Marlin Directory

Dr. Haller's scholarly interests include Homer and Archaic Greek poetry; the Classics in popular culture; reception studies, especially the reception of the Classics among the English Romantics; women in the ancient world; and the influence of a classical education on early American thinkers such as Thomas Jefferson, George Wythe, Francis Daniel Pastorius, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. He is a firm believer in the importance of a humanistic education to living a principled, reflective, and responsible life.

He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and regularly presents his scholarship at regional and national professional organizations such as CAAS and CAMWS; he has also served on a range of committees, including as Co-Chair of the Educational Programs Committee, as Faculty Secretary (Fall 2012-Spring 2013; and again starting in Fall 2018), and as a member of Faculty Standards and Welfare, the Academic Excellence and Experiential Learning subcommittees of Strategic Planning (2013-2014), the INTEL Committee, Academic Effectiveness Committee, and the Faculty Mentoring Advisory Committee.

Dr. Haller also serves as Area Chair for the Classical Representations in Popular Culture panel of the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association and is a member of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South's Committee on Diversity and Inclusion. He has also been active with a number of human rights-related groups such as the campus Homeless Shelter, Amnesty International, and the Tidewater area LGBT "Reel it Out" film series.

During his time at VWU, he has taught every class offered in the Classics Department, including over 246 classes offered as to provide opportunities for students interested in majoring in Latin or Classical Studies the chance to take required coursework.

His hero is his great grandfather Harry William Mann, who spent his life as a Pennsylvania Dutch carpenter, first learning English when he attended a one-room schoolhouse, but who somehow still managed to read voraciously in German and English, write poetry, serve in the infantry during World War I, and build homes for himself and for his children.

Of late, Dr. Haller is uniting his avocation and his vocation by attempting to read some world's great children's books to his son Keats William Haller.

When he is not reading to Keats, he is working on his book project on Classical influences in the culture of colonial Tidewater, Virginia, which is currently under contract.
For more about Dr. Haller, please visit his personal webpage.

Awards, Grants, Honors 

• 2020: Mednick Fellowship Winner: Homer and All that Jazz: Odysseus and the Aoidos in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Early Twentieth Century African American Arts in New York.
• 2020: Together with Travis Malone of Theatre, authored a successful grant application to Virginia Humanities for funding to bring Peter Meineck's Warrior Chorus Project to VWU's campus.
• 2019 Summer: Received VWU Funding to Attend "Reacting to the Past" Seminar at Barnard College, NY, NY (June 12-14).
• 2019: Lighthouse On Deck Funding to fund Classics Department Lecture Series talks by Georgia Irby (Chair, Department of Classics, College of William and Mary) and William Bruce (Gustavus Adolphus and Senior Archaeologist at Sardis).
• 2019 January: Received a CAMWS Bridge Grant for expenses associated with the teaching of CLAS 360 Classical Virginia.
• 2018 Summer:  Received funding to participate in the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies Ancient Greece in the Modern College Classroom Seminar on Pausanias in Athens, Nafplio, and other sites in Greece. 
• 2018: Nominated by Tom Sienkewicz as a candidate for the CAMWS University-level teaching award (was not the final winner).
• 2017, Summer: Received Summer Faculty Development Grant to research a book project arising from the teaching of my Classical Virginia Winter Session Class: "The Classics and the Virginia Experiment in the Seventeenth-Nineteenth Centuries: Voyages of Exploration, Formulating Ideals of Freedom, and the Stain of Slavery in Tidewater and the Piedmont."
• 2016, Fall: Lighthouse On Deck Funding to Host "O Latest Born and Loveliest Vision Far: The 2016 Virginia Wesleyan College Symposium on the Romantics and the Classics." November 17-19, 2016 at Virginia Wesleyan College.
• 2016, Spring: Lighthouse On Deck Funding to host Classics Lecture Series Speaker Michael Panitz, on "Flavius Josephus: Judaism for a Roman Audience." Thursday, April 7, 2016 at Virginia Wesleyan College.
• 2013-2016: Batten Professorship, Virginia Wesleyan College
• 2014: Nominated for (but did not win) Samuel Nelson Gray Teaching Award
• 2013: Promoted to Associate Professor of Classics and granted Tenure at VWC
• 2012: Honorary membership in VWC's chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, the undergraduate History Honor Society.
• 2011: Award for Outstanding Volunteer, for Dedicated Leadership as Manager of the On-Campus Winter Homeless Shelter
• 2010: Sara Rose Award for work with the Homeless Shelter and Stand Against Racism (VWC Community Service Office)
• 2008-present: Humanities Division, VWC: Consistently received rating of "Exceeds Expectations" on Divisional Evaluation Letter for all Three Areas
• 2009, Summer: Faculty Development Grant, Virginia Wesleyan College
• 1997-2003; 2006-07: Teaching Fellowship, University of Pittsburgh
• 2001: Greek Nationality Room Scholarship, for study at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, University of Pittsburgh
• 1997: Highest Honors, Honors Thesis, College of William and Mary
• 1996: Phi Beta Kappa, College of William and Mary

