UCL DEPARTMENT OF GREEK AND LATIN
Classics newsletter
August 2011 | Issue 9
From strength to
strength
Maria Wyke
At a time of great turbulence for
Higher Education, and when the
Arts & Humanities are under
threat at some universities, I am
delighted to report that UCL
remains fully committed to
teaching and research in
Classics. In fact, the UCL
Department of Greek and Latin
has achieved a number of
successes in the last year, two of
which I would like to mention
while some of the others will be
described in what follows.
Firstly, we were delighted to
appoint a new member of staff in
the area of Greek historiography
(Rosie Harman) to replace
Simon Hornblower whom we
used to share with History. This
was a very strong vote of
confidence in Greek & Latin
because the new post is fully in
our department and, therefore,
increases our numbers. As a
result, we are taking over a large
airy basement room in Gordon
House (renovated this year from
toe to top and about to become
home to UCL’s first bio-diverse
eco roof).
Secondly, two of our staff were
promoted to professorships in
recognition of their outstanding
achievements (Professor Gesine
Manuwald and Professor Miriam
Leonard). We now have an
energetic, (largely) young and
world-leading team of specialists
to give Classics a very special take
at UCL and to maintain the
Department as one of the very
best in the country (one of the top
two in the UK for the quality of
teaching that its undergraduates
experience).
Thanks to the great generosity of
UCL alumni and friends of
Stephen Instone, we now have a
travel fund that will support
awards for two undergraduates
each year for the next 20 years.
Details (and some illustrations) of
the rich experiences of awardees
as they travelled the Mediterranean
are now available on our website.
We (and they) are most grateful
for your generosity. I would also
like to draw your attention to a
new postgraduate studentship
fund that the Department has
created to honour the memory of
Professor Bob Sharples. The fund
has been established in
recognition of Bob’s scholarship
and research interests, and in
order to support postgraduate
study in philosophy at a time
when many students are
struggling to find the resources to
continue their study of the ancient
world beyond their first degree.
Finally, our staff and students
continue to find new and unusual
ways to take our subject out of the
university and bring it to different
sectors of the wider community.
This year that has included live
streaming of some of our lectures
on the UCL website and their
uploading to UCL’s YouTube
channel, as well as talks about
antiquity in silent cinema at an
Italian film festival and the
teaching of Latin to primary school
children in inner London.
The Stephen Instone
Postgraduate Studentship
Starting out at UCL
The success of the Stephen
Instone Memorial Fund exceeded
all expectations and allowed three
deserving undergraduates the
opportunity to explore Greece.
The introduction of the Stephen
Instone Postgraduate Fund aims
to go one step further by giving
financial assistance to bright
students who may not otherwise
have the means to pursue their
studies. In these uncertain
economic times it is essential that
Classics is accessible to everyone
and by donating to this fund you
will be assisting students to gain
further knowledge of the ancient
world. They will have the chance
to share their ideas with likeminded people and be part of a
committed department that aims
to keep the study of Classics very
much alive.
Starting out in Ancient World Studies…
Stephen’s knowledge and deep
passion for the ancient world was
the very essence of who he was.
However, I am not sure how
useful it was when on a family
holiday to Greece he drove a
seriously dodgy hired car into a
ditch. He suddenly leapt out of it
and went hurtling towards a group
of Greek men shouting in ancient
Greek ‘a big machine has
landed.’ Needless to say they
came rushing over and were
surprised to find a car rather than
a UFO. The hearty laughter didn’t
stop them helping us out!
If you are in a position to do so,
please donate (details are on the
back page). By remembering
Stephen you will be helping to give
academic opportunities to
students who truly deserve it.
Shelley Instone
Hello, my name is Eleanor, and
I'm an Ancient World Studies
student. I'm here to give you the
inside scoop on the BA Ancient
World degree and the Classics
Play. I was lucky enough to be
cast as Lysistrata in this year’s
production of... Lysistrata.
Auditioning for and performing in
the Classics Play is absolutely an
experience that I would
recommend to students, for a
number of reasons. Firstly, as a
member of the cast or crew, you
are part of a production of quality.
This is a student production with
a professional sheen; a real play,
a real theatre and a real (huge)
audience. Secondly, plays were
written to be performed and
watched. You will gain far more
understanding of and pleasure
from the classical plays if you
watch them, and the opportunity
to study the text as an actor
should not be missed. Thirdly,
and perhaps most importantly,
extra-curricular activities are
essential to a happy and healthy
student life. However much you
love Homer, however much you
enjoy cramming the Latin
subjunctive, there will come a
day when learning becomes
somewhat overwhelming.
Dividing your time between your
studies and other activities is the
only way to maintain a relaxed
and positive attitude.
If it does all get a bit much, my
final piece of advice would be to
tell someone. The Department of
Greek and Latin is filled with some
of the most warm and kindly staff
members you could hope to meet,
all of whom understand that not
everyone is physically or mentally
sound all the time. Don't be afraid
to let people know when things
are starting to slip; you could be
surprised at just how much people
care.
Eleanor Wright
Starting out on the MA in Reception Studies…
I'm cursed with an almost
perennial inability to decide what I
want to do. The thought of
choosing one subject (one!) to
study at the age of 18 horrified
me, so I didn't. My undergraduate
degree was joint honours in
Spanish and Classics from the
University of Birmingham and I
remain the only person I know
who’s studied them in
combination. People seem to think
they're something of an odd
couple but I can't count the
number of times I've guessed at a
Latin word because I knew the
Spanish it evolved into, and my
trip to the Venezuelan state of
Nuevo Esparta made much more
sense having read Herodotus.
In the end, my decision to
continue with Classics rather
than Spanish seemed inevitable,
as it was always the side of my
degree which had interested me
most. When I started at UCL, I
was slightly intimidated by the
Eleanor
Hannah
Joyce
workload. This was partly my
own fault, of course, since I
decided that UCL provided me
with the perfect opportunity to
broaden my educational horizons
and study subjects I’d never
encountered before. I
appreciated the connections that
UCL has with other London
institutions: the behind-thescenes tour of the British
Museum was one of the
highlights of the Reception core
course.
I think my interest in the
connection between Classics
and other subjects was behind
my decision to study Reception
at UCL. I have an enduring
fascination for the privileged
place that Greco-Roman
antiquity holds in our society as
‘the foundation of Western
civilisation’ which it may well be,
but only because we make it so,
over and over for centuries. I
had done some work on
classical reception for my
undergraduate degree but the
dedicated MA helped me get to
grips with some of the
theoretical aspects I hadn’t
handled before. It also gave me
the opportunity to use my
knowledge of Spanish, instead
of mentally filing it under ‘Things
I Will Never Need to Know’: my
dissertation is on the labyrinth
myth in twentieth-century Latin
American literature.
on to premiere at the Cannes
International Film Festival.
Batman filming at Senate House
Library – I was seen running up to
the third floor to do research for
papers and then back to the first
floor to help on set, flashing my
library card and then my film ID
badge at familiar library doors that
had turned into a film set. At UCL
my perpetual double identity finally
merged into one, no longer in
conflict but complementary. And
this year, my short documentary
about the Holocaust was screened
in June at UCL as part of the
Open London Documentary Film
Festival with KINO London’s
Magnificent Revolution Cinema,
and also at the BFI IMAX theater
with Cinematique!
Hannah Merritt
Starting out on a PhD…
As a native of Washington, DC, I
always thought I would enter the
political or legal arena and I was in
a pre-law program, though my BA
was in History, Philosophy and
Film. I went on to get a masters
degree in Political Science and
European Studies and then came
to the UK to study diplomacy and
politics at Oxford, which is where I
decided to make the switch back
to my original ancient history as
well as filmic pursuits.
During my MPhil in Cambridge I
edited a short film about the
connection between history and
our everyday lives, working on it
in the library in between
lacrosse, football matches and
supervisions, and the film went
I came to UCL specifically
because of its unrivalled
Classics department, and I am
working with my dream mentor,
Prof. Maria Wyke. At UCL, I was
finally able to be what I have
always tried and wanted to be: a
simultaneous academic and
filmmaker. UCL has helped me
see that my approach to
Classics is genuinely unique as
it is from the eyes of a
filmmaker, with a different
understanding of how history is
portrayed in cinema.
In June I was able to work on
Chris Nolan’s latest installment of
Joyce Datiles
Starting out at UCL
New Staff
Jenny Bryan
Laura Swift
Fiachra Mac Góráin
I joined UCL this year as a
Leverhulme Fellow. Until
recently my research has
focused on the relationship
between the chorus in Greek
tragedy and the types of choral
song that were performed in
everyday Greek life. I am now
working on the poet Archilochus,
in antiquity considered equal in
importance to Homer and
Hesiod, but now rarely studied
as his poetry survives only as
fragments. It's a particularly
exciting project as a major new
poem was discovered for the
first time in 2005.
