New internships for St Andrews students at the British School at Athens

Monday 04 February 2013

‌The School of Classics is delighted to announce a new collaboration between the British School at Athens and the School. This year we have the opportunity to send three students to the British School to work for two weeks each. The School is offering two Archive Internships and one Fitch Lab Internship.

In each case, the intern will be provided with a set project (usually adaptable to the interest of the intern) and will receive training and hands-on experience.

More details>>

Dr Sweetman launches online resource

Thursday 29 November 2012

The primary results, the image database and clickable map, of the AHRC and CRF/RSE funded project on the Christianization of the Peloponnese are now available. The online resource was created through months of fieldwork and research in Greece and collaboration with staff in the Research Computing Service and School of Classics. The analysis of the architecture and topography of the churches is now well under way and soon the new results of the study concerning emergent patterns of conversion and use of tradition and memory will be made available.

Dr König launches project website

Monday 26 November 2012

The University of St Andrews is  hosting a two-year BA/Leverhulme-funded research project on 'Literary Interactions under Nerva, Trajan and Hadrian'.

The project brings together researchers with an interest in Nervan-, Trajanic- and Hadrianic-period literature (both Latin and Greek) to examine the texts and the literary culture of the period collectively. It explores the interface between literary, social and political life, and contributes to the wider study of the late first and early second centuries AD.

Working papers are published regularly on the project website.

Archaeology: fieldwork experience and funding

Tuesday 20 November 2012

Archaeology students who want to increase their  fieldwork experience are encouraged to investigate the new information available about:

• Fieldwork experience
• Summer schools, internships and funding

Dr Sweetman (rs43@st-andrews.ac.uk) welcomes enquiries from students who have found projects that they are interested in working on.

Classical Studies student chosen to give speech at 600th Anniversary Dinner

Friday 09 November 2012

Pamela Forbes is currently a fourth-year undergraduate on our Classical Studies degree.  She was a pupil at a local state school, Kirkcaldy High, and is the first person from her family to go to university.  Pamela is also now a Vice Principal Ambassador for Widening Participation and helps to organise and run school projects in the local area, including the one which encouraged her to apply to St Andrews when she was still at school.

Pamela recently gave a speech about her experiences and important work before some very famous guests and alumni at the University of St Andrews 600th Anniversary Appeal Dinner at Middle Temple Hall, London.  For the full text of her speech see: 600th Anniversary Campaign Dinner

IRIS project

Wednesday 10 October 2012

From October 2012 the School of Classics will work with the Iris Project to bring Iris' 'literacy through Latin' curriculum to schools in the Glenrothes area. Nine student volunteers (pictured below) will visit the schools in order to give an enjoyable and accessible introduction to Latin and Roman culture. Lessons will vary from the basics of Latin grammar to games about the Roman gods.
For more information contact Alex Long (agl10@st-andrews.ac.uk).

Archaeology workshops

Thursday 27 September 2012

The School of Classics and the Museum Collections Unit within the University are offering practical archaeology sessions for students in primary and secondary schools in Fife and Tayside.

Different types of workshops are available including handling sessions of the Cypriot Pottery collection and more structured workshops on a series of topics, such as excavation and finds.

View workshop leaflet (PDF, 574 KB) 

Townsend Visiting Professor

Friday 21 September 2012

During the week of September 17-21 Stephen Halliwell gave three Townsend lectures in Classics at Cornell University. The Townsend lecture series was established in 1985 with a bequest from Daphne Townsend in memory of her husband, Prescott Townsend, Cornell class of 1916.

Saints and Symposiasts

Thursday 20 September 2012

 Jason König's new book, Saints and Symposiasts: The Literature of Food and the Symposium in Greco-Roman and Early Christian Culture was published in September 2012 by Cambridge University Press. For more information please visit: www.cambridge.org/gb/knowledge/isbn/item6812081

Teaching Fellows

Wednesday 05 September 2012

The School is delighted to welcome two new Teaching Fellows.

Dr Virginia Campbell was previously a Teaching Fellow in Ancient History at Reading University. Her research interests cover Pompeii, prosopography and social network analysis, volcanoes and earth science in antiquity, Vitruvius and Roman architecture, funerary customs, regulation of urban space and land use.

Dr Nikoletta Manioti recently completed a PhD at Durham University on 'All-female family bonds in Latin epic'. Her research interests include Latin epic (Virgil, Ovid, Valerius Flaccus, Statius), Roman women,  Roman family,  Greek and Roman myth.

Literary Interactions under Nerva, Trajan and Hadrian

Tuesday 10 July 2012

Alice König has been awarded a grant by the BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants Scheme to fund a two-year research project entitled "Literary Interactions under Nerva, Trajan and Hadrian".

This project will bring together some of the leading researchers on Nervan, Trajanic and Hadrianic literature to examine the texts and the literary culture of the period collectively. It aims to develop our understanding not just of individual texts but also of the nature and impact of their cross-pollination (within and across genres, and between both Latin and Greek authors). It will also examine the literary culture that promoted it; and explore the interface between Roman literary, social and political life. In so doing, it will contribute to the wider study of the late first and early second centuries AD.

Dr König will be assisted on the project by Prof. Roy Gibson (Manchester) and Dr Christopher Whitton (Cambridge).

Higher Education Academy International Scholarship Scheme

Thursday 31 May 2012

The School of Classics is delighted that Professor Karla Pollmann has been awarded an international scholarship by the HEA for her project entitled "Beyond traditional boundaries: Designing an interdisciplinary graduate programme".

Through this scholarship Karla will investigate, in Canada and in the Netherlands, possibilities to design an innovative interdisciplinary graduate programme suitable for UK HEIs. The student learning experience will be enhanced through improved networks with other graduate students and academics, and by more diversified options to combine research skills and approaches from different disciplines when tackling a particular study interest.

Drs Buckley and König win SELF bid

Thursday 03 May 2012

Drs Emma Buckley and Alice König have secured SELF funding for a three-year research project, which will assess the linguistic strengths and weaknesses of Latin students from different educational backgrounds. This project will have important implications for the teaching of Latin and Greek in other Classics departments at other (particularly Scottish) Universities, where the mix of school-level qualifications is often more pronounced than south of the border.

Distinguished visiting scholar

Friday 20 April 2012

Professor Shadi Bartsch-Zimmer of the University of Chicago will be visiting the University of St Andrews in the last week of semester 2, as the latest visitor in the annual Distinguished Visiting Scholar scheme in the School of Classics.

She will give two papers, the first entitled "Socrates and Sexuality in Persius' Fourth Satire" on Wednesday 2 May (4 p.m., Swallowgate 11--all welcome), and the second entitled "The Pleasure of the Trope: Pagan and Christian Authors on the Ethics of Metaphