Dr Michael McOsker

Dr Michael McOsker walking down an ancient underground tunnel
Teaching and Research Fellow in Herculaneum Papyrology
Brasenose College
michael.mcosker@classics.ox.ac.uk

Qualifications: PhD Michigan (Classical Studies) 2015

Link to college page: https://www.bnc.ox.ac.uk/

Link to project page: Meeting the Vesuvius Challenge

ORCID: 0000-0002-6048-7637.

Academic Background

I became interested in papyrology at the start of my (post-)graduate study at the University of Michigan.  My PhD thesis was on Philodemus' of Gadara's Epicurean theory of poetry.

During a fellowship in Naples, I began working on other Herculaneum texts, including Phildoemus' On Anger, which I subsequently published with David Armstrong.  After a few years teaching in the US, I spent two years at the University of Cologne as an Alexander von Humboldt post-doctoral researcher.  Then I was a researcher at UCL on the 'Hexameters Beyond the Canon Project', studying papyri in the Oxyrhynchus collection.

Research Interests

I'm most interested in literary and Herculaneum papyrology, ancient philosophy (especially Epicureanism), and prose stylistics, but I also like anything weird, neglected, or fragmentary, and anything that makes me feel like I understand Greek better.

Research Keywords

Papyrology, Herculaneum papyrology, ancient philosophy, Epicureanism, prose style.

Teaching

I teach a Master's level class on Herculaneum papyrology.

Publications

Full Publications: Dr Michael McOsker 2026

Selected Publications:

On the Good Poem according to Philodemus (Oxford University Press, Oct. 2021).

Philodemus On Anger: Edited with a Translation, Introduction, and Notes (with David Armstrong, Society for Biblical Literature, Writings from the Greco-Roman World series, Summer, 2020).

“State of Play: The Herculaneum Papyri,” invited paper for AJP (with Thomas Coward,), expected publication: winter 2026.

  • “Hiatus in Plato’s Timaeus (and Critias),” Hermes 154 (2026), 131–52.

  • “Teaching Vergil to write: Vergil’s aesthetics and the influence of Philodemus and Parthenius” (with Lee Fratantuono) in Thomas Nelson and Matthew Chalkedas (edd.), Hellenistic Aesthetics: Approaches and Frameworks, BICS 67.2 (2024), 71–85.

  • “The Epicureanism of Horace Odes 1,24 Revisited: Mourning and Friendship,” Rheinisches Museum 167 (2024), 321–44.

  • “Philodemus of Gadara’s Rhythmic Prose,” Rheinisches Museum 165 (2022), 9–49.

  • “Hiatus in Epicurean Authors,” Cronache ercolanesi 47 (2017), 145–61.