Erik Ellis is assistant professor of education at Hillsdale College. He earned a B.A. in the University Scholars Program at Baylor University with major concentrations in Greek and Latin and a minor concentration in History. He stayed at Baylor to earn an M.A. in History. Upon graduation, worked as a teacher for five years. He next received master’s and doctoral degrees at the University of Notre Dame’s Classics Department and Medieval Institute. He then traveled to Chile’s Universidad de los Andes to teach Latin, Greek, and Literature courses before returning to the US. As a researcher, Dr. Ellis focuses his efforts on tenth-century Byzantium and sixteenth-century Northern Europe, spending much time onConstantine Porphyrogennitos, Thomas More, Erasmus, and Juan Luis Vives, although he often allows himself to be distracted by J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. He is enthusiastic about sacred choral music, visiting remote places, and speaking classical and modern foreign languages.
Education
The University of Notre Dame
2019 Ph.D., Medieval Studies
Dissertation: The Language of Order: Latin, Greek, and Roman in the Byzantine Book of
Ceremonies. Hildegund Müller (co-dir.), Alexander Beihammer (co-dir.), Peter Jeffery,
Aldo Tagliabue
2016 M.A., Classics
2015 M.M.S., Medieval Studies
Baylor University
2007 M.A., History, summa cum laude
Thesis: Petrarch’s Africa I-IV: A Translation and Historical Commentary. Jeffrey
Hamilton (dir.), Eric Rust, Antonios Augoustakis
2006 B.A. as a University Scholar, magna cum laude with major concentrations in Greek and
Latin and a minor concentration in history
Peer-Reviewed Publications
“Augustine on the Katechon: A Lesson from De Civitate Dei,” with Patricio Domínguez, Scripta
Medievalia 16.1 (Forthcoming 2023).
“Iterative amplificatio: a new way to read the ‘Lame Beggars Sequence’ in More’s
Epigrammata,” Moreana 59.2 (2022): 220–232.
“Performing Acclamation in Tenth-Century Byzantium: De Cerimoniis between Roman Practice
and Christian Theory,” Studia Patristica 130 (2021): 403-423.
“The Utopia Correspondence of 1515,” Moreana 58.2 (2021): 137-162.
“Dissent from Mt. Ventoux: Between Christian and Secular Humanism in Petrarch’s de Ascensu
Montis Ventosi,” Scripta Medievalia 14.1 (2021): 71-95.
“A True Knowledge of Theology: Self-Fashioning and Typological Emulation in the ErasmusDorp Affair,” Moreana 56.2 (2019): 161-176.
“Talis erat: The Continental Reputation of Thomas More in the Latin Epigrams of Stapleton’s
Vita Thomae Mori,” Moreana 55.2 (2018): 211-250.
Essays, Reviews, and Interviews
“Notes from the Quad: Hillsdale College,” CiRCE Institute Quiddity Podcast, December 12th,
2022.
Review of Pádraig Lenihan and Keith Sidwell, Poema de Hibernia: A Jacobite Epic on the
Williamite Wars, Neo-Latin News 70.3-4 (2022): 193-198.
“Mortimer Adler: Champion of Great Books Education,” Real Clear Education, March 14th,
2022.
Review of Andrew Dinan, Americana Latine, Neo-Latin News 69.3-4 (2021): 159-162.
“Leading Figures in Education: Mortimer Adler,” Hillsdale College Classical Education
Podcast, November 20th, 2020.
“What is Classical Education?,” The Imaginative Conservative, May 12th, 2020.
“Are the Great Books Enough to Revive Our Education System?,” The Imaginative
Conservative, April 30th, 2020.