Steve Reece, Professor Emeritus of Classics
(taught at St. Olaf from 1994 to 2023)
E-mail: reece@stolaf.edu
B.A. , M.A., University of Hawaii, 1982, 1984
Ph.D. (Classics), University of California, Los Angeles, 1990
Steve Reece grew up in the town of Niigata on the west coast of Northern Japan. He came to the United States in 1977 to go to college. After earning his Ph.D., he taught at Texas A&M University and Vanderbilt University (Mellon Fellow) before being hired by the Department of Classics at St. Olaf College.
Reece has published a wide variety of articles and book chapters in Homeric studies, New Testament studies, comparative oral traditions, historical linguistics, and language pedagogy. In Homeric studies he is the author of a book about the rituals of ancient Greek hospitality (The Stranger’s Welcome: Oral Theory and the Aesthetics of the Homeric Hospitality Scene, University of Michigan Press) and a book on early Greek etymologizing (Homer’s Winged Words: Junctural Metanalysis in Homer in the Light of Oral-Formulaic Theory, E.J. Brill Press), for which he received a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship. In New Testament studies he is the author of a book about Paul’s letter-writing conventions (Paul’s Large Letters: Paul’s Autographic Subscription in the Light of Ancient Epistolary Conventions, Bloomsbury T&T Clark) and a book that reconstructs the educational background of the author of Luke-Acts (The Formal Education of the Author of Luke-Acts, Bloomsbury T&T Clark), for which he received a FaCE grant through the Associated Colleges of the Midwest. He is now working on a monograph about wordplays on proper names in the New Testament.
Reece has done research at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (Lord Fellowship), the American Academy in Rome (Fulbright Fellowship), the Center for Studies in Oral Tradition at the University of Missouri (NEH Fellowship), and the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C. He has lectured broadly, is called on frequently to act as referee for professional journals and university presses, and has been a consultant for IBM, E.J. Brill Press, and the Center for Studies in Oral Tradition. The photo illustrates his Mellby Lecture (2005): ”Homer, Jesus, and Bass Fishing in Minnesota.”
Reece has chaired the St. Olaf Department of Classics, been the faculty representative to the St. Olaf Board of Regents, and served a term as President of the Classical Association of Minnesota. In the summer of 2010 he participated in the archaeological excavations at Tel Megiddo in northern Israel (see photo). In 2015 he was named the O.C. and Patricia Boldt Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Humanities. He delivered the 6th Annual James M. May Lecture in Classics on March 11, 2023.
In his spare time Reece is a hopeful fisherman, a “wannabee” basketball player, and an indolent bike-rider. Besides being able to speak Japanese with a Tennessee accent, his greatest claims to fame are having climbed a dozen active volcanoes, having crashed into John Lennon on a bicycle, and having served as a consultant for the Hollywood production Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventures.
Steve’s wife Rhonda is the former Minister of Music at Bethel Lutheran Church in Northfield; the photo at left shows them exploring petroglyphs in Colorado. Their daughter Hannah is a nurse in Minneapolis; their son Taylor (a software developer), daughter-in-law Kayli (a pediatrician), and grandchildren Ellie and Teddy live in Sioux Falls, SD.
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