Classics Professor Named to Endowed Chair at Yale

Heinrich von Staden, a long-time member of the Yale University faculty whose specialties include classical philosophy and literature, mythology, and ancient medicine and science, has been named the William Lampson Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature by vote of the Yale Corporation. He is a resident of Woodbridge.

In 1995, an anonymous donor created in his honor the Heinrich von Staden Fellowship, a grant for graduate students in the classics department. Professor von Staden has also received two of the top teaching prizes awarded to faculty members: the William Clyde DeVane Medal for outstanding teaching and scholarship and the Yale College-Sidonie Miskimin Clauss Prize for Teaching Excellence in the Humanities.

Professor von Staden teaches and writes on classical mythology, Greek and Latin authors, literary theory, and ancient medicine, science and philosophy. His 1989 book “Herophilus, The Art of Medicine in Early Alexandria,” the second edition of which appeared in 1994, won the Goodwin Award of Merit from the American Philological Association and the William H. Welch Medal from the American Association for the History of Medicine. His other books include the first volume of “Western Literature: The Ancient World” and the “Instructor’s Manual for Western Literature,” which he coauthored with Yale faculty member Peter Brooks and with Robert Hollander.

A 1961 graduate of Yale College, Professor von Staden holds a doctorate from the Universit t Tbingen. He joined the Yale faculty in 1968 and has served in a number of administrative posts, including master of Ezra Stiles College 1980-86 , director of Special Programs in the Humanities, chair of the classics department and director of graduate studies in both the classics and comparative literature departments. He is a fellow of the British Academy, among other scholarly organizations.