I've held off posting about my new module, Italy Before Rome, for two reasons. Most importantly, I've been extremely busy writing and teaching it! But I've also held back because, although I had a vision for what I wanted the module to be like, and the ideas I wanted to get across, I didn't know... Continue Reading →
What did the Romans really speak?
I'm very excited to announce that I have a featured article in November's History Today, out on Thursday. The title of my feature is 'Latin Lesson', and it explores the languages of the Roman empire, from its earliest history to the development of the Romance languages. It looks particularly at the Romans' attitudes to other languages,... Continue Reading →
What links a drinking cup, Julius Caesar and ancient multilingualism?
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 →
Podcast: Distant Pasts
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 →
Talk: HiSoN 2017, New York
I'm very excited to be speaking this week at the Historical Sociolinguistics Network Conference (HiSoN) 2017 in New York, hosted by NYU and CUNY Graduate Centre. I hugely enjoyed HiSoN 2015, and met some lovely people doing fascinating work there, so I'm looking forward to this year's conference hugely. I'm speaking on the first day of... Continue Reading →
Barefaced Greek
This week I was excited to see the release of the first film by new company Barefaced Greek - and even more excited to see that the film was the opening speech of Aeschylus' Agamemnon. In their own words, Barefaced Greek is "a new initiative to create digital educational resources for the study of Classics and... 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 →
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 →
It’s all Greek to Anna
It's All Greek to Me is a brand new blog by my colleague Anna Judson. Anna is an expert on Linear B, linguistics and Greek in general, so I know that lots of readers will be interested in her site. Anna has long been a major contributor to the Res Gerendae graduate student Classics blog, but... Continue Reading →