Photo by Orin Zyvan ’04

Greg Given ’10

religion

Hometown: Knoxville, Tennessee

How Reed changed me: When I got to Reed I hated history and was absolutely, positively sure I was going to do physics for the rest of my life. Reed has definitely broadened my horizons and given me new insight into how things work. I’m definitely grateful for the financial aid I received, including the Mary E. Barnard Memorial Humanities Scholarship and the Betty Gray Scholarship.

Influential book: James Agee’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.

Cool stuff I did: Studied Coptic, played guitar in a rock band named Diacon-Panthers, worked on Canyon Crew, learned to brew beer, and gained a whole new appreciation for sunlight.

Adviser: Prof. Michael Foat

Thesis: Anchoring the Areopagite: An Intertextual Approach to Pseudo-Dionysius

What it’s about: Intrigued by the writings of the Christian philosopher Pseudo-Dionysius, I set out to trace connections to other ancient texts. I discovered that he relied heavily on (i.e., swiped from) two earlier writers, Theodoret of Cyrus and Cyril of Alexandria. As far as I can tell, no one realized this until now.

What it’s really about:  You’d be surprised what you can learn from ancient plagiarism.

What’s next: Harvard Divinity School.