I'm a native of Dublin and came
to UCL via Trinity College,
Dublin and Oxford. My main
research interest is the
relationship between Greek
poetry and Latin poetry, and my
doctorate was on Virgil’s use of
Greek tragedy and references to
the Dionysian in the Aeneid. I
am very curious about the
classical tradition, and very
interested in what modern critical
theory can teach us about
classical texts. I am currently
preparing a book on Virgil and
Dionysus, as well as several
articles on the poetry of Virgil.
Rosie Harman
Ruey-Lin Chang
I will be joining the Department
of Greek and Latin in September
2011 as the new Lecturer in
Greek Historiography, and am
very much looking forward to it!
Before coming to UCL I taught at
Trinity College, Dublin, and
Liverpool University. I completed
my studies at Cambridge and
Nottingham Universities. I am
currently working on a book on
Xenophon, who is interesting for
the breadth of his cultural
knowledge, moving between
Greece and Asia, and Athens
and Sparta. The book considers
how Xenophon represents
encounters and conflicts
between different cultures.
After completing my doctoral
thesis in papyrology on three tax
rolls (c.100 AD; in total c.15
metres long), I joined the
Department to work on the
Oxyrhynchus Papyri Project,
which has made Oxford my
working base. My research
interests basically lie in Egypt,
where Greek was used in public
and private life for c.1000 years.
Besides the editorial preparation
of the P.Oxy. series and the
publication of my thesis (by the
Institut français d’archéologie
orientale), I am preparing a
study on the Arab conquest of
Egypt, while reaching out to the
Ptolemaic period.
I studied Classics at Fitzwilliam
College, staying in Cambridge for
graduate and post-doctoral work. I
work on ancient philosophy but
have interests in ancient literature
too. Plato currently dominates my
research, particularly the minor
dialogues, often overlooked by
those more interested in major
works like the Republic. I’m also
interested in the philosophy that
predates Plato as well as the
philosophy of the Roman Empire.
My forthcoming book,
Likeness and Likelihood in the
Presocratics and Plato (CUP
2011) is a study of the
philosophical use of the word
eoikos. It crops up in the
fragments of the early Greek
philosophers, Xenophanes and
Parmenides, and is particularly
prominent in Plato’s late
cosmological dialogue, the
Timaeus. I look at the way each
philosopher uses this word to
express the relationship of his
philosophy to the truth and to the
authority of his predecessors.
Involving alumni
We’re keen to hear from
alumni willing to talk to current
students about how they
made their way in the world of
work, or be profiled on our
website as examples of what
former students go on to do.
We’d also like to hear from
any of you who have found
yourselves using classics at
work in unexpected ways.
If you can help, please
contact Joanna Fryer at:
classicsoffice@ucl.ac.uk
New Books from UCL
Gesine Manuwald – Roman Drama: A Reader (Duckworth, 2010)
This book for the first time provides a selection of important primary
sources for the background to early Roman theatre as well as
paradigmatic samples from the dramas themselves in an accessible
form (both in the original language and in a new English translation),
along with introductions and notes.
Gesine Manuwald – Roman Republican Theatre (CUP, 2011)
This study complements the presentation of evidence in the Reader,
offering an up-to-date and comprehensive history of all aspects of early
Roman drama: it discusses the origin of Roman drama as well as the
historical, social and institutional background, and presents concise
information on all dramatic genres to be found during the Republican
period and on its major dramatic poets.
Miriam Leonard (ed.) – Derrida and Antiquity (OUP, 2010)
Essays written by Derrida scholars, philosophers, and classicists
investigate the dialogue with the ancient world in the work of one of
the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century. Through an
analysis of Derrida’s work they explore the relationship between
modern philosophy and Plato, the role ancient concepts of
democracy have played in modern political debates, and the place of
antiquity in contemporary discussions about Europe, as well as
investigating the influence that deconstruction has had on the study
of classical literature, ancient philosophy, and early religion.
Matthew Robinson – Fasti: Book 2 (OUP, 2011)
Ovid's Fasti is a poem on the Roman calendar, explaining the rites,
rituals, anniversaries and astronomical events that make up the
Roman year. The poem encompasses a bewildering variety of subjects
and styles: imperial celebrations and national disasters, smutty romps
and miraculous rescues, the birth of the Republic and the death of
Romulus, hymns to the gods and the worship of an oven. This
commentary on Book 2 (which covers the month of February) guides
the reader through the maze of diverse material towards a fuller
appreciation of this remarkable poem, through detailed analysis of its
religious, historical, political, and literary background.
