BU Humanists at Work: Zsuzsanna Várhelyi, Associate Professor of Classics
Associate Professor of Classics Zsuzsanna Várhelyi first became interested in history when she found herself in the middle of it. When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, Várhelyi was living in communist Hungary, and she recognized the impact of the moment. “It really brought home how much people’s lives are shaped by history,” she says, “It was a very exciting time.” When the historical archives opened up, Várhelyi became increasingly fascinated with the new information available about time under communist rule. This interest in history led Várhelyi to major in both history and English while in college, where she discovered a particular love for ancient Rome. “Because of how the coursework was structured, I started in the ancient world…I guess I never got beyond that,” she jokes. Fascinated by the number of texts that survived the Roman Empire and the range of thought they represent, Várhelyi went on to earn her doctorate in history from Columbia University. Since then, Várhelyi has looked into such topics as the good life and trauma in ancient Rome.
What does it mean to lead a good life? That’s one of the questions Várhelyi pushes students to ask, looking back to the ancient world for possible answers. For the past five years, she has taught a class students refer to as “the happiness class,” but Várhelyi clarifies that “It is not a happiness class—It’s a good life class.” The course uses texts from ancient thinkers to consider questions about what people can do today to lead a life that won’t bring suffering to themselves or to others. Várhelyi was inspired by the recent surge of interest in good living and the different influences affecting the topic, noting that “I signed up for a few listservs about good life areas, and the amount of junk I gather around how to be more productive is absolutely outrageous.” In approaching these questions from a humanistic angle, Várhelyi hopes to combat today’s more superficial views of what it means to live a good life. Várhelyi also recognizes the specific challenges students face today. “I understand why you might say, like, why bother? But I think that’s also something we have to think about: what your life would be like if your motto is, ‘why bother.’”
Várelhyi also finds value in bringing similar questions about quality of life into scholarly discussions of the ancient world, engaging with the newer field of trauma studies. “Greece and Rome were valorized for being so successful militarily. It’s a very particular reading of the past,” Várhelyi acknowledges. “The idea that soldiers could be traumatized in the ancient world at first was unacceptable to a number of people,” says Várhelyi. While she doesn’t attempt to diagnose people from historical eras, Várhelyi says she thinks, “it does entail deeply humanist commitment to human flourishing to ask these questions.” Wanting a fuller picture of the different impacts of trauma, Várhelyi received a Master’s degree from the BU School of Social Work in the trauma specialization while a professor. “Trauma is a very complex process, and there’s so many things we don’t know about humans, despite the fact that we know a lot,” she says . Using this new knowledge, Várhelyi saw the many unique ways trauma studies could contribute to conversations about both ancient Rome and the way we process information and experiences in the modern day.
“It’s not that easy to be a human,” Várhelyi says, “And in particular, it doesn’t seem to be that easy at this particular historical moment.” She hopes to help the BU community approach these challenges as she begins her three-and-a-half-year appointment to the National Endowment for the Humanities Distinguished Teaching Professorship this January, and she has big plans to expand the reach of the humanities at BU. “It’s not just the humanities, or people in the humanities who struggle with some of these questions. And it’s nice to see that, in fact, these questions can take us to places that might seem like politics, or consulting, or healthcare,” says Várhelyi. Drawing on the past public humanities undergraduate fellowship program, Várheyi hopes to expand the number of internships across fields and host events that bring people together to tackle big questions about life’s purpose. “The last time I checked, there’s no way to check out from being human yet,” she says, “If these questions don’t hit you at 18, they might hit you at 28 or 38.”
These new initiatives will promote community both within the humanities and encourage people outside of the humanities to engage with humanistic questions in new ways. Várhelyi identifies her colleagues and broader scholarly community as helping her to grow in her thinking, and she hopes to bring that type of community to a more public setting. “I feel that one of the obligations of the NEH professor is to keep the fire alive and gather people around the fire and say, ‘Okay, let’s see how we can best do this,’” Várhelyi reflects. In bringing people together, Várhelyi hopes to nudge all of us one step closer to understanding the good life.