Personal profile

Research interests

From my doctorate on women’s speech, status and stereotype in Greek drama, my interest in the construction, depiction, and manipulation of aspects of identity in the Greco-Roman world has evolved to embrace wider attitudes towards both masculine and feminine genders, ethnicity, professional roles, and citizenship, in which areas I have published extensively, and teach both undergraduate and postgraduate courses. I am currently completing a monograph on how to study the sources for gender in ancient Greek and Roman culture.

One specialist research of mine, on which I have often taught a Masters course, and where I would like to supervise research students, is the field of ancient Greek and Latin (auto-)biography, for authors such as Plutarch, Philostratus, and Diogenes Laertius.

Parallel with this, as an active member of the Department's Centre for Oratory and Rhetoric (COR), I study the role of rhetoric across many literary genres (drama, historiography, poetry, educational theory, ancient literary criticism), with a focus on epideictic rhetoric (e.g. Gorgias, Isocrates, Lucian, Dio Chrysostom, the Second Sophistic, Libanius, Themistius). My specialist field is currently Greek literature of the Roman Empire. I am working on a commentary on Plutarch’s Banquet of the Seven Sages.

I am keen to supervise research students interested in this multi-layered period of literary history, in genres such as satire/dialogue (Lucian), oratory (Dio Chrysostom), philosophy (Plutarch), medical texts (Soranus, Galen), epic (Quintus of Smyrna, Oppian), travel-writing (Pausanias) and epigram.

I also have a deep interest in the reception of the classical world, in fields such as cinema, music, design, and other aspects of popular culture, and in the history of classical education, on both of which topics I have successfully supervised research students.

Teaching

I have nearly 25 years teaching experience at university level and have taught at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. I have designed and taught over 25 different courses in my career so far, in aspects of both Greek and Roman language, literature, literary theory and social history. I have taught both Greek and Latin language, and from beginners to advanced level. I have always had a strong personal commitment to teaching and to helping students develop their potential. In this regard I have a special interest in teaching study and transferable skills, and have successfully integrated these skills into my own and the Department's curriculum. I also develop my teaching to complement my research and changing student interests.

I have participated actively for many years in teaching development, at Department, College and University level, sitting on curriculum development, quality assurance and validation committees. I have acted as External Examiner, for both undergraduate and taught postgraduate, for the University of Manchester, University of Wales Swansea, University of Ireland Maynooth, and the University of Kent Canterbury. I have also acted as invited consultant for the validation of programmes at other UK universities.

I have also examined research dissertations at M.Phil. and PhD. levels for several UK universities, on topics from Greek tragedy and comedy, to imperial Greek epic and religious texts.

In recognition of my outstanding teaching and student support I have won three times (and been nominated four times) for the Royal Holloway Student Union Apple for the Teacher award (open to all areas of College, and only about a dozen are awarded each year).

Consultancy

My active interest in teaching and academic administrative procedures has led to me being invited to participate as a quality assurance reviewer at both College and national level. I find this a very rewarding and enlightening experience.

I have acted in recent years as an external reviewer on two extensive College Periodic Departmental Reviews.

I was also one of twenty subject specialist reviewers for Classics and Ancient HIstory for the Quality Assurance Agency during its national review 2000-2001. In that role I participated in and co-wrote the visit reports for three departments in England, and was also one of the three reviewers chosen to write the final subject overview report.

Other work

Careers & Employability

Within my Department I have for many years acted as the Careers and Employability Tutor. I have designed and run a variety of successful skills awareness and training workshops. I have also designed the Department's employability training that is embedded within a first-year half-unit (15 credits) Studying Classical Antiquity (CL1570), and co-organise the Department's second year work placement scheme, where students from our Department participate in a selective competition for several work placements, in a process that gives skills and experience in selling their own skills on both paoer (CVs, cover letters) and interview. Both the half-unit and the placement scheme ran first in 2013-14.

Recruitment/Admissions & Outreach

I have been actively involved in the Department's recruitment for most of my career at Royal Holloway. I have been Departmental Admissions Tutor for two four-year terms, and have been also been for some years the Departmnent's outreach and schools liaison officer. I have organised numerous University of London Taster Days for A-level students, and since 2014 I have organised the Department's Classics School Teacher Colloquia, as part of my Departmental initiative CLASS (Classics Advice and Support Scheme), to act as a networking opportunity to spread new and good practice within the teaching of our discipline. I have also contributed to several College schools-related events, visited numerous schools/colleges to give outreach workshops, and co-ordinate the visits to schools and colleges by my colleagues within the Department.

Student Experience

Since 2012 I have acted as Deputy Head of Department for Student Experience, co-ordinating our initiatives to ensure positive student experience (including the National Student Survey, where our Department always scores highly within College and our sector). In that role I have instituted several initiatives to continue the excellent relations that we staff have with students in our Department, and have sat for many years on the Department's Student-Staff Committee. I have also for many years worked closely with our undergraduate student Classical Society, supporting and promoting their activities, especially the now-annual Classics Day (a  celebration of all things classical open to the rest of College and the general public), their charity activity, and their play productions on classical themes.

Keywords

  • Others in linguistics, classics & related subjects
  • Latin studies
  • Classical Greek literature in translation
  • Classical Greek language
  • Latin studies not elsewhere classified
  • Classical reception
  • Classical Greek literature
  • Classical Greek studies
  • Classical studies
  • Latin literature in translation