John Higgins is a Visiting Lecturer in History and Classical Studies. He earned his Ph.D. in Ancient and Medieval History at the University of Massachusetts in 2018 with a dissertation on the seventh-century Latin saints’ Lives from Ireland. This dissertation is the basis for his book Writing Early Ireland: Hiberno-Latin Saints' Lives in the Seventh Century (DeGruyter and Medieval Institute Press, 2024).
 
Other scholarly interests include Roman history, Late Antiquity, and Augustan literature. Prof. Higgins has published articles and reviews in all those areas, including Carpe Diem: A Horace Reader. Co-author with Gilbert Lawall, Bruce Arnold, Andrew Aronson, Brian W. Breed, Helene Lerner and Sally Murphy (New York: Prentice-Hall, 2006).
 
Prof. Higgins was for many years a high school teacher in Winsted, CT, and at several colleges and universities. He began his scholarly career as Editorial Assistant to the Dictionary of Medieval Latin from Celtic Sources, still underway at the Royal Irish Academy. In 2019-20 he served as President of the Classical Association of New England.

Book:

• Hiberno-Latin Saints’‘Lives’ in the Seventh Century: Writing Early Ireland. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501515590

• “Saints’ Lives in Seventh-Century France and Ireland,” Eolas 16 (2024), 3-24.
• “Horace Satires 1.8: A Blast from the Past,” New England Classical Journal 44.3 (2017), 139-49.
• “The Dog in the Nighttime: Rome’s Invasion of Ireland,” Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History IX: Collection Latomus 244 (1998), 401-410.
• “Two Passages in the Confessio of Patrick,” Milltown Studies 35 (1995), 130-133.
• “Arma Virumque Cano: A Note,” Classical World 88.1 (1994), 41-42.
• “Aeneas: Augustan Hero in the Homeric Age,” New England Classical Newsletter and Journal XIX, 4 (May 1992), 21-23.
• “Cena Mitellita, Cena Rosaria: A Note on Suetonius Nero 27.3,” American Journal of Philology 106 (1985), 116-118.
• “Some Recent Books on Romano-Celtic Relations,” Review Article, New England Classical Journal 32.2 (2005), 127-47.
• “The Celtic Latin Tradition of Biblical Style, by David Howlett,” Review Article, Hermathena 172 (Summer 2002), 57-69.
• “An Instrument Concerning Elicie Butler of Kilculliheen (1532),” translation, in The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, Volume IV: Irish Women’s Writing and Traditions, edited by Angela Bourke et al. (New York: New York University Press, 2002), 467-71.

• Classical Association of New England, Barlow-Beach Award, 2016.
• American Philological Association/American Classical League, Award for Excellence in Teaching at the Precollegiate Level, 2014.
  
• Classical Association of Connecticut, Distinguished Service Award, 2007.
  
• Classical Association of New England, Cornelia Catlin Coulter Scholarship, for study at the American Academy in Rome Classical Summer School, 2006.
  
• NEH Summer Institute Fellowship, 2002. “Shakespeare and the Rose Playhouse Institute 2002.” Shakespeare & Company, Lenox MA, 2002.
  
• Classical Association of New England, Edward Phinney Fellowship, to start a program in Ancient Greek at The Gilbert School, 2000-2002.
  
• Classical Association of New England, Endowment Scholarship: ASCSA Summer Session, 2000.
• NEH Foreign Language Fellow. Project Title: “Caesar and Celtic Europe,” 1996.
  
• NEH Teacher-Scholar Fellowship. Project Title: “Patterns of Thought in Early Medieval Britain and Ireland,” 1993-1994.
• NEH Summer Seminar Fellowship. Seminar: “Vergil’s Aeneid in its Augustan Context,” 1991.