Honora Chapman

After growing up fifth of eight children in Southern California, Honora “Nora” Chapman earned a B.A. and Ph.D. at Stanford University in Classics, and thirty years ago she began teaching Latin and Greek language/literature, ancient history, ancient religious traditions, and literature in translation at Stanford and then Santa Clara. In 2002, Nora took a tenure-track position as Assistant Professor of Classics and Humanities at Fresno State, and she served as Coordinator of Classics for over a decade; in 2013, she won the Provost’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, Fresno State’s highest award for professors. From 2009 to 2014, she served as Director of Fresno State’s Smittcamp Family Honors College, the most prestigious four-year scholarship program in California’s San Joaquin Valley, the country’s poorest but most productive agricultural region. With the students, she encouraged a new emphasis on diverse admissions, enhanced curriculum, research projects for all, study abroad, and collaborative service projects in the community. She also served three terms on the Academic Senate. Since January 2016, she has been Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, allowing her to promote graduation goals and to create spaces for two US Poets Laureate, Philip Levine and Juan Felipe Herrera. Co-chair of the Josephus Seminar of the Society of Biblical Literature (2000-2009), she co-edited with Zuleika Rodgers the Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Josephus(2016). To further the cause of the humanities for the wider public, Nora currently serves on the all-volunteer board of San Joaquin Valley Town Hall and the board of California Humanities.