The Department of Classics has expanded this year with the addition of Professor of Classics James Fitzgerald, a noted scholar of Sanskrit, to its faculty roster. Prior to his appointment at Brown, Fitzgerald was a professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee, where he also served as associate department head. He received his B.A. in civilizational studies as well as his M.A. and Ph.D. in Sanskrit studies from the University of Chicago.
In an interview with The Herald, Fitzgerald said that though he is currently on leave until July 2008, he is excited about the prospect of teaching "typical" Brown students and is looking forward to interacting with them.
Fitzgerald is currently working on a new English translation of the Mahabharata - in his words, "the single most important text" of Hinduism. An epic poem of over 90,000 verses, this immense work has so far been translated into English only based on older editions. Fitzgerald is working with a project to translate the ancient text from what is known as the Critical Edition of the Mahabharata - a compilation produced between 1919 and 1966 that is used in current studies of the text. The project was started by University of Chicago Indologist J. A. B. van Buitenen and, after a 20-year hiatus following van Buitenen's death, is now being continued by Fitzgerald and two other Sanskrit experts. Fitzgerald said the translation will present the text in prose - as opposed to in the original verse - because of the difficulty of conveying the meaning of the Mahabharata in English verse.
Asked about his transition from a religious studies department to classics, Fitzgerald said he is happy about the move, citing his undergraduate training in language studies. He added that he is glad to have the opportunity to be teaching and working in Sanskrit. Fitzgerald was not certain about what courses he might be teaching next fall but he mentioned "The Ancient Indian Epic" and SANS 0100: "Elementary Sanskrit" as possibilities.
