Sofía Torallas Tovar headshot
Distinguish Visiting Professor

Sofía Torallas Tovar

Affiliation

Historical Studies

Field of Study

Classics, Papyrology, Ancient Mediterranean, Greco-Roman Egypt

Home Institution

Institute for Advanced Study

Sofía Torallas Tovar obtained her PhD is in Classics, awarded in 1995 by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) for her thesis on the “Book on Dreams by Philo of Alexandria.” Her primary research interests are papyrology, Graeco-Roman Egypt, and the history of early Christianity in Egypt. Since 2002 she has also served as the curator of the papyrological collections at the Abbey of Montserrat (Barcelona). In addition to her contributions to fields such as administration of Roman Egypt, language contact in the Mediterranean and dreams in Antiquity, Torallas Tovar has authored many editions of papyri. She is currently engaged in an edition of a papyrus roll containing Athanasius’s Letter to Dracontius, the earliest extant witness to Athanasius’s works, and a critical edition of the Coptic versions of the Gospel of Mark in collaboration with Anne Boud’hors (IRHT Paris). She has also collaborated with the Swiss Institute in Cairo, in the edition of the Greek and Coptic ostraca excavated in Aswan. Over the past nine years, she has collaborated with Christopher Faraone on the project “Transmission of Magical Knowledge,” dedicated to the publication of Greco-Egyptian magical papyri. Their work was recently recognized with the Goodwin Award of Merit from the Society of Classical Studies (USA).

Dates at IAS

Distinguished Visiting Professor
School of Historical Studies

Degrees

Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Ph.D.
1995
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
B.A./M.A.
1991

Honors

2021-2022
Fellow, Wissenschaftskolleg, Berlin
2019-
Membro del Collegio dei docenti in qualità di "Personale non Accademico dipendente di altri enti e personale docente di università Straniere", La Sapienza, Roma
2023
C.J. Goodwin Award of Merit, Society of Classical Studies
2020
Member Board of Trustees, Fundación Pastor de Estudios Clásicos, Madrid
2004
Académica Correspondiente, Reial Academia de Bones Lletres de Barcelona

Appointments

University of Chicago
2014–2024
Professor, Departments of Classics, and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations; Voting member, Oriental Institute; Associated faculty member, Divinity School
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid
2006–2014
Científico Titular, Instituto de Lenguas y Culturas del Mediterráneo y Oriente Próximo, Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales