Greg Scalise

At New Hope since: Fall 2021
B.A. Philosophy and the Classics, Harvard College
M.F.A. Poetry, The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University
Teaching: MS Literature & Writing, MS History
greg.scalise@newhopecourses.org

Greg Scalise was born and raised on Cape Cod in the town of Brewster, a place that doesn't even have a stoplight. Since there wasn’t much to do there in the off-season he took to reading in high school and fell in love with the great books. At Harvard Greg studied English literature, classical languages, ancient philosophy, and ethics, culminating in a thesis on the moral treatment of inanimate objects based on the Athenian practice of holding trials for murder weapons, cows, and other less than human things. Outside of class he spent his time as an editor for the Ichthus, the school’s Christian journal, and playing trumpet in the Harvard University Band at over 100 basketball, hockey, and football games. After graduating, Greg went on to study, write, and teach poetry at Johns Hopkins University. 

In the classroom, Greg enjoys seeing students approach the classic stories, ideas, heroes, and conflicts of Western Civilization with fresh eyes. Teenagers have a lurking seriousness about them that makes them ideal readers of great books that ask hard questions about life and truth and God. Students beginning in the humanities tend to have open minds, honest opinions, and a great potential for growth, all of which are very rewarding for an instructor. But most of all Greg just loves to talk about good books and how great the Greeks were. 

Before coming to New Hope, Greg taught high school history, English, and Bible at Trinity Christian Academy of Cape Cod and creative writing as a lecturer at Johns Hopkins University. Outside of teaching, Greg has worked as a landscaper, camp counselor, oysterman, janitor, land conservationist, proctor, tutor, community band manager, and mason tender. Greg is currently pursuing a Master of Divinity degree at Gordon-Conwell.