James J. O'Donnell

Professor James J. O'Donnell
Professor of Classical Studies
Vice Provost for Information Systems and Computing
3401 Walnut Street, Suite 230A
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6228
Voice: 215-898-1787
FAX: 215-573-2037
Internet: provost@georgetown.edu

From fall 1996, faculty master of Hill College House and believed to be the only member of the Residential Faculty Council with a town in Texas named after him (we make, praeteritionally, no mention of the street in Madrid or in San Juan), or an article in WIRED quoting him, though his proximate ancestors actually hail from Castlegregory on the Dingle peninsula. He has shaken hands with the occasional president and conversed with sages, but he grew up living next door to a rocket scientist at White Sands Missile Range and if you look at the map you can find Hawk Street at the upper left. Like Mr. Tolkien's hobbits, he is fond of stories he's already heard, and heard some jolly ones from his father at White Sands long ago. Only someone with a rare and fine knowledge of the history of the O'Donnell clan would know why this relatively famous landmark appears on this page.

Press clippings:

Professional History


1972 A.B. Princeton (Latin Salutatorian)
1972-73 studied at University College (Dublin)
1975 Ph.D. Yale
1975-76 Lecturer with rank of assistant professor of Latin, Bryn Mawr College
1976-77 Assistant Professor of Greek and Latin, The Catholic University of America
1977-81 Assistant Professor of Classics, Cornell University
1981-2002 Associate Professor to Professor of Classical Studies, University of Pennsylvania
1996-2002 Vice Provost, Information Systems and Computing, University of Pennsylvania

At Penn, he regularly teaches courses on post-classical and classical Latin, the cultural history of late antiquity, the interplay of technology and culture from antiquity to the present, and other topics.