Chris McDonough came to Sewanee in 2002, together with his wife,
Kelly Malone, an Assistant Professor of English, and their two boys, Joseph and Daniel, who are the apples of their parents’ eyes. He had taught previously at
Boston College,
Princeton University, and the
University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He received his MA and PhD from the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and his BA from
Tufts University. An expert on Roman religion, Professor McDonough has authored over a dozen scholarly articles and co-authored
Servius’ Commentary on Aeneid Book Four: An Annotated Translation. He is presently engaged in two additional book projects.
In 2003, Dr. McDonough chaired the Department of Classical Languages, and since then has been the Director of the
Interdisciplinary Humanities Program, a job which involves a fair bit of weeping and gnashing of teeth. And yet, somehow, he loves it, because he feels singularly lucky to be able to spend time with important and interesting works of Western art and literature, and to work alongside splendid colleagues and equally splendid students engaged with same.
Concerning Latin pedagogy, Dr. McDonough is not entirely in agreement with Dr. Johnson, of whom Boswell wrote, “Mr. Langton one day asked him how he had acquired so accurate a knowledge of Latin, in which, I believe, he was exceeded by no man of his time; he said, ‘My master whipt me very well. Without that, Sir, I should have done nothing.’” McDonough occasionally writes articles and reviews, so that his spleen will find vent in venues other than the Sewanee Department of Classical Languages website.
