[5] Scodel joined the faculty of University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1984,[6] where she became Professor of Greek and Latin in 1987.
[9][10] She has been active in service to the Society for Classical Studies (formerly the American Philological Association).
[13] Scodel was president of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South from 2014–5.
[16] Scodel's research focuses on Homer, Hesiod and Greek tragedy, and is particularly significant in her innovative applications of theoretical approaches such as narrative theory[17] to ancient literature.
[19] In 1998 Scodel's article “Bardic Performance and Oral Tradition in Homer,”[20] won the Gildersleeve Prize (American Journal of Philology), for work described as "an important contribution not only to the reading of Homer but also to narratological theory".