Katherine Horgan

2025 Harvard Horizons Scholar Katherine Horgan explores the legacy of the ancient Greek poet Sappho in her project, "Living Sappho: Imitation, Imagination, and Revivification in Early Modern England." A PhD student in English at Harvard's Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Horgan delves into the complex interplay between Sappho’s textual and biographical traditions, exploring how artists and writers have continuously reimagined and celebrated Sappho over millennia. 

Horgan’s interest in literary traditions began with a childhood fascination with the ways authors reference and build upon the works of writers of the past. At university, she began to investigate the relationships between texts, authors, and readers across time in depth. When developing her dissertation, she found that Sappho is a vibrant lens through which to explore these intertextual dialogues. Known for the sublime excellence of her erotic poetry, Sappho has inspired countless authors who imitate her writing and explore her identity as a mythic and historical figure. This dual interpretation of Sappho’s poetry and identity makes her a perfect subject for the study of the intimate relationships between poets and their imitators. 

Horgan's research is unique in its synthesis of Sappho's biographical and textual traditions, especially in the context of Early Modern Europe. Between the seventh and sixteenth centuries, Sappho's poetry was largely lost, making stories of her life a critical part of her legacy. Horgan examines how, amid this textual absence, early modern writers crafted narratives around Sappho that reflected not only her newly rediscovered poetry but also an engagement with her reputation as a queer woman. While scholars have long noted the queerness of Sappho’s life and poetry, they have argued that this queerness was largely censored. Horgan’s research challenges the notion that Sappho’s history is only one of her marginalization, instead revealing a robust and continuous cultural dialogue. 

Horgan’s work unearths a tradition of early modern authors who embraced and experimented with Sappho's unique gender and sexual identity within their own texts. By focusing on lesser-studied schoolbooks and commentaries, Horgan highlights how Sappho’s influence persisted through pedagogical texts, where scholars could explore her legacy with intellectual freedom. She draws attention to how these writers celebrated Sappho’s queerness, expanding their own identities and imagining alternative relationships, genders, and societies for themselves.   

Horgan’s research argues for the transformative power of Sappho’s work throughout literary history. By illuminating the rich afterlife of Sappho's poetry and persona, Horgan not only contributes to the recovery of marginalized voices but also invites contemporary readers to engage with Sappho as a site of playful exploration and enduring inspiration.