Bram ten Berge teaches language, history and classical civilization classes across the classics and history curricula. He joined the Hope faculty in 2017 after a year as Mellon Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at Kalamazoo College.

Bram’s main research interests are in Roman history and historiography. His first book, Writing Imperial History: Tacitus from Agricola to Annales (2023), explores the oeuvre of the Roman historian Tacitus (ca. AD 55–120), showing how the historical vision articulated in his earlier texts persists in his later ones and how he used the former as sources for the latter.

Bram’s ongoing projects include a co-edited volume to be titled Tacitus and the Incomplete, which explores gaps, omissions and lost portions in Tacitus’ oeuvre, and a co-edited volume on envy in the Roman world.

As part of his postgraduate training, Bram did the Regular Year Program at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, and he has worked on archaeological projects in England, Greece and Italy.

AREAS OF Expertise

• Latin prose literature, especially historiography, of the Late Republican and Early Imperial periods (ca. 100 BC–AD 150)
• Tacitus (early imperial Roman historian, ca. AD 55–120)
• Roman history

EDUCATION

• Ph.D., classics, University of Michigan, 2016
• Ancient History Graduate Certificate, Interdepartmental Program in Greek and Roman History (IPGRH), University of Michigan, 2013
• B.A., classics, University of Mississippi, 2009

Selected HONORS

• State Vice President of the Year, Classical Association of the Middle, West and South, 2020–2021
• Boyd McWorther Scholar–Athlete of the Year award (awarded to the top male scholar-athlete across all sports in the Southeastern Conference), 2009

Selected Publications

• Tacitus and the Incomplete, co-edited with Panayiotis Christoforou, University of Michigan Press, forthcoming
• “Aulus Cremutius Cordus,” in Trends in Classics – Greek and Roman Humanities Encyclopedia (GROH), De Gruyter, 2025
• “Annals 4,” in The Oxford Critical Guide to Tacitus, edited by S. Bartera and K.E. Shannon-Henderson, Oxford University Press, 2025
• “Tacitus’ Use of Columella’s De re rustica,” Histos, 2024
• Writing Imperial History: Tacitus from Agricola to Annales, University of Michigan Press, 2023
• Eleven entries in The Tacitus Encyclopedia (edited by V. Pagán), Wiley, 2023
• “Thinking About Rome,” Review-Discussion of Nils Steffensen. Nachdenken über Literarische Konstruktionen der römischen Geschichte in der Formierungsphase des Principats (Franz Steiner Verlag, 2018), Histos, 2020
• “Epitomizing Civil War: Florus on the Late Republican Civil Wars,” in The Historiography of Late Republican Civil War (edited by C. Lange and F. Vervaet), Brill, 2019
• “Sacred Groves in Herodotus’ Histories: A Significant Parallel,” Mnemosyne, 2016
• “Dreams in Cicero’s De Divinatione: Philosophical Tradition and Education,” Archiv für Religionsgeschichte, 2014

Outside the College

Bram loves traveling and exploring new places and cultures, hiking, playing tennis, and spending time with his family and friends.