MacEwan University is pleased to announce the recipient of its Board of Governors Research Chair.
The recipient of the 2023 Board of Governors Research Chair is Dr. Benjamin Garstad, professor, Department of Humanities, Faculty of Arts and Science.
Dr. Garstad is nationally and internationally recognized for his research into the literature of Late Antiquity. His significant contributions have contributed to a shift in the direction of scholarship in his field, leading him to share his expertise through collaborations with renowned scholars in other countries and invitations to conferences around the world.
"Congratulations to Dr. Garstad," says Carolyn Graham, board chair. "His accomplishments exemplify the thought leadership of our faculty at MacEwan, and the importance of the scholarship that happens in our institution across all fields of study."
The Board of Governors Research Chair program contributes to building the university's culture of scholarship and supports faculty who have demonstrated or shown potential for exceptional scholarly distinction. Faculty members in these roles contribute to the advancement of MacEwan University’s Strategic Vision and the development of a strong scholarly culture both within the institution and in the larger community.
Dr. Garstad will serve a two-year term as research chair, alongside current research chairs Dr. Emily Milne and Dr. Albina Pergelova, whose terms run from 2021 to 2023.
About the Board of Governors Research Chair
Dr. Benjamin Garstad studied Classics at the University of Calgary (BA Hon 1997) and the University of St Andrews (PhD 2001). Before coming to MacEwan in 2006 he taught at the University of Calgary and Brooklyn College and was a visiting scholar at Columbia University.
His research focuses on Euhemerus and Euhemerism, John Malalas and the Byzantine chronicle tradition, the Alexander Romance and Alexander's legacy, as well as Robert E. Howard and American pulp fiction. His text and translation of the Greek and Latin Apocalypses of Pseudo-Methodius and the Excerpta Latina Barbari appeared in Harvard University Press's Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library. His book, Bouttios and Late Antique Antioch: Reconstructing a Lost Historian (2022) recently appeared in the Dumbarton Oaks Studies series.
His current projects involve late antique ethnography of Ethiopia and India, the Alexander Romance, Malalas' Chronicle, Philo of Alexandria, Jordanes and the sources of Byzantine chronicles.