About Sarah F. Derbew

I am a writer, teacher, and advocate for ancient African Studies.

In my work, I explore literary representations of black people in ancient Greece across genres such as ancient Greek tragedy, historiography, satire, and the novel. I also examine artistic renderings of black people in Greek antiquity—considering the objects themselves and the museums in which they live. My interests extend all the way to the twenty-first century; I’ve written about the reception of Greco-Roman antiquity in Africa and the African diaspora.

I earned my PhD in Classics from Yale University and was a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. Now, I am an Assistant Professor of Classics at Stanford University, affiliated with the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity and the Center for African Studies.

In 2022, I published my first book, titled Untangling Blackness in Greek Antiquity (Cambridge University Press). In this book, I traced the role of black people in ancient Greek literature and art while critiquing contemporary prejudicial thinking about Greek antiquity. I recently finished co-editing a volume entitled Classics and Race: A Historical Reader with Dr. Daniel Orrells and Dr. Phiroze Vasunia (April 2025, UCL Press). My current research projects explore the intersections between Greek and African antiquity, focusing on the ancient empire of Aksum. My expertise also includes teaching courses about Black Classics and decolonial African archives in the United States and Kenya.