Resume

Download Full CV (current as of November 2023)

Education

• University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Classics
  • Two years of  PhD coursework
• University of Oxford, Faculty of Classics
  • MPhil in Greek and/or Latin Languages & Literature
  • Master’s Dissertation of 25,000 Words: “Necropolitics in Ovid.” Supervisors: Matthew Robinson, Balliol College & Marchella Ward, Worcester College
• Brown University
  • A.B. Magna Cum Laude, Classics: Latin (with Honors)
  • Senior Honors Thesis: “Mater, Cyrene Mater: Rethinking Narrative in Virgil’s Georgics 4.325-558.” Director: Jeri Debrohun, Reader: Joseph Pucci
• Languages
  • Ancient Greek, Attic (reading proficiency)
  • Latin (reading proficiency)
  • Italian (conversational & reading proficiency)

Publications

• Steven G. Calabresi and Lena Barsky. “An Originalist Defense of Plyler v. Doe.” 2017 BYU L. Rev. 227 (2017). https://digitalcommons.law.byu.edu/lawreview/vol2017/iss2/4/
• Lena Barsky. “On the Hidden Meanings of the Laudes Italiae of Virgil’s Georgics Book 2.” Brown Classical Journal 26 (Apr. 2014): 83-92. https://tinyurl.com/BCJ26Barsky
• Lena Barsky. “Alcuin in the Bible.” Brown Classical Journal 25 (Apr. 2013): 143-152. https://tinyurl.com/BCJ25Barsky

Political Advocacy & Nonprofit Work

• National Energy Assistance Directors Association / Center for Energy Poverty and Climate
  • Policy Associate, March 2024-present
• Legal Momentum
  • Director of Program Management & Media, September 2018-July 2019
  • Program Manager, National Judicial Education Program, July 2017-September 2018
  • Program Associate, National Judicial Education Program, May 2015-July 2017
• National Committee for an Effective Congress (NCEC)
  • Researcher and Analyst, Election and Census Data & Redistricting, June 2009-March 2015, full-time June 2014-March 2015
• Brown University Sexual Assault Policy Task Force
  • Founder, July 2013-June 2014
• Brown Political Review, Brown University Political Theory Project
  • Column Manager, September 2013-May 2014
  • Featured Web Columnist, September 2012-September 2013
• National Immigrant Women’s Advocacy Project
  • Research and Operations Intern, June 2013-August 2013

Teaching

• UCLA Classics Department
  • Teaching Assistant, “Classics 20: Discovering the Romans,” April 2023-June 2023
  • Teaching Assistant, “Classics 30: Classical Mythology,” January 2023-March 2023
  • Teaching Assistant, “Classics 10: Discovering the Greeks,” September 2022-December 2022
• University of Oxford Faculty of Classics
  • Co-Lead “Hellenistic (and later) poetry: reflections on sexuality, gender and the self” with Dr. Sarah Cullinan Herring, Wadham College, January 2021-March 2021 (the Graduate Weekly Language Seminar for Trinity 2021)
• Brown University Department of Classics
  • Teaching Assistant for “The American Presidency & the Western Tradition,” September 2013-December 2013
  • Teaching Assistant for “The Idea of Self,” September 2012-December 2012

Other Academic Employment

• Political Theory Project, Brown University Department of Political Science
  • Research Assistant to Professor Steven G. Calabresi, June 2012-December 2013
• Ascanius: The Youth Classics InstituteFaculty, “Activities” Class, LatinSummer 2009, January 2009-August 2009

Papers Presented 

• “Homosexual Panic, Bodily Autonomy, and Hypermasculine Fantasy in the Miles Marianus (Declamationes Maiores 3).” Presentation forthcoming at the Celtic Conference in Classics, Queering the Ancient Body Panel, in person in Wales from July 9-12, 2024.
• “‘They Were Not Two, but a Double Form’: Hermaphroditus and Salmacis, Imperial Roman Social Control, and Transgender Bodies as Biopolitical Possibility.” Thinking Gender 2022: Transgender Studies at the Intersections Conference, digital via UCLA Center for the Study of Women, April 8, 2022.
• “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Caeneus?: On Dido, Gender, and Virgil’s Accidental Trans Narrative.” UCLA Classics – Graduate Forum, January 20, 2022.
• “I WOULD KNOW HIM IN DEATH // HELLO, STRANGER: Achilles, Patroclus, and Fanfiction Refracted.” Queer and The Classical: Critical Futures, Critical Feelings Conference, digital via Oxford University, February 20-21, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHk0QtYuVdg
• “‘Plato: They were gay af and Achilles bottomed’: Classics, Popular Culture, and the Internet.” Oxford Classics – Language & Literature Graduate Work in Progress Seminar, November 13, 2020.
• “If There’s a Fire You’re Trying to Douse: Un-Making Hegemonic Approaches to Gender & Sexuality in Roman Scholarship.” The Case for Critical Ancient World Studies Conference, digital via Oxford University, September 7, 2020.
• “Ladies, Leave Your Man at Home: The Women of Virgil’s Epyllion, Georgics 315-558.” Oxford Classics – Language & Literature Graduate Work in Progress Seminar, February 14, 2020.

Leadership

• UCLA Classics Department
  • EDI Committee Graduate Student Representative, March 2021-June 2023
• Oxford Faculty of Classics
  • “Language and Literature Taught Program” Graduate Representative, December 2019-December 2020
• St Anne’s College Middle Common Room Committee
  • LGBTQ+ Representative, January 2020-January 2021
• Metropolitan Music Community: Grand Street Community Band
  • GCSB Personnel Manager, January 2017-June 2019
• Brown University Department of Classics
  • Member of the Editorial Board for the Brown Classical Journal, September 2012-May 2014
• Meiklejohn Advising Program, Brown University Dean of the College
  • Meiklejohn Peer Advisor, September 2011-May 2014
• Brown-RISD Hillel
  • Member, Student Search Committee for a New University and Hillel Rabbi, February 2013-May 2013
• Brown University Band
  • Head Scriptwriter, September 2010-May 2014
  • President, November 2011-November 2012
  • Corresponding Secretary (Travel Manager), November 2010-November 2011