Hello,

Welcome to my instructor course page! I teach humanities courses at St. Petersburg College on the Tarpon Springs campus. As far as my educational background is concerned, I have a Ph.D in Humanities from Florida State University where I wrote my doctoral dissertation on a comparative study between Shakespeare and the ancient Greek playwright Euripides. I have a bachelors and a masters degree in English literature and in 2008 I was a recepient of an NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities) fellowship for four weeks at the University of Michigan which focused on the ancient Greek poet Homer. I have also been a participant at the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington D.C. and have presented papers at various academic conferences, including Yale University, the University of North Carolina, University of Missouri, and also at several of the annual AFGLC conferences on the ancient Greeks held at the Tarpon Springs campus.  My primary areas of interest are classical Greece, Shakespeare, and 19th century literature, especially Dickens and Dostoyevsky. I love 80's music and pop culture as that decade was the most formative of my life. I also enjoy classical music, Mozart being my favorite composer.


In the fall of 1997 I began teaching humanities at Florida State University while working on my doctorate. After three years of teaching there, I taught for nine years at a private liberal arts university in Tennessee. In the fall of 2009 I began teaching at St. Petersburg College and have enjoyed it immensely. My wife Cindi (also an FSU alumnus) and I have been married since 2008 and we have a wonderful son named Noah. When I'm not busy teaching classes I enjoy reading, watching college football (Go Noles!), fishing, traveling, playing chess, working on jigsaw puzzles, and discussing American history with my son (he is an avid history buff and has actually published a book on the American Revolution). I also attend Calvary Church (Eastlake campus) and have an interest in studying the Bible and Christian theology, especially the writings of C.S. Lewis.

Since teaching at SPC I have had the great priviledge to go to Greece with the SPC Study Abroad Program in 2016 and 2018 and absolutely loved it! (you can see the Parthenon of Athens in the photograph). At my previous academic institution I helped lead several student groups to Italy. Living in (West) Germany as a child back in the 1970's and spending a semester in Cambridge, England for a semester while in college were two life-changing experiences for me. In the summer of 2023 I led a group of SPC students to Italy (Vence, Florence, Rome) and we saw many beautiful works of art, including Michelangelo's David and the Sistine Chapel Ceiling. It was truly a life changing experience!

In addition to teaching, I also have an interest in scholarship. In the fall semester of 2016 SPC awarded me a semester-sabbatical which allowed me to work on a book based on four ancient Greek writers: Homer, Thucydides, Euripides, and Aristophanes. This book explores how  the human condition has been interpreted by these four authors and how their differing perspectives of the human condition still retain relevance for us today.  This book was published by McFarland Press (August 2021) and is entitled Ancient Greeks on the Human Condition: Themes in the Writings of Homer, Aristophanes, Euripides, and Thucydides. Copy the link here if you're interested: https://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Greeks-Human-Condition-Aristophanes/dp/1476675783. It is available on Amazon books in both paperback and kindle editions. I also have an interest in the plays of Shakespeare and have published an essay on his play "Julius Caesar" (Bloom's Literary Themes, 2009). I wiould like to write a book on Shakespeare in the future.

Thanks for visiting my home page. I look forward to seeing you in the classroom or online!

Matthew Sims
Professor of Humanities
Tarpon Springs Campus