Shelley Haley
Edward North Chair of Classics and Professor of Africana Studies Emerita (retired)
Having joined the faculty in 1989, Professor of Africana Studies and Classics Shelley Haley, the Edward North Chair of Greek and Greek Literature, is president of the Society for Classical Studies. She holds a doctorate from the University of Michigan and master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Syracuse University. An expert on Cleopatra, Haley has discussed the subject on BBC and The Learning Channel programs, and has lectured widely on increasing the representation of students of color in Latin, ancient Greek, and classics classrooms. The author of several articles and books, her honors include the Excellence in Teaching of the Classics at the College Level Award from the Society for Classical Studies and the Samuel and Helen Lang Prize for Excellence in Teaching. Among her many contributions to Hamilton, she has chaired the Posse Advisory Committee and the Harassment Grievance Board, and served as a member of the Africana Studies and Women’s Studies program committees.
Recent Courses Taught
Black Feminist Thought
Black Women's Experience in the United States
Classical Mythology
Elementary Latin I
Elementary Latin II
The Greek Historians
Unraveling Cleopatra
Distinctions
- Excellence in Teaching of the Classics at the College Level Award, Society for Classical Studies, 2017
- The Samuel & Helen Lang Prize for Excellence in Teaching, Hamilton College, 2015
- Melvyn Hill Visiting Professorship, 2013
- Merita Award, The American Classical League, 2007
- Certificate of Recognition, The College Board, June 2007
- Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Washington University, St. Louis, 2002
- Outstanding Woman of the Year Award in the field of Education, YWCA of the Mohawk Valley, 1999
- The Pentagon Outstanding Service Award, Hamilton College, 1997
Selected Publications
- Fanny Jackson Coppin’s, Reminiscences of School Life, and Hints On Teaching, Volume 8 of the African American Women Writers Series, 1910-1940 (general editor: Henry Louis Gates, Jr.,) New York: G. K. Hall/ Macmillan 1995.
- “Re-presenting Reality: Provincial Women As Tools of Roman Social Reproduction.” Women’s Classical Caucus Panel, “Provincial Women in the Roman Imagination.” American Philological Association, Annual Meeting, Chicago, Ill.: January 2-5, 2014.
- “Performing Race: A Critical Race Feminist Looks at Seneca 47.” The Classical Association of the Atlantic States, Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, Pa.: October 10-12, 2013.
- “Scientific Racism.” Co-authored with Dr. Michele Paludi. Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology, York, England: Springer Reference, December 2012.
- “Be Not Afraid of the Dark: Critical Race Theory and Classical Studies,” in Laura Nasrallah and Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza (eds.), Prejudice and Christian Beginnings: Investigating Race, Gender and Ethnicity in Early Christian Studies, 4 Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2009: 27-50.
- “Lucian’s ‘Leaena and Clonarium’: Voyeurism or a Challenge to Assumptions?” in Among Women: From the Homosocial to the Homoerotic in the Ancient World, edited by Nancy S. Rabinowitz and Lisa Auanger, Austin, Texas: The University of Texas Press, 2002: 286-303.
- “Hypatia of Alexandria” in the Encyclopedia of Women and World Religion, edited by Serinity Young, MacMillan, spring, 1999.
- “Sexual Stereotypes” in The Reader’s Companion to U.S. Women’s History, edited by Wilma Mankiller, Gwendolyn Mink, Marysa Navarro, Barbara Smith and Gloria Steinem, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998: 570-572.
- “Gender in Ancient Egypt: A European or African Construction?” in Debating Complexity: Proceedings of the 26th Annual Chacmool Conference, the Archaeological Association of the University of Calgary, 1996.
- “The Five Wives of Pompey the Great,” reprinted in Women in Antiquity, edited by Ian McAuslan and Peter Walcot, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996: 103-113.
- “Self-definition, Community and Resistance: Euripides’ Medea and Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Thamyris: Mythmaking from Past to Present 2.2 (Autumn 1995): 177-206.
- “Black Athena in the Context of America” (appearing under the editorially imposed title “Class pedagogy begs race questions”), American Classical League Newsletter, 16.1 (Fall 1993): 8-14.
- “African-American Women in Classics: What’s a Nice Woman Like Me Doing in a Field Like this?!” Proceedings: Fifth Annual International Conference for Women in Higher Education, 1992, 110-114.
National Media
- Part I of “Rome: Power and Glory” on YouTube (2010)
- Interview for the BBC World (Radio) segment on the reopening of the Library at Alexandria, April 2000
- Interview for BBC series Timewatch segment on Cleopatra, aired in Britain Dec. 15, 1997, and Jan. 1, 1998
- Interviewed for The Learning Channel series Rome: Power and Glory, aired March 7-9, 1999
College Service
Posse mentor: Posse Miami 2, 2011-13
Committee on Student Activities, 2009-12
Committees and coalitions: Founding Member, Institute for Global African Studies (IGAS), 2010
CAP Sub-Committee on Diversity and the Curriculum, fall, 2009
Faculty of Color Consortium Diversity Advisory Committee, 2001-02
POSSE Advisory Committee, chair, 2001-03
Inaugural faculty member for the ACCESS Project, spring, 2001
Founding member, The Kirkland Project for the Study of Gender, Culture and Society, 1996-
Africana Studies Program Committee, 1989-2008
Women's Studies Program Committee, 1990-2008
Visiting Minority Scholars Committee, 1989-90
Minority Task Force Committee, 1989-90
Committee on Student Awards and Prizes, 1990-91
Committee on Co-Education, 1990-93
Faculty Committee on Admission and Financial Aid, 1994-97
Harassment Grievance Board 1990-1992, Chair, 1991-92; 1992-93
Sexual Harassment Grievance Board, 1991-92; 1992-93; Chair 1993-96
Committee for the Extension of Human Rights
CEHR Survey subcommittee
Faculty for Women's Concerns
Feminist Pedagogy Group, 1992-93
Group Q
Appointed to the Faculty
1989Educational Background
Ph.D., University of Michigan
A.B., Syracuse University
