Froma Zeitlin

Zeitlin joined the faculty of Princeton University in 1976, where she taught Greek Literature, Greek Mythology and Gender studies. She joined Princeton at a time where there were other influential women in the department, notably Ann Bergren, Janet Martin and Lois Hinckley, although Bergren and Hinckley left shortly afterwards. She became Professor of Classics in 1983, and of Comparative Literature in 1989. From 1992 Zeitlin was the Charles Ewing Professor of Greek Language and Literature. In 1996 Zeitlin founded the Judaic Studies program at Princeton, and directed it until 2005. In 1995/6 she was the Sather Professor of Classical Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. Among other honors, she has been Directeur d’Études Associé at both the Collège de France and the École Pratique des Hautes Études; she is an honorary fellow of Newnham College, and in 2001 was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

During the final year of writing her dissertation, she started her first job at Brooklyn College. From 1970 to 1976 she was an assistant professor at Rutgers University, and she became an associate professor in 1967. In 1965, during her time at Rutgers, she was awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Froma Zeitlin was born in New York, and grew up on the Upper West Side, where she was educated in a public girls' high school. In 1951 she began her studies at Radcliffe College (B.A. 1954) and at the Catholic University of America (M.A. 1965). After a nine-year break, she returned to graduate school, and was awarded her PhD by Columbia University in 1970. Her thesis was entitled The Ritual World of Greek Tragedy.