Sanjaya Thakur is professor and chair of classics at Colorado College and has held a number of national leadership positions in the field of classical studies. He  served as the director of the Classical Summer School at the American Academy in Rome from 2021 to 2023 and was the Elizabeth A. Whitehead Scholar at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens from 2022 to 2023. Sanjaya has published numerous articles, primarily on the literature and history of the age of Augustus, Rome’s first emperor. He teaches a wide range of courses on Greek and Roman history, Latin literature, ancient athletics, and Greek and Roman art and archaeology. He also co-directed and organized an Associated Colleges of the Midwest faculty seminar entitled Mediterranean Trivium that was based in Italy.

Sanjaya earned two master's degrees in classical studies and classical art and archaeology as well as a PhD from the University of Michigan. An avid traveler, he has led many study tours through Greece, Italy, and Spain.