Collin Moat

A photo of Collin Moat
E-mail: cmoat@humnet.ucla.edu

Collin Moat is a Ph.D candidate in Classics at UCLA, and he received his M.A. in Classics from the University of Arizona (2018) and B.A. in Classics and History from St. Olaf College (2013). His research largely focuses on Greek literature and culture of the Archaic and Classical periods, with an emphasis on ecocritical readings and the ancient environment.

His dissertation, “The Material of Mortality: Tree Death and Wooden Objects in Homeric Poetry,” explores how the life cycles of trees—especially their deaths and material afterlives—are entangled in Homeric understandings of human mortality. His readings blend literary analysis with modern critical approaches, archaeological evidence, and environmental history. A portion of his dissertation research can be found in a forthcoming article, “Sympathy with the Spear: Iliadic Tree Similes and Achilles’ Entanglement with the Pelian Spear.”

While pursuing a graduate certificate in Digital Humanities, Collin has also developed several digital projects that highlight the interconnectedness of human culture, the environment, and historical landscapes in the ancient Mediterranean. For example, the Vesta Visibility Project investigates the changing visibility of the Temple of Vesta during the Augustan Age through 3D reconstructions of the Roman Forum. Additionally, the digital project, “Gods and Green Spaces: Sacred Groves in Pausanias’s Description of Greece,” uses GIS tools to spatialize the sacred groves mentioned in the famous travelogue. “Gods and Green Spaces” serves as a proof of concept for a larger project aimed at collecting and mapping available textual and archaeological evidence for sacred groves in the Aegean.

In 2022–2023, Collin was a Regular Member at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA), supported by the Thomas Day Seymour Fellowship. He returns to the ASCSA for the 2025–2026 academic year as the Eugene Vanderpool Fellow.

Collin has taught a variety of language and culture courses at UCLA and the University of Arizona, including intermediate Homeric Greek, the Elementary Latin sequence, and the GE lectures “Classics 10: Discovering the Greeks” and “Classics 30: Classical Mythology.”

Find out more about Collin at collinmoat.com.

Education

  • Ph.D. in Classics, UCLA (expected Spring 2026)
  • M.A. in Classics, The University of Arizona (2018)
  • B.A. in Classics and History, St. Olaf College (2013)

Research

Publications

  • “Sympathy with the Spear: Iliadic Tree Similes and Achilles’ Entanglement with the Pelian Spear.” Helios 52.1 (forthcoming 2025).

Conference Presentations

  • “Planting the Oar: the Avoidance of Tree Death in the Odyssey.” SCS Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, January 4, 2025.
  • “The Visibility of Vesta: the Effect of Augustan Monuments on Viewsheds in the Roman Forum.” CAMWS Annual Meeting, St. Louis, MO, April 4, 2024.
  • “Burning Mortal Materials: the Transformation and Reassemblage of the Body in Homeric Funerals.” From Elements to Ecologies Panel, SCS Annual Meeting, Chicago, January 6, 2024.
  • “Observing Sensuous Death: Nymphs and their Trees in the Hymn to Aphrodite.” GODSCAPES: Ritual, Belief and the Natural World in the Ancient Mediterranean and Beyond (Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions), St. Andrews University, UK, June 29, 2023.
  • “Stranger in the Doorway: The Significance of Thresholds in the Odyssey’s Hospitality Scenes.” Invited paper, Symposium in Honor of Steve Reece, St. Olaf College, March 11, 2023.
  • “Sympathy with the Spear: Iliadic Tree Similes and Achilles’ Entanglement with the Pelian Spear.” CAMWS Annual Meeting, Winston-Salem, NC, March 24, 2022.
  • “Echoes from Cumae: Intertexts between Juvenal Satire 3 and Aeneid 6.” CAMWS Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM, April 13, 2022.
  • “Parsing the Mountain: Pan’s Parallels to Montane Landscape in the Hymn to Pan.” CAMWS Annual Meeting, Kitchener, ON, April 6, 2017.

Fellowships, Scholarships, and Awards

  • Dissertation Year Award, UCLA, 2025–2026
  • Eugene Vanderpool Fellowship, American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 2025–2026
  • Carolyn Lew-Karon & Michael Karon Digital Research Graduate Fellowship, UCLA, 2024
  • Thomas Day Seymour Fellowship, American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 2022–2023
  • Diebold Summer Graduate Student Award, UCLA, 2022
  • James and Carolyn Kolokotrones Endowed Graduate Research Fellowship, UCLA, 2022
  • Graduate Research Mentorship, UCLA, 2021–2022
  • Graduate Summer Research Mentorship, UCLA, 2021
  • Classical Association of the Middle West and South 2017–2018 Award for Outstanding Accomplishment in Classical Studies, the University of Arizona, 2018
  • Department of Religious Studies and Classics AIA/SCS Award for Outstanding Achievement in Classical Studies, the University of Arizona, 2018
  • Hellenic Cultural Foundation Scholarship, the University of Arizona, 2017
  • Department of Religious Studies and Classics AIA/SCS Award for Outstanding Achievement in Classical Studies, the University of Arizona, 2017
  • Classical Association of the Middle West and South 2012–2013 Award for Outstanding Accomplishment in Classical Studies, St. Olaf College, 2013
  • Loomis Scholarship in Classics for Study Abroad in Greece, St. Olaf College, 2013