Mark W. Padilla

Mark William Padilla grew up in the Bay Area, California, and attended the University of California at Santa Cruz, majoring in classics and English. After completing the Ph.D. in comparative literature at Princeton University, he taught classics at Bucknell University, rising to the rank of Professor. Sixteen years as a senior administrator followed (associate dean, dean, provost) at three liberal arts universities, private and public. His academic interests have focused on Greek myth, literature, and philosophy. Upon returning to the classroom from administration, he launched a research project that went back to his "comp lit" roots, involving film, especially the movies of Alfred Hitchcock. He teaches an Honors Program course on the director, and a second one titled "Trilogy Wars: Aeschylus, Wagner, Lucas." He can boast that he attended two Wagner's Ring cycles.