Classics, Ancient History, Linguistics, Academia and more
It's always nice to receive a new publication in the post! The book Creating Orthographies for Endangered Languages, edited by Mari C. Jones and Damien Mooney, is an edited volume arising in part from Mari's work with the Cambridge Endangered Languages and Cultures Group and its associated Cambridge Conferences on Language Endangerment. I always enjoy conferences which... Continue Reading →
Today I've been working on a piece on very short inscriptions - so short that we're not even sure what language they are in. There are some obvious reasons why very short, abbreviated inscriptions are sometimes used. On a coin or a tile stamp, space can be so limited that an abbreviation of the name... Continue Reading →
First of all - happy second birthday, blog! The blog is now regularly getting 2000 readers a month which - let's be honest - is a lot more people than have read my book in the same period, and that's why I love blogging. It's been great to publish my work in different ways and... Continue Reading →
Sometimes lunchtime conversations in the department are the best way to think about something from a new perspective, because everyone brings such different experience to the same question. This week I had a great conversation with my colleagues Richard Flower and Katharine Earnshaw about the connotations of the Latin word sacerdos. We all started out with... Continue Reading →
At 5pm on the 26th April, I will be presenting at the Newcastle Classics research seminar on "Writing women: understanding the goddess Reitia". I'll be talking about my recent work on literacy and the dedications to the goddess Reitia at Este, which I've spoken about already in Exeter. The seminar will take place in Room 2.50... Continue Reading →
Last week (just in time to coincide with both the "Greek in Italy" workshop and the triggering of Article 50) I was featured on a podcast series presented by my colleague Richard Flower. Distant Pasts: Adventures in an Alternative Antiquity looks at some of the more surprising, unusual and lesser known aspects of the ancient world,... Continue Reading →
I am currently conducting a survey, open to anyone working or studying in a Classics/Ancient History department in the UK. The aim is to find out about employment practices and contract types in use in Classics departments, and the impact these have on staff and students. The survey will be open until the 31st May... Continue Reading →
This Wednesday, I am giving the Classics and Ancient History research seminar at Exeter. The paper will be based on brand new research I have been doing on the dedications to the goddess Reitia at Este. Here is the abstract: The epigraphic culture of the Veneto region is full of contrasts, particularly between its two... Continue Reading →
I'm excited to say that my article "The sociolinguistics of gender, social status and masculinity in Aristophanes" has now been published online in the Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics. The research in this article ultimately goes all the way back to my undergraduate thesis, though my conclusions have changed many times since then. But I kept coming... Continue Reading →
I'm really pleased that Venetic and the goddess Reitia have been included on the CREWS project blog. Many thanks to Pippa Steele for writing this post, making such good use of my photos (and Anna's delicious cake). As Pippa points out, Venetic gives us lots of important and unparalleled evidence for how people learned to... Continue Reading →
Katherine McDonald 