Rate My Professor Charles Pazdernik

Charles Pazdernik serves as Professor and Chair of the Department of Classics at Grand Valley State University. He received his BA from Cornell University, MPhil from the University of Oxford, and both MA and PhD from Princeton University. His academic interests center on Greco-Roman political and legal history, late antiquity, and classical historiography. Throughout his career at GVSU, Pazdernik has demonstrated exceptional leadership, having served two terms as department chair from 2008 to 2014 and currently holding the position again. He is an elected representative on the Executive Committee of the University Academic Senate for multiple terms: 2009-2014, 2016-2025, and 2026-2029. Additionally, he maintains Full Graduate Faculty standing and acts as an Inclusion Advocate.

Pazdernik's prolific scholarship includes serving as editor for Book XII, The Codex of Justinian: A New Annotated Translation, with Parallel Latin and Greek Text (Cambridge University Press). Notable publications encompass "Chosroes as spectator in Procopius’ Wars" in Mélanges James Howard-Johnston (Travaux & mémoires 26, recent), "Breaking silence in the historiography of Procopius of Caesarea" in Byzantinische Zeitschrift, "Nicias' letter to the Athenians and their response (Thucydides 7.11-16)" in Classical Philology, "The Great Emperor": A motif in Procopius of Caesarea's Wars in Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies, "Libertas and “mixed marriages” in late antiquity: Law, labor, and politics in Justinianic reform legislation" in Ancient Law, Ancient Society (University of Michigan Press), "Reinventing Theodoric in Procopius' Gothic War" in Procopius of Caesarea: Literary and Historical Approaches (Routledge), and "Justinianic ideology and the power of the past" in The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian (Cambridge University Press). His work has appeared in leading venues such as Transactions of the American Philological Association and Classical Antiquity. Pazdernik has been recognized with the Pew Teaching Excellence Award in 2005, a Junior Fellowship at Harvard University's Center for Hellenic Studies in 2005-2006, the Faculty of Distinction Award by the GVSU Circle of Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Honor Society in 2011-2012, victory in the GVSU Life Raft Debate representing Classics in February 2011, selection for the GVSU Last Lecture in November 2014, and delivery of a Wheelhouse Talk at the GVSU Hauenstein Center in September 2015.