Ralph Hexter

Ralph Jay Hexter (born 1952) is a distinguished professor of classics and comparative literature^[1] at the University of California, Davis. Previously, he served as the fifth president of Hampshire College.^[2][3][4]

Ralph J. Hexter
Hexter at the Gala Event in 2012 celebrating 50 years of achievement at the UC Davis College of Engineering
Acting Chancellor University of California, Davis
In office April 27, 2016 – February 23, 2017
Preceded by	Linda Katehi
Succeeded by	Gary S. May
5th President of Hampshire College
In office 2005–2010
Preceded by	Gregory S. Prince, Jr.
Succeeded by	Jonathan Lash Marlene Gerber Fried (interim)
Personal details
Born	(1952-08-25) August 25, 1952 (age 72)
Nationality	American
Spouse	Manfred Kollmeier ​ (after 2007)​
Education	Harvard University (BA) Corpus Christi College, Oxford (MA) Yale University (MPhil, PhD)
Scientific career
Fields	Classical studies Classical literature
Thesis	Medieval school commentaries on ovid's "ars amatoria," "epistulae ex ponto," and "epistulae heroidum" (1982)

Education

Hexter received an A.B. in English literature from Harvard College in 1974. He then studied in England, where he earned a B.A. and M.A. in classics and modern languages at Corpus Christi College, Oxford in 1977 and 1982, respectively. He also earned an M.Phil. and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Yale University in 1979 and 1982, respectively. Hexter subsequently taught in the classics department at Yale from 1981 to 1991.^[2][3]

Career

Hexter taught classics and comparative literature at the University of Colorado at Boulder and at Yale University.^[2][3] He was also the Executive Dean of Letters and Science and Dean of Arts and Humanities at the University of California, Berkeley.^[2][3] Hexter assumed the Hampshire College presidency on August 1, 2005, a post he relinquished on December 31, 2010.^[3]

Hexter has been involved with the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts, Phi Beta Kappa, the American Philological Association, and the National Conference for Community and Justice.^[3]

On August 2, 2010, Hexter announced his resignation as president of Hampshire.^[5][6] On August 20, Hampshire College announced that Marlene Gerber Fried would serve as acting president and that Hexter would be on sabbatical beginning on September 1.^[7]

On November 22, 2010, it was announced that Ralph Hexter would be the next Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor at the University of California, Davis, effective January 1, 2011.^[8] His faculty title is Distinguished Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature.

Personal life

Hexter is openly gay.^[9][10] He was among the founding members of LGBTQ Presidents in Higher Education. Hexter married his longtime partner, Manfred Kollmeier, in 2007.^[11]

Bibliography

• Equivocal Oaths and Ordeals in Medieval Literature, by Ralph J. Hexter, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1975.
• Ovid and Medieval Schooling: Studies in Medieval School Commentaries on Ovid's Ars Amatoria, Epistulae ex Ponto, and Epistulae Heroidum, by Ralph J. Hexter, Munich: Arbeo-Gesellschaft, 1986.
• Innovations of Antiquity, edited by Ralph Hexter and Daniel Selden, New York: Routledge, 1992.
• A Guide to the Odyssey: A Commentary on the English Translation of Robert Fitzgerald, by Ralph J. Hexter, New York: Vintage Books, 1993.
• The Faith of Achates: Finding Aeneas' Other, by Ralph J. Hexter, Berkeley, CA: Doe Library, University of California, 1997.
• The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Latin Literature, edited by Ralph J. Hexter and David Townsend. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
• Appendix Ovidiana: Latin Texts Ascribed to Ovid in the Middle Ages, edited by Ralph Hexter, Larua Pfuntner, and Justin Haynes. Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 62. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2020.