Owen Embree, BA & BS 鈥�25, shares many interests with some of the great authors of the Core Curriculum.
Like Adam Smith and Ren茅 Descartes, Embree studied classical philology and mathematics. As an altar server at the Church of the Incarnation, Embree participated in the Mass alongside members of St. Thomas Aquinas鈥� Order of Preachers. And, like Pope John Paul II, Embree鈥檚 interest in learning is animated by a wondrous curiosity for God鈥檚 creation.
鈥淚 think it's amazing being able to study all these different fields,鈥� Embree says of the Core, 鈥渏ust to see the wonder of different ways of looking at the world instead of focusing on your one major.鈥�
Embree completed two final research projects. For mathematics, he conducted research at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University over the summer on a problem involving spectral theory in linear algebra. For classics, he compared ancient accounts of the Second Punic War by the historians Polybius and Livy.
鈥淭hey have slightly different goals for what they want to get out of history, so their depictions of people come out a bit differently. Polybius is showing a good general, a good statesman. And with Livy, things are a little bit more complicated; he shows some good aspects of people and other bad aspects. So I鈥檓 delving into what that looks like in concrete examples,鈥� Embree said.
In the end, Embree chose classics over mathematics in his post-college plans. This fall, he鈥檒l start a master鈥檚 program in classics at Washington University in St. Louis, and he鈥檚 considering a doctorate afterward.
Even so, Embree doesn鈥檛 see a great gap between the two disciplines.
鈥淭hey seem different, but also, in both, you鈥檙e given some set of information 鈥� whether a text, or certain theorems or axioms 鈥� and then you just try and put things together and see where things come out,鈥� Embree says. 鈥淚 just love working on puzzles like that.鈥�
