Carl Rubino, the Winslow professor of Classics at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., will discuss the ancient mythological roots of the perennial Star Wars films in this free lecture on Feb. 6 at 7pm at Sierra Nevada College.

Rubino’s teaching and research interests include ancient Greek and Roman literature, comparative literature and literary theory. In 2011 he published the article, Long Ago, But Not So Far Away: Another Look at Star Wars and the Ancient World, and discussed the films’ roots in mythology in Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed a Lucasfilm documentary that has aired on the History Channel.

A long-time collaborator with the Nobel laureate physicist Ilya Priogine, Rubino is known for his work on the connections between science and the humanities, with a focus on complexity theory, the problem of time, and the impact of the theory of evolution on ethics. He has been president of the Classical Association of the Atlantic States, and has a doctorate from the University at Buffalo.