Who is Lydia Herndon from Jeopardy? The Scholar Exploring Humor, Miracles and Ancient Christianity

Humor might not be the first subject people associate with ancient Christianity, but it is one of Lydia Herndon’s academic interests.

The University of Chicago PhD candidate studies Christianity in antiquity alongside rhetoric and humor, literary history and miracle narratives.

That means Herndon’s work explores ancient religious texts not only as theological documents but as literature created to communicate with particular audiences.

Classics Provided an Early Foundation

Herndon’s path toward ancient Christianity developed through earlier work with Greek, Latin, rhetoric and writing.

At Trinity College, she served as a Teaching Assistant for Greek 101.

Her responsibilities included classroom exercises, office hours, exam reviews and occasionally taking responsibility for the class when the professor was absent.

She simultaneously developed extensive experience teaching writing through Trinity’s Writing Associate program.

Becoming Head Tutor

Herndon joined the Writing Associate program in 2015 after a faculty nomination and competitive application process.

She received specialized rhetoric training before beginning individual tutoring.

By her final academic year at Trinity, she had risen to Head Tutor, helping develop other tutors, facilitate meetings and select new members of the program.

Those experiences connected rhetoric as an academic subject with the practical challenge of helping people communicate more effectively.

Teaching at Choate

Herndon’s summer at Choate Rosemary Hall expanded her classroom responsibilities.

She taught Latin and English reading skills, created lessons and assessments and participated in professional-development sessions.

Outside class, she worked in residential life, coached soccer and supervised student trips.

The experience gave her an unusually broad introduction to education.

From Business Programs Back to Academia

Herndon later worked at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, where her responsibilities included program administration, admissions processes, scholarship coordination and communications.

Eventually, however, her career returned to ancient texts.

At the University of Chicago Divinity School, she has combined her background in classics, rhetoric, writing and teaching into doctoral research on ancient Christianity.

Her appearance on Jeopardy! brings that specialist academic knowledge into a competition demanding expertise across almost everything else as well.