About

Peter Kelly is an Assistant Professor of Classics at Princeton University, having joined the department in September 2022. He is a native of Galway in the west of Ireland and received his PhD in Classics from the University of Galway, where he later became a lecturer. Kelly has also held positions in the Classics department at the University of Oregon and the Honors College at Oregon State. His research explores the impact of Greek philosophy on Latin literature, with a focus on how Plato’s philosophy influences Latin poetry, particularly that of Ovid. His recently completed monograph, Ovid’s Platonic Forms, is under review with Cambridge University Press. Kelly has published articles and chapters on this topic, including in Classical Quarterly. He is interested in concepts of selfhood in the ancient world, especially at the intersection of philosophical and literary discourses. Currently, he is working on a collected volume on ekphrasis, which involves collaboration with experts on the ancient and modern use of this literary device and contemporary poets. This project stems from a conference held jointly between Galway and Durham Universities. Kelly also teaches courses on Greek and Latin literature, their reception in visual art and 20th-century European theatre, and the history of science. At Princeton, he further explores the relationship between the ancient and modern and the status of Classics, incorporating game-based pedagogies such as Reacting to the Past.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Law
• Geography
• Philosophy
• History
• Linguistics
• Neuroscience
• Developmental psychology
• Psychology
• Archaeology

Selected publications

• Legal Language in the Age of Globalization: Prospects and Dilemmas

  University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  To appreciate the significance of the preceding articles, it is necessary to consider their implications in a broad context. As territorial borders become more and more permeable to the movements of capital, and as advanced technology joins even the most remote geographical areas, people throughout the world face new provocations and opportunities. Fears of cultural obliteration are being met with revitalized expressions of resistance. In the new global landscape, language plays a paramount role. The putative universality of English, for example, parallels the multiplication of vernacular idioms evolving as part of attempts to preserve cultural integrity. Yet, the counterpoint between cultural homogenization and differentiation also heightens the need for impartial systems of communication. It is in this respect that the language of law and legal scholarship becomes an indispensable resource. As the contributions in this Symposium make resoundingly clear, legal language, with its pauses, sounds, elisions, and pronouncements, is critical to the maintenance of social divisions. Its reconstitution should be equally central to the building of connections between disparate cultures.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Building Walls: Excluding Latin People in the United States - Author Meets Critics

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Kein Spielraum für Fehler. Bildungs- und Berufserfolge benachteiligter Kinder von Immigranten

  Bildung und Gesellschaft · 2022-01-01

  book-chapterOpen accessSenior author

  Die Autoren geben einen Überblick über die Literatur zur segmentierten Assimilation und anderen Konzepten der Adaptation der zweiten Generation von Einwandererfamilien, skizzieren den Theorierahmen, der im Laufe der Langzeitstudie „Children of Immigrants“ entwickelt wurde und präsentieren Ergebnisse aus deren dritter Befragung in Südflorida bezogen auf unterschiedliche Hypothesen. Die Mehrheit der jungen Menschen der zweiten Generation macht Fortschritte in Bildung und Beruf, aber eine signifikante Minderheit ist „abgehängt“. Die Verteilung dieser letzteren Gruppe auf die Ursprungsnationalitäten ist keineswegs zufällig, sondern entspricht recht genau den Vorhersagen, die sich aufgrund des „Humankapitals“ ihrer Eltern, des Familientyps und der Art, wie sie in die US-amerikanische Gesellschaft aufgenommen wurden, machen lassen. Die jungen Menschen der zweiten Generation, seien sie erfolgreich oder nicht, erlernen alle die englische Sprache und die amerikanische Kultur, aber es ist ein großer Unterschied, ob sie sich in die Mittelschicht oder in die von ethnischen Minderheiten bestimmte Bevölkerungsschicht am unteren Ende der Gesellschaft integrieren. Ethnographische Erzählungen/Fallbeispiele/Forschung sind/ist geeignet, die quantitativen Ergebnisse ins rechte Licht zu rücken und die Realitäten der segmentieren Assimilation in die US-Gesellschaft zu verdeutlichen.

