Professor
Email: clivanos@wisc.edu
Phone: (608) 263-3851
Office: 702 Van Hise Hall
Center for South Asia profile / Religious Studies Program profile
My work examines the construction of a “Western” identity and how the West has defined itself in opposition to various cultural others. Coming from a Greek—American background, I grew up hearing from mainstream American society that “Western civilization” originates with Greece while, at the same time, I would hear my Greek relatives refer to “Greece and the West” as though they were two entirely distinct cultures with nearly insurmountable differences. Puzzling out how and why different notions of “East and West” have come about has interested me ever since.
I have published studies of the "Three Crowns" of Fourteenth-Century Italy: Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch. I have also written several articles on how medieval poets of the Eastern Roman Empire represent the complexities of life in an ever-changing multicultural society. As part of my research on relations between Christianity and Islam, I have collaborated with Professor Mohammad Salama of George Mason University on a study of the reception of the Qur’an in the Latin West. I am presently working with Professor Salama on a translation of pre-Islamic Arabic Odes.
In my study of yoga, I try to bring an awareness of yoga’s roots in Indian philosophy to a general audience and to deepen students’ appreciation for the traditions out of which yoga originated. My Freshman Interest Group class, “Yoga in Poetry and Pose” seeks out the intersection of Literature, Philosophy, and Physical culture by offering students the opportunity to augment their study of classic yoga texts with an embodied practice. Off campus, I offer yoga classes in English and Spanish and free yoga classes for veterans and their families.
Selected Publications:
Moving to the Back and Finding the Heart, an article for Om Yoga and Lifestyle
Elissa, the ancient Carthaginian queen also known as Dido, is the model for the Elissa of Boccaccio’s Decameron. Vergil, Petrarch, and Boccaccio all use her in different ways to explore themes of female power and authority: Elissa as a New Dido: Greece, the East, and the Westward Movement of Culture in the Decameron (Heliotropia)
A comparative study of dragon-slaying in medieval Greek epic and other Indo-European traditions: A Case Study in Byzantine Dragon-Slaying: Digenes and the Serpent (Oral Tradition Journal)
Understanding the origins of the Sanskrit word sukha, often translated as “ease” or “comfort,” helps us find a good fit in our yoga practice: “How Come I’m Not Comfortable?” The Meaning of Sukha (Yoga International)
(With Floris Bernard) The Poems of Christopher of Mytilene and John Mauropous: The Poems of Christopher of Mytilene and John Mauropous (Harvard University Press)