My Bio - Dr. Milena Anfosso

Back in the northern village of Coazzolo, at the age of six, it took me only a few days to realize that I was not too fond of school— also, did I mention the cold? Since I could already read and write in both Italian and French and count, I was utterly bored. The teachers were screaming at me all the time—one even shredded a sheet of my notebook into pieces because I had started filling the page with colorful butterflies.

I started studying ancient Greek at such a young age because Greek civilization has always fascinated me. As I mentioned, I was raised in a small rural village in Calabria, a unique region in Italy because of its diverse historical and linguistic heritage, which derives directly, on the one hand, from Magna Graecia and the Byzantine Empire and, on the other hand, from the period of Roman domination, with Arabic, Norman, and Spanish influences. The dialect my grandparents spoke was the last breath of the Ancient Greeks who colonized Southern Italy centuries before, and I was moved by the desire to penetrate deeply into the archaic sounds of this language. Subsequently, my research pursuits have been focused on language contact phenomena involving ancient Greek and other languages since my undergraduate studies.

I’ve never been a “real classicist,” though. During my B.A., I was captivated by the allure of Historical Linguistics, a fascination ignited by Professor Vittoria Dolcetti Corazza. Serving as my thesis advisor for "La versione gotica di Neemia V, 13–18; VI, 14–19; VII, 1–3" [The Gothic Version of Nehemiah 5:13–18; 6:14–19; 7:1–3], she guided me as I explored the linguistic strategies employed in translating a Bible passage from Ancient Greek into Gothic. Mind-blowing!

Then, at the beginning of my Ph.D. in Historical Linguistics at Sorbonne University, Paris, following the lead of my advisor, Professor Markus Egetmeyer, I got interested in the relationships between Ancient Greek and a fragmentary language spoken in Anatolia, Phrygian. Phrygian was an Indo-European language cognate of Greek that was spoken in central Anatolia until at least the 3rd century CE. The ancestors of the Greeks and the Phrygians shared a common prehistory in the Balkans until Phrygian groups began their migration to Central Anatolia around the 12th century BCE. Despite this linguistic closeness, the historical trajectories of Greeks and Phrygians diverged significantly, leading the Greeks by the 5th century BCE to increasingly view the Phrygians as the epitome of the barbarian slave stereotype. Recognizing that the intricate dynamics between these two populations had not been thoroughly examined from a sociolinguistic standpoint, I was compelled to investigate further. This was the starting point for my doctoral dissertation entitled "Problèmes linguistiques du rapport entre Grec(s) et Phrygien(s)" ["Linguistic Problems of the Relationship between Greek(s) and Phrygian(s)"], which was defended with the highest honors (“avec les félicitations du Jury”) at Sorbonne University in 2019 in front of an International Committee.

Subsequently, as a Research Fellow (2020—2021) and Research Associate (2021—2023) at Harvard University’s Center for Hellenic Studies, I have been developing the results of a chapter of my dissertation to produce my first monograph in English entitled “Entwining Greek with Asian Speech.” Studies on Timotheus of Miletus’ Persians. My monograph explores the linguistic portrayal of the exotic characters in Timotheus’ Persians (late 5th century BCE) in connection with their sociolinguistic and cultural background. You can find more information about this ongoing project here. The Bogliasco Foundation (New York-Genoa) has also recently funded this project, so I will spend a residency at the Study Center in Bogliasco to work on it in 2025.

During my decennial experience as an international scholar, I have written a distinguished series of scholarly articles (both published and in press – you can read them here), and I have delivered many presentations of my research at prestigious conferences all over Europe and the United States, several times as “invited speaker” — a distinction that testifies to my high standing in the fields of Historical Linguistics, the Classics, and Folklore (you can check them out here).

It was during the pandemic that my passion for creative writing reignited. I had the chance to deepen my theoretical knowledge of creative writing techniques and to put them into practice in English, primarily thanks to the screenwriter Anna Elizabeth James (who wrote, among others, the movie “Deadly Illusions,” the most-watched film on Netflix globally on its opening weekend in March 2021) and the award-winning director Jonny Zeller. In this context, I have started developing a project for a novel inspired by the dark side of academia, and I am currently in the editing phase of a YA Sci-Fi novel in English that I co-authored with the esteemed Italian writer Elisabetta Formisano.

After a promising start in Academia, I've chosen a path that partially diverges from traditional roles. It's not that I disdain Academia; on the contrary, it has shaped who I am and the skills I possess. Yet, my career continues to evolve, and I am constantly looking for opportunities to learn and grow in unexpected places. That is why, in 2022, I decided to launch my own business (you can check my services here). This venture not only allowed me to handpick projects that resonated with my interests but also marked the beginning of a profound journey of self-discovery, with full respect for my physical and mental health. This is very important since many hospitalizations, surgeries, and pain have marked these last few years.