Laura Swift – The Hidden Chorus (OUP, 2010)
This book investigates the relationship between the chorus of Greek
tragedy and other types of choral song in Greek society. Choruses
performed on a range of occasions in Greek culture, ranging from
private weddings and funerals to large-scale religious festivals, yet
the relationship between these everyday or ‘ritual’ choruses and the
choruses of tragedy has never been systematically examined. By
examining the relationship between tragic and non-tragic choral
song, the book aims not only to provide new insights into individual
plays, but also to enrich our understanding of the role poetry and
song played in Greek life.
Ground-breaking
collaborations
Initiated by UCL in 2011
Flavian Epic Interactions –
23–24 June, UCL
Classics in Theory – 25 June,
Corpus Christi College, Oxford
Gesine Manuwald organized this
highlight of the series of events
coordinated by the Flavian Epic
Network over the past few years
(http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/fen/
index.aspx): a conference focused
on ‘interactions’, looking at all
three epic poets active at the end
of the first century CE (Valerius
Flaccus, Statius, Silius Italicus).
Miriam Leonard organized this
workshop in collaboration with
Tim Whitmarsh (Oxford). The
event arose from a new Oxford
University Press book series coedited by the organizers which is
designed to revitalize debate
about the relationship between
Classics and modern critical
theory. The six speakers
discussed texts by theorists
such as Edward Said, Jacques
Rancière and Paul Ricoeur and
the lively discussion which
ensued touched on the areas of
feminism, psychoanalysis, queer
theory, Marxism, narrative theory
and post-colonialism.
A conference organized by
Miriam Leonard and Josh
Billings (Oxford) which aimed to
explore how Greek tragedy
became linked to a particular
philosophical tradition at the
close of the eighteenth century.
The philosophical understanding
of tragedy which developed
primarily in Germany in this
period, has had a profound
influence on the modern
understanding of the genre and
continues to shape our
perceptions of ancient tragedy
today. The speakers, who
included Edith Hall (Royal
Holloway), Simon Goldhill
(Cambridge), Constanze
Güthenke (Princeton) and
James I. Porter (Irvine),
discussed the role of tragedy in
a philosophical tradition which
stretches from Schiller and
Hegel through Nietzsche to
Heidegger and Benjamin.
Update your contact details
We’re keen to stay in touch and hope you are too, so do let us
know if you have recently changed address or want the Newsletter
sent elsewhere. You can update your contact details at:
www.ucl.ac.uk/alumni/keep-in-touch/update-details
Taking Classics beyond UCL
Chris Carey on the Olympics
The Olympic Games return to
London in 2012 after 64 years.
We in London have the
opportunity to celebrate this
unique occasion with a menu of
events not only in sport but also in
the arts and culture. Those of us
involved in research in the ancient
world have a specially important
role to play, since the whole
concept of the Olympic games
has its origin in Greco-Roman
antiquity. Cultural and educational
institutions across London and
beyond have come together to
create a rich programme of
lectures, events and exhibitions.
The intellectual offering addresses
aspects of the Olympic games,
ancient and modern, but it looks
beyond the specifics of sport and
explores related themes
(competition, excellence,
motivation and reward, diversity,
rebirths and revivals) within
different periods and cultures from
early Greece to the modern world.
© Sam Dashiell Jackson
Almost 50 scholars and
graduate students from all over
the UK, Europe, North America,
South America and Australia
enjoyed a full, but also very rich
and stimulating programme with
26 talks over two days. Papers
explored all aspects of possible
connections between the three
poets and their works as well as
links with predecessors, with a
particular focus on intertextuality
and possible political
dimensions.
Tragedy and the Idea of
Modernity – 22 July, UCL
Ancient plays for
modern minds
Attracting new audiences to the UCL Greek play
The UCL Greek play offers
students the opportunity to stage
a play in a professional West
End theatre and attracts
audiences of over two thousand.
This year, thanks to funding from
the Institute of Classical Studies,
the department was able to
organise a more substantial
programme of public
engagement events. Our aim
was to attract a diverse range of
people, including those with little
previous experience of Classics,
and to bring Aristophanes to life
for a modern generation.
