Program in Science, Technology and Society

Benjamin Driver is a PhD candidate in the department of classics at Brown University writing a dissertation which is for now cumbersomely entitled "Per Fraudem Terram Movere: Encomium, Catasterism, and Apotheosis via Intertextuality in the Copernican Revolution." The dissertation is a literary history covering the years 1460-1810 that investigates how panegyrical peritexts (mostly dedicatory epistles and poems) of Latin astronomical treatises lent credence to new discoveries by allusively coöpting classical authorities. In his free time he enjoys reading, hiking, looking at birds, and playing video games.