Back in March, I asked many of you to fill in a survey for my PCAP essay on casualisation and employment in Classics in the UK. I'm pleased to say that an expanded version of this report has been published by the Council of UK Classics Departments Bulletin. It can be found online here. Please feel... Continue Reading →
Review: Harry Potter and the Classical World
My review of Harry Potter and the Classical World by Richard A. Spencer is now online at the Classics for All online reading room. As you can tell from the review, I enjoyed this book great deal! It goes into an incredible amount of detail about the Classical allusions in the Harry Potter series - perhaps... Continue Reading →
New Module: Language in Greek and Roman Society
This is the first week of teaching at Exeter, so I'm putting the finishing touches on my first few lectures and seminars of the year. Since both of the undergrad modules AND the MA mini-module I'm teaching this year are all brand new courses that I'm writing and teaching single-handedly, it's been a busy few weeks.... Continue Reading →
New Digital Research Tools 2
Over a year ago, I posted about some new digital research tools I'd been trying out, and which of them had worked/not worked for me. I've been meaning to write an update to this for a while because, actually, I've changed my mind quite a bit since then. So here's New Digital Research Tools 2... Continue Reading →
Moving Romans
Around the time of the EU referendum, I wrote a review of Moving Romans: Migration to Rome in the Principate by Laurens E. Tacoma. Ancient migration has been very prominent in my work recently: the Greek in Italy project just hosted a conference on ancient migration and mobility in May this year, and this book helped... Continue Reading →
Join the Greek in Italy team – postdoc opportunity
The Greek in Italy project is advertising for a new fixed-term post doctoral research associate. I've worked on the project for the last three years, and it is a fantastic team to be a part of! You can find the details of the ad below. Please get in touch if you have any questions about the... Continue Reading →
Mauss, Oscan and translation problems
I mentioned over here that there were some mentions of Oscan in Marcel Mauss's The Gift, and also that there were some problems with some of the English translations of this essay. I thought I'd expand on this year, in case anyone happens to be reading The Gift and wants to know a bit more about... Continue Reading →
The EU, Erasmus and me
This week has been very difficult and sad for many of us. Even writing that feels like a ridiculous understatement, but I don't know what else to say. Those of us working and studying at UK universities are worried (among many many other worries) about our colleagues and our students from outside the UK, and... Continue Reading →
Ancient languages and John Wilkins’s Real Character
I mentioned that at Geoff Fest last week I gave a paper on the "reception" of Oscan - mainly consisting of mentions of Oscan in slightly unexpected contexts from the sixteenth century onwards. One of those instances was in An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language, written by John Wilkins in 1668. Wilkins was a... Continue Reading →
Geoff Fest
This weekend we celebrated the retirement of our Professor of Comparative Philology, Geoff Horrocks. I've worked with Geoff for a number of years, during which he's been my second PhD supervisor and a co-investigator on the Greek in Italy project. As the speeches at last night's dinner attested, everyone has their favourite memories of Geoff's... Continue Reading →