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Katharina Volk is an associate
professor of classics. She
received the distinguished
Faculty Teaching Award for
2010–11, and her book Manilius
and his Intellectual Background
was awarded the Lionel Trilling
Award in 2010. her most
recent book is Ovid, an introductory
text to the poet. Volk
earned an M.A. from Ludwig­
Maximilians­universität in
Munich and a Ph.d. from
Princeton.
where did you grow up?
In Munich, Germany.
what did you want to be
when you were growing up?
At some point, I wanted to
run a cafeteria in a museum,
but I was really little. After
that, I wanted to be a history
teacher. Then I wanted to be
an actress. That was the order.
how did you become a professor
of classics?
In Germany, there isn’t a liberal
arts college system. You
had to decide on a subject
early. I knew I wanted to go
into academia, but wasn’t
quite sure about the field. At
first, I thought I was going
to do German literature, but
the German department was
this huge, anonymous department.
I had chosen Latin
as my minor; I had started
learning it in fifth grade and
always loved it. The classics
department turned out to be
this nice, small department
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where the professors were
super-friendly. So I thought,
forget about German, I’m going
to become a classicist.
can you talk about the book
for which you won the lionel
trilling award?
I received the award for Mani -
lius and his Intellectual Background
and was really excited.
First of all, I think it’s fantastic
that Columbia has a book
award that is given by students.
Then there is the subject
matter: Manilius was a poet
who about 2,000 years ago
wrote a very difficult poem
about astrology. Even within
classics, the topic is quite
obscure. It’s not like Virgil or
Ovid, who I’ve also worked on.
Mine is the first monograph in
English on this poet, and
while I was working on it, even
classicists asked, “What are
you talking about? Manilius?”
So it was very exciting that
students gave this book
the award for best faculty
book of the year.
what are you working
on now?
I published another
book last
year, Ovid.
It’s much
more mainstream,
an intro-
MAY/JUNE 2011
15
duction to the poet. Right now,
I don’t have a book project.
I’m working on something
a bit marginal, a poem by
Cicero. He was a famous orator
and statesman, of course,
but he also wrote poetry,
including a poem about his
own consulship. When he
was the leader of the state in
63 B.C., he thought he had
done a really good job; most
importantly, he had put down
a conspiracy of people who
Five Minutes with … Katharina Volk
wanted to overthrow the
government. He then wanted
someone to write a poem in
praise of his achievement, and
no one wanted to do it, so he
did it himself. We only have
a few fragments of the work.
Already in antiquity, everyone
was making fun of the fact that
Cicero wrote his own poem
about how great he was. I got
interested in it, so I’m giving a
talk about it at a conference.
are you usually attracted
to obscure topics?
If you’re a scholar, there
are some authors and
topics that everyone
works on, and
they’re great,
but there are
many other
things going
on that are
interesting
as well. I think it’s fun to look
at the overlooked. In this case,
Cicero is a very famous guy,
one of the most famous people
from antiquity and probably
the one we know the most
about because we have a great
many works of his, including
his letters. But he also wrote
this crazy poem, and very few
people talk about it.
if you could be anywhere in
the world, where would you
be?
Rome is definitely at the
top of my list.
what’s the last book you
read for pleasure that you’d
recommend?
I read a lot of novels. I really
enjoyed Room by Emma
Donoghue. I thought it was
amazing. I also recently read
The Elephant’s Journey by José
Saramago. I loved that, too.
what’s your favorite spot in
new York city?
Riverside Park down by the
river near West 100th Street.
how do you recharge?
I like to cook to relax. After a
long day, I find it takes your
mind off things. You have to
concentrate, but it’s a different
type of concentration.
Interview and photo:
Ethan Rouen ’04J, ’11 Business
To watch Volk talk about receiving
the Lionel Trilling Award, go
to college.columbia.edu/cct.
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