Recent Service

• Coordinator, Department of Classics, VWU
• Humanities Representative to Undergraduate Research Committee, VWU
• Committee on Diversity and Inclusion, CAMWS
• Area Chair, Classical Representations in Popular Culture, Southwestern Popular/American Culture Association
• Successfully obtained Virginia Department of Education approval for a Teaching Endorsement in Latin for VWU. Students who major in Latin and complete the requisite coursework in Education will now be able to leave VWU prepared to teach high school Latin.

Recent Events Organized

• 2020, February: Peter Meineck's Warrior Chorus Project (Collaboration with Travis Malone).
• 2019 "Sardis: City of Croesus, Birthplace of Coinage." William Bruce, Senior Archaeologist at Sardis. Thursday, April 18, 2019 at 4:30 p.m., 255 Greer.
• 2019  "Rhapsodes and Rock Stars: the enduring Legacy of Greek Myth in Pop Music." Georgia Irby, Chair, Classics Department, the College of William and Mary.
• 2017: "Atlas, Caesar, and other Figures in 21st Century Editorial Cartoons Around the World." Tom Sienkewicz, 12:0 p.m. in Greer 255, October 5, 2017 at Virginia Wesleyan University.
• 2017: "A Classicist on the Camino," Tom Sienkewicz, 6:00 p.m. in Greer 255, October 4, 2017 at Virginia Wesleyan University.
• "O Latest Born and Loveliest Vision Far":  The 2016 Virginia Wesleyan College Symposium on The Romantics and the Classics, November 17-19, 2016. A news release about this Symposium from the Society for Classical Studies' webpage can be found here.
• Classics Department Lecture Series, Spring 2016:  Rabbi Michael Panitz, "Flavius Josephus:  Judaism for a Roman Audience." 6:00 Thursday, April 7, 2016.

Recent Scholarly Presentations and Publications
Please click the bar below to see a list of Dr. Haller's Publications.

• A peer-reviewed volume co-edited by Dr. Haller on the Classics in popular culture can be found here.
• A recent review of a work on Women in the Ancient World to which Dr. Haller has contributed can be found here.

Some Recent Conference Presentations:

• 2020 "Childe Asimov's Pilgrimage: Freedom, Fate, and Byronic Outlaw Heroes in The Stars Like Dust." Presented at the February 2020 meeting of the Classical Representations in Popular Culture area of the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association in Albuquerque, NM.

• 2019 "The Surprise Endings of Lars von Trier's 2003 Dogville and Euripides's Medea: Teaching an Unexpected Theodicy in the Modern Mythology Classroom," February 22, 2019 at the annual meeting of the Classical Representations in Popular Culture at the 2019 meeting of the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association in Albuquerque, NM.
• 2018 "'Intreat them Gently, Trayne them to that Ayre:' George Sandys's Savage Verses and Civilized Commentary at Jamestown," Classical Association of Virginia Fall Meeting, September 29, Charlottesville, VA.
• 2018 "The Metamorphoses of George Sandys: Ovid Commentary as Self-Making in Virginia's Jamestown Colony," at the 114th annual meeting of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South in Albuquerque, New Mexico, April 12, 2018, 8:30 a.m.
• 2018 "Classical Counterfactuals: George Sandys's 1632 Metamorphoses Commentary and "Good Newes from Virginia"," February, 2018, The Annual Meeting of the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association, Albuquerque, NM.
• 2017 "New England Trout and Midas in the Shadow of Monument Mountain: The Yankee Reception of Classical Mythology in Nathaniel Hawthorne's A Wonder Book," at the annual meeting of the Southwestern Popular/American Culture Association in February of 2017.

Student Evaluation of Teaching
In Evaluations, students describe my classes as:
Demanding (Mythology):

• "Brush up on your writing skills even if you have taken ENG 105 before this - you'll need it!"
• Roman History was "Fun but hard". 

Entertaining (Mythology):

• "You learn a lot and it's fun because the stories are crazy and told by a good storyteller."
• "Take the course because the class is entertaining and the writing material is exciting."
• "Prepare to be amazed, because there is very little that is not somehow connected to and/or influenced by Greek culture in the Western world, as well as other parts."
• "The instructor clearly loves his subject and you can see it in everything he does. He knows it inside and out, so whether you're taking it because you too are genuinely interested or (like me) to fill an empty space in your schedule, you'll still probably have an enjoyable experience either way."

Informative and Fun (Greek and Roman History):

• "This is a great class that provides detailed information about the Roman Empire. The film clips he shows serve as really helpful reminders for the material. He is always ready and willing to answer any questions that his students have, and he really does try to make it an interactive class."
• "I would tell them there's a lot of work but an enjoyable class" (Greek History)
• "If you need a history, take it. Other than that I am not really good at history but this is a decent class." (Greek History)
• "This is a great class for you if you are interested in Ancient history and/or sick of the same US and World history you've learned for your whole life. It's also very interesting."  (Greek History)
• "This is a fun class where you learn about Greek and Roman History, Early Virginia History, and go on exciting field trips."
• "It's a great class to take because it is interesting and fun. The professor is really nice and really loves Va. History."

Successful in Instructing Latin:

• "Great professor" 
• "Dr. Haller gives you every opportunity to succeed, so take advantage".
• "Interesting, engaging, and fun" (LATN 111-112)
• "A great, fun way to learn basic Latin, and a great way to improve vocabulary and analytical thinking skills"(LATN 111-112)
• "a lot of work but very fun" (LATN 111-112)
• "latin is not easy, so study hard" (LATN 111-112)
• "fun and you actually learned something" (LATN 111-112)
• "With an excellent professor, consistent studying and class attendance, and asking for help when you don't understand a topic you will succeed. Latin is not as scary or difficult as many people think (depending on how hard you and your professor make it)." (LATN 213, Intermediate)
• "As in any course, the professor makes the class. With good class attendance and some dedication, with or without past Latin education Haller will help you get through the rough patches in learning Latin." (LATN 213, Intermediate)
• "Latin 213 provides effective elaboration on the concepts covered in lower level Latin classes, and it introduces several new forms that are widely used in later readings." (LATN 213, Intermediate)
• "flexibility, improved understanding of grammar and rhetoric in Latin, fascinating" (LATN 306)

Positive Comments from 2018-2019 Evaluation of Teaching
CLAS 330 J.R.R. Tolkien

• The in class discussions are phenomenal. Never had I looked forward to attending a class quite as much as this one.
• This is Extremely Reading Focused. You have to read everyday and come prepared
• A very casual, discussion based course. I highly recommend it, even if you know nothing of the topic.
• Very interesting course, instructor is very knowledgeable on the subject.
• The class was extraordinarily interesting even if you do not like the author J.R.R. Tolkien. There is a little bit of everything within this class.
• The professor is an expert on the subject matter, making it much easier for students to grasp concepts they may have had little or no exposure.
• Dr. Haller is a fantastic professor; the enthusiasm that he brings to the classroom is contagious.
• Lots of interesting content Different kinds of readings, trips, videos, projects, etc. which helps everyone stay engaged
• Documents were provided, everything was organized. Feedback was very helpful
• The on-site visits to the historical locations discussed in the class offered a unique opportunity to see living history.
• Plenty on opportunity for interactive learning
• Dr. Haller's enthusiasm is (nearly) infectious. He has a truly unique of transforming a topic that could be dull and making it interesting.
• Very fascinating topic. Hard to get bored. An enjoyable balance of work. Valuable.
• The work load is heavy but the course is interesting
• The course is fast-paced, covering a lot of material in a very short amount of time. However, it is worth every minute of effort.
• Showed enthusiasm for the topic.
• Very excited about the content Engages with classroom Fair grader Adapts class content and pace occasionally, to the benefit of the class
• Please keep doing what you are doing!

CLAS 105 Classical Mythology:

• Super fun course and relatively easy if you just study the material he provides. Dr. Haller is also an awesome guy
• He was great
• Everything was done well in my opinion.
• He was fantastic.
• Fun Interesting Surprising
• fun, entertaining, and different
• Fun experience Awesome teacher Learned a lot
• Super fun course and relatively easy if you just study the material he provides. Dr. Haller is also an awesome guy
• TAKE IT! You'll enjoy it.

Latin (111, 112, 213, 305, 306):
Students comments included:

• No he is great. Kind, caring and over all one of the best teachers i have ever had!
• Dr. Haller is a fantastic professor; he has the rare ability to motivate and encourage students on an individual level.
• If you're interested in a new language, this is perfect. The professor really cares about how the student is retaining the content.
• As a student who has never taken Latin, nor knew anything about it, I fully enjoyed my experience. I would love to take another Latin course based on the great time I had with this course.
• Take it now
• Be prepared for lots and lots and lots of translating
• Really difficult
• If you are good at structure, like a formula staying the same despite the differences (the pythagorean therorem for example), then the class should be easy. I loved translating Latin to English so much that I wanted to translate my fanfic stories to Latin everytime I saw a word that I recognized from class that could be translated into Latin. Even more so when I saw a majority of the words in a line could be. I even grew upset when I saw that there was not a Minor in Latin in the Course Catalog 2018.
• Dr. Haller was very enthusiastic about the subject which then made me excited to learn what he was teaching. His enthusiasm really boost the mood of the class
• Spoken Latin. Hail Flufferoony.
• The instructor definitely shows enthusiasm for the subject
• Brings donuts, let's us do what ever we want for project
• Answered questions I had about the Translations, and English words to Latin in general. Though, as he usually does, said a lot more than I asked.
• Enthusiasm for the material is amazing and the worksheet sand review sheets we get help a lot.
• Dr. Haller is a fantastic professor; he has the rare ability to motivate and encourage students on an individual level. His enthusiasm for the subject manner is infectious.
• He was honestly one of the best teachers I have ever had. He genuinely cares for all his students and the subject he is teaching. He is very fair and kind.

Past Years:
LATN 111-112: Elementary Latin

• "In this class you don't just learn Latin. It's also history, interesting trivia, and art. Completely worth it in my opinion"
•  "This is great as Dr. Haller mentions, for help with the GREs and other higher education examinations."
• "Easy going and a lot of work."
• "A great class"
•  "I was curious to see if Latin was really for me, but now I need it for my minor."
• "Enlightening, interesting, and helpful"
• "Enthusiastic, New found love, Passionate."
• "Friendly, informative, invigorating"
• "Enjoyable, easy to learn, and easy to put into practice"
• "It's a very fun class and you learn a lot and the teacher is super awesome. without him teaching it I wouldn't take it because it is a very hard class but he makes the class easy to understand and the assignments are easy to keep up with."
• "If you want to gain a better understanding of grammar and syntax for any language, elementary Latin will be useful to you.  It will also help you gain a better appreciation for and improve your vocabulary in any European language you might be studying."

CLAS 210 Roman History (Spring 2017)

• "Dr. Haller is one of my favorite professors on the campus of VWC"  
• "Love love love this instructor. He is so passionate about the subject matter"
• "Great class, excellent professor."
• "Engaging Intriguing Fast paced"
• "Interesting learning experience, Loads of great information"
• "fun, interesting, enjoyable"
• "This class was very enjoyable. I learned a lot and feel much more informed about Roman culture. I really enjoyed the projects because it added some creativity to the class."
• "unexpectedly entertaining, fairly evaluated, excellent wide-view answers to questions on course matter Educational, productive, interesting"
• "Knowledge, interesting, creative interesting, good amount of work, well taught"
• "Dr. Haller is always a pleasure to have as a professor. Roman History is a course that will challenge and add on to what you already know about Roman History."
• "It's a great class to take." 
• "Great class, excellent professor." 
• "Dr. Haller is a great professor who is all about his students."
• "Overall, the instructor, Dr. Haller, was great and very knowledgeable of the topic. He came to class with a lot of enthusiasm and taught us every day, even on Mondays when we were all tired." 
• "Be prepared for a lot of work. There is going to be a lot of information and very confusing names." 
• "This course is very fun and easy for people who are not that great at studying. The professor is very helpful when you are struggling as well."
• "It's the most fun I've ever had in a history course, while simultaneously being one of the most informative."

CLAS 360 Classical Virginia (Winter Session, January 2017)

• "Enlightened, Interesting, Informed"
• "Easy, interesting, and note-taking!"
• "Fast paced, interesting, fun"
• "fast paced trips are fun; enjoyable class"
• "Challenging and rigorous. It felt like a high speed chase through history."
• "The course was very interesting. It required a lot of reading and preparation, but was very fun. I enjoyed learning different aspects of history that still effect the US today."
• "Entertaining, information-packed, fun"
• "fun, interesting, He was very thorough in the subject matter."
• "very informational, fun, interesting"
• "This class made you think a lot, had very interesting field trips, and was challenging."
• "Very fun class and great teaching style!"
• "Historical, well informed, and fantastic."
• "Excellent, Helpful and useful, beneficial"

Overall Teaching Effectiveness: College of William and Mary
The following numbers are my ratings of overall teaching effectiveness at the College of William and Mary in Spring 2006.  Students were asked to rank the instructor on the following scale:  1=Poor, 2=Fair, 3=Good, 4=Very Good, 5=Excel.

Class	My mean overall teaching effectiveness	Mean overall teaching effectiveness for all classes using the same evaluation form in the classics department at William and Mary (all tenured and visiting faculty included)
Roman Civilization (CLCV 208-01)	4.52	4.21
Latin 202-01:  Intro Latin Poetry (Ars Amatoria, Selections; Metamorphoses Book 1)	4.62/5	4.81
Latin 202-02:  Intro Latin Poetry (Ars Amatoria, Selections; Metamorphoses Book 1)	4.42/5	4.81

Overall Teaching Effectiveness: University of Pittsburgh
The chart below contains a representative sample of my teaching evaluations from Latin classes taught at the University of Pittsburgh (first and second semesters).  The scale is the same five point scale used at William and Mary.  Rankings for semesters not included did not differ significantly from those listed below. The numerical evaluations and following comments come from the same sets of evaluations, with the exception of the inclusion among the comments of excerpts from one semester in which a qualitative questionnaire was given to students.
Level of difficulty:  On the survey of class difficulty for the following classes ("Compared to other courses at the same level, the amount of work I did was:"), students consistently ranked the course as "about the same as in most courses I've taken" or higher.  The majority ranked the level of difficulty as "somewhat more" or "much more" than most courses they had taken.  

Class	My Overall Teaching Effectiveness (Class Mean)	School Mean
Latin: First Semester (1999)	4.69	3.87
Latin: First Semester (2000)	4.76	3.87
Latin:  Second Semester (2001)	5.00	3.87
Latin:  Second Semester (2002)	5.00	3.87
Latin:  Second Semester (2003)	4.85	3.87

II.  Sample Student Comments from Latin I and II (Pittsburgh)

• "He was always well-prepared to teach and was always organized. Always encouraged us to participate w/o making us feel uncomfortable."
• "Ben made very good study guides, thorough handouts, and was very enthusiastic and patient with his instruction."
• "He is great at providing feedback, clarifying areas with which students have trouble, very gentle in correcting mistakes, and gets homeworks back quicker than most profs."
• "I'm glad I took this class with Ben.  I don't think I would have done as well if anyone else had taught the class."
• "He holds an abundance of patience and respect for his class and is willing to go out of his way to help ensure they succeed."
• "Instructor was encouraging, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable--he has a high motivational capacity."
• "Shared knowledge rather than just presenting it. Great learning atmosphere. Kept class on track while allowing expression of personality from students."
• "He is very friendly and a wonderful teacher.  He is nice to the students, does a lot to make sure we learn and understand.  His games are fun and educational.  He seems to honestly care about us and how we do.  A+++!  All-round Great!"
• "Ben, you were able to force Wheelock's Latin Book into my head, 2 days a week in 8 months. Incredible.  I couldn't have done it without handouts, review sheets, notecards, your sense of humor.  Quizzes helpful also."
• "One of the best instructors I have ever had.  Very clear teacher who maintained a fun and interesting class."