Robert Ketterer received a B.A. from Lawrence University and the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Classical Studies from the University of Michigan. He taught at Iowa from 1988 to 2022.

Professor Ketterer's research interest is in Greek and Roman drama, and its reception in the classical tradition, with a special focus on 17th- and 18th-century Italian opera. Publications include his monograph, Ancient Rome in Early Opera (University of Illinois Press, 2009), articles in Music & Letters, Cambridge Opera Journal, International Journal of the Classical Tradition, and book chapters and encyclopedia essays on early-modern operas and the classical tradition. He is joint author with Jon Solomon of the Oxford Bibliography Online article “Classics and Opera.” Ketterer received the 2013 Outreach Award from the Society for Classical Studies for organizing the conference “Re-Creation: Musical Reception of Classical Antiquity” (University of Iowa, 2011). He has received grants from The Iowa Humanities Board, The Music & Letters Foundation, the Newberry Library, and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.

Ketterer taught classes in Latin and Greek at all levels. Graduate teaching included seminars on Augustan poetry, Lucan and Statius, and Greek tragedy and comedy. Some of his courses in English were “War,” a comparison of ancient and modern literature of warfare; “Reading the Ancient City,” an introduction to literature via the cities of Babylon, Athens, Jerusalem and Rome; and “Shakespeare’s Romans,” on the reception of Roman drama and history in Shakespearean poetry and drama.