...
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Curtis Dozier @curtisdozier.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
Sign a petition to tell publishers to stop blocking @archive.org from preserving content. They say they're worried abt AI training, maybe it's a real problem, but it's 2026, there has to be a solution thats better than lumping this important preservationist project into the same category as scrapers
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