  PublisherDOI

• Conclusion. Assimilation through Transnationalism: A Theoretical Synthesis

  Berghahn Books · 2022

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Political Science
  • Linguistics
  PublisherDOI

• From Empire to Tompkins Square: Celebrating the Legacy of Janet Abu‐Lughod

  Sociological Forum · 2021

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Sociology
  • Law

  This essay is part of a special section entitled “Legacies of Sociology’s Past." My work addresses the contributions of Janet Abu‐Lughod.

  PublisherDOI

• Kein Spielraum für Fehler. Bildungs- und Berufserfolge benachteiligter Kinder von Immigranten

  2021-01-01

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• The integration paradox: contrasting patterns in adaptation among immigrant children in Central New Jersey

  Routledge eBooks · 2020

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Geography
  • History
  • Developmental psychology

  I report findings from research conducted among immigrant children and children of immigrants in Princeton and Trenton, New Jersey—including unaccompanied minors and those protected by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). On the basis of participant observation and extended interviews, I investigate the role played by human and financial resources, advocacy organizations, kin and friendship networks, and religiosity in the capacity of young people to resist downward mobility. Demographic factors and class-related dynamics prove to be decisive factors shaping the self-image of immigrant children. The paper provides a theoretical framework accounting for variations in young people's power to adjust in hostile environments.

  PublisherDOI

• Preface

  2020-12-01

  book-chapterSenior author

  The set of papers included in this Special Issue were presented originally at a conference in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge, Mass. in April 2017. The editors are indebted to the then President of the Academy, Jonathan Fanton, and to its staff for steady support for this initial conference. Its title was “Children of Immigrants in New Places of Destination”.

  PublisherDOI

• Art in the Lives of Immigrant Communities in the United States

  Rutgers University Press eBooks · 2019-09-03 · 14 citations

  book1st authorCorresponding

  Art in the Lives of Immigrant Communities in the United States is the first book to provide a comprehensive and lively analysis of the contributions of artists from America's newest immigrant communities--Africa, the Middle East, China, India, Southeast Asia, Central America, and Mexico. Adding significantly to our understanding of both the arts and immigration, multidisciplinary scholars explore tensions that artists face in forging careers in a new world and navigating between their home communities and the larger society. They address the art forms that these modern settlers bring with them; show how poets, musicians, playwrights, and visual artists adapt traditional forms to new environments; and consider the ways in which the communities' young people integrate their own traditions and concerns into contemporary expression.

  PublisherDOI

• Reclaiming the black and Asian journeys

  2019-05-08

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  In this chapter, I review vital concepts in immigration, showing that mode of incorporation and social class offer a more solid explanation for the outcomes of migration than culture or individual choice. I further maintain that a proper understanding of immigration must include a reassessment of the African American and Asian American experiences. Research on African Americans and studies of immigration have bifurcated over time with the former focusing on poverty and social dysfunction and the latter emphasizing assimilation and upward mobility. That schism makes it appear as if there were no connections between the two fields of inquiry. The opposite is true. Reclaiming the black experience is essential to understand immigration, race, and ethnicity. Equally relevant is a fresh look at the Asian journey. Interpretations focusing on cultural superiority and “model minorities” widen unfavorable comparisons with African Americans. Nevertheless, as shown in this chapter, a review of historical facts reveals that causes other than culture bear greater explanatory power in attempts to explain immigrant efficacy. Among them is a shared class position in countries of origin that makes it more likely for immigrants, including those from Asia, to attain high levels of social and economic mobility in adopted countries.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Alejandro Portes

  21 shared

• Donald W. Light

  4 shared

• William Haller

  4 shared

• Douglas S. Massey

  Princeton University

  2 shared

• Angela S. García

  2 shared

• Lisa Konczal

  2 shared

• Laura R. Woliver

  1 shared

• Paul DiMaggio

  1 shared

Awards & honors

• Special Grant from Humanities Council