IRVING, Texas (Aug. 11, 2023) — Beloved classics professor and Due Santi fixture Peter Hatlie, PhD, is retiring from his leadership role this year.
Hatlie first arrived at the Eugene Constantin Campus in 1999 as a history professor. This year will mark his last term as vice president, dean and director of the Rome Program.
After a sabbatical, Hatlie will return in the 2024-2025 academic year to teach full-time. Theology professor and Associate Dean and Director Ron Rombs, PhD, will assume Hatlie’s roles as dean and director of the program.
“The University of Dallas Rome Program is a place where big and beautiful dreams appear within hand’s reach. Whatever the dream — talking to the ancients, encountering God, discovering our best selves, learning to love others, hoping for a better world — Rome can be our gateway and our guide and our friend,” Hatlie said.
“I have lived such dreams on the Rome Campus with my wife Barbara and two daughters Iola and Rosa long enough to understand Rome’s many special gifts, Rome’s many dear and lovely people. My thanks go out to everyone at the University of Dallas — students, parents, alumni, friends, colleagues and donors — who has supported this great school and its cherished Rome Program over the years. All best wishes to President Jonathan J. Sanford and our new Rome Program Director Dr. Ron Rombs as they lead Rome into an even better future.”
Hatlie’s encyclopedic knowledge, memorable wit and facility with languages have endeared him to the generations of UD students who have taken his Core Curriculum course on Western civilization. His academic research into Byzantine monasticism has yielded a rich breadth of scholarly articles, translations and a monograph with a forthcoming volume to follow it. Hatlie’s work has appeared in Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Oxford University Press’s Oxford Handbooks series and Publications de la Sorbonne.
Additionally, Hatlie has strengthened ties with the local government of Marino through service projects, expanded volunteer and missions opportunities for students and spearheaded the Rome Expansion and Renewal Campaign to improve the campus with new facilities and land.
A book edited by Dean of Students Gregory Roper, PhD, BA ’84, and English professor Andrew Moran, BA ’91 PhD ’04, about the Eugene Constantin Campus, Due Santi and the University of Dallas: Un Piccolo Paradiso, also begins with a chapter by Hatlie on the layered history of the site.
“Whereas our acquaintance with more famous places such as Delphi, Athens, Rome and Florence is occasional and brief, the historical voice that speaks to us on the Rome Campus is constant, quietly insistent and often very personal,” Hatlie writes.
“It would be no exaggeration to say that we embrace, internalize and get very close to inhabiting a profound spirit and appreciation of the past — at many different levels — on the Rome campus.”
UD President Jonathan J. Sanford, PhD, thanked Hatlie for his leadership.
“Dr. Hatlie has been a pillar of Due Santi for more than 20 years. During this time, he has walked with nearly every UD student through the foundations of Western civilization, literally, and contributed a deeply focused corpus of scholarship to the academic world,” Sanford said.
“We will continue to cherish Dr. Hatlie’s academic expertise and unforgettable teaching, and we wish him the very best in his retirement.”
Rombs said he embraces the opportunity to steward the Rome experience.
“As so many of our alumni, faculty and students know, Rome is a place of great transformation and maturation for our students: educative, spiritual and human. Lifelong friendships are made here; how many best men and maids of honor trace their origins to the Rome semester? Here in Rome, a profound spiritual encounter with the mysteries of the Christian faith epitomizes the education of many of our students,” Rombs stated.
“The beauty and vigor of this city and country, the people and places — both living and past, sacred and profane — quicken the minds and souls of our students and faculty in our common pursuit of virtue, wisdom and the good. It is a great privilege, then, for me to be given the opportunity to serve our students, faculty and staff as dean and director of the Rome Program. I look forward with great enthusiasm to continuing in that common endeavor of study and travel — one so uniquely and profoundly ‘UD’ — with our students and faculty here on the Eugene Constantin Campus.”
