Victor Bers | |
Birth Date: | 30 August 1944 |
Birth Place: | Providence, Rhode Island, U.S. |
Education: | University of Chicago (AB) New College, Oxford (BA) Harvard University (PhD) |
Years Active: | 1972–2018 |
Father: | Lipman Bers |
Victor Bers (born August 30, 1944) is an American philologist and classicist. He serves as Professor Emeritus of Classics at Yale University,[1] where he taught since 1972 before retiring in 2018.[2] Prior to retiring, he served as a Director of the American Philological Association (now the Society for Classical Studies).[3] Bers is the son of mathematician Lipman Bers.[4]
Bers was born on August 30, 1944, in Providence, Rhode Island; he is the son of the mathematician Lipman Bers, who created the theory of pseudoanalytic functions.[5]
Bers was educated at Albert Leonard Junior High School[6] and New Rochelle High School. He matriculated at the University of Chicago, where he would graduate with a bachelor's degree with distinction. Afterwards, he attained a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship to study at New College, Oxford, where he would obtain a second degree.[7] In 1972, he completed studies for his Doctor of Philosophy at Harvard University. His dissertation was entitled "Enallage and Greek Style."[8] That same year, he joined the faculty of Yale University.
In 1975, Bers was appointed a fellow at Yale. He would spend the majority of his career at the university, becoming a full-time professor in 1989.[9] In 1999, he was named a Director of the American Philological Association.[10]