The programme's ambition was to
combine an academic
understanding of Lysistrata
with an interest
in
performance
The programme will include:
• public lectures and debates at
UCL, the Institute of Classical
Studies, the British Museum, the
Italian Cultural Institute and the
Petrie Egyptological Museum;
techniques and contemporary
approaches to the staging of
Greek drama. As well as
academic lectures by
international experts in ancient
comedy, we therefore organised
interactive workshops run by
theatrical practitioners. On the
academic side, Dr Nick Lowe
(Royal Holloway) spoke on the
presentation of women in ancient
comedy, Professor Edith Hall
(Royal Holloway) on the portrayal
of Lysistrata herself and her links
with contemporary ritual, and Dr
Fiona Macintosh (Oxford) on the
play’s modern reception. They
were
complemented
by practical
workshops led
by Russell
include tours of the Museum,
Olympic displays,
re-enactment of events, storytellers, a trumpet contest,
sculptor(s) in action, ‘living
statues’, reading papyri, and
writing victory songs;
• a two-day conference at the
British Museum on sport and
competition in the GrecoRoman world and its influence
on the modern world;
• exhibitions at the Sir John
Soane Museum (Stadia: Sport
and Vision in Architecture) and
the Petrie Museum (Fit Bodies);
• a hands-on family day at the
British Museum which will
• a research day and evening
presentation at the British
Bender, Matthew Hiscock and
David Stuttard, all experienced
theatre directors, who offered
training in a range of dramatic
techniques. We were delighted
that all the workshops were fully
booked, and the lectures
attracted audiences of up to 130,
with groups travelling from as far
afield as York and Somerset.
We aim to build on this success by
running a similar programme of
events for next year’s play,
Euripides’ Hippolytus, performed
6–9 February 2012. The public
engagement events will be open
to all and free of charge, and
details will appear on our
department website in the autumn.
We also hope to see many of you
at the play itself, so please do put
the dates in your diaries.
Laura Swift
Academy exploring new and
unpublished texts on the
ancient games.
The programme will bring the
historical background to the
Olympics to a large and diverse
audience, including the London
population and visitors from
elsewhere in the UK, Europe
and the world at large.
For details watch the
departmental website at
www.ucl.ac.uk/GrandLat
The Iris Project
Lorna Robinson & Graham Kirby
Five years ago, when Iris first
started approaching schools to
run projects, there was often a
certain scepticism: Latin was an
elite subject, completely
inappropriate for modern
schools in areas of entrenched
deprivation. In order to tackle
this attitude, a curriculum had to
be thoughtfully crafted to meet
the needs of the schools. It also
needed to be engaging and fun.
to state schools, and this past
year have added a new younger
cousin for Iris, in the form of Iota!
This is a magazine aimed at
primary level, and we have now
secured a US distributor. We’ve
also piloted an ancient Greek
project at primary level in east
Oxford, which has been a great
success, and continued to run our
‘Latin and ancient Greek in the
park’ series for adults.
Since those early days, we have
seen the Latin project grow and
flourish, and we have also, in that
time, been nurturing a vitally
important relationship with UCL’s
Greek & Latin Department and its
students. These students are in a
very real way the life-blood of the
project. In addition to this, we
have added new and exciting
projects, and with UCL’s help we
were able to set up our ancient
theatre projects. These bring the
world and drama of Classical
Athens to today’s children.
Next year, even more students
from UCL will be teaching Latin
in London’s schools, and we will
be running the ancient theatre
project again in the capital. We
hope that students will be
involved at every level. We are
also on the cusp of launching a
brand new online resource for
Classics, as well as updating
and improving our current free
resources for schools and
communities.
As always, we welcome all
practical and financial support
from the wider Classical
community.
You can contact us through our
website, www.irismagazine.org,
join us on facebook, or follow
us on twitter!
We have continued producing
and distributing Iris magazine free
The course I wish I’d taken…
No need for regrets, as alumni you can enrol informally for any
of the Department’s courses, undergraduate or postgraduate.
You are not obliged to submit essays or take exams but can enjoy
spending time on your favourite authors or topics with current
students.
Fees are £250 per term per course, and details of all our courses can
be found online at: www.ucl.ac.uk/GrandLat. Or email
classicsoffice@ucl.ac.uk or contact the Greek & Latin Dept Office,
UCL, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT. Tel: 020 7679 7522.
Donations
Please make donations to the
Stephen Instone or Bob
Sharples Postgraduate
Studentships via the online
giving form at
www.ucl.ac.uk/GrandLat.
Alternatively, cheques payable
to ‘University College London’
may be sent to Postgraduate
Studentships, Dept of Greek &
Latin, UCL, Gower St, London
WC1E 6BT.