James M. Redfield, a University of Chicago scholar renowned for his groundbreaking research on the ancient Greek world and revered for shaping generations of students, died May 28 at the age of 91.
The Edward Olson Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Classical Languages and Literatures, in the Committee on Social Thought, the Committee on the Ancient Mediterranean World, and the College, Redfield, AM’54, PhD’61, was a member of the UChicago faculty for over five decades. His scholarship analyzed the works of classical thinkers such as Homer and Plato through an anthropological lens, and his teaching, which focused on Greek language, literature and social theory, was recognized with two Quantrell Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
“It is hard to overstate Jamie’s influence on the Committee on Social Thought and vice versa,” said Prof. Gabriel Lear, chair of the Committee on Social Thought. “His scholarship was a shining example of its ethos, combining anthropological, literary, and philosophical approaches to the classical Greek world with enormous erudition and sensitivity.”
Redfield’s most influential book, Nature and Culture in the Iliad: The Tragedy of Hector (1984), which placed an anthropological perspective on the role of Hector in the Iliad, had an enormous impact on the field of classics, shifting the way people thought about the structure and sense of the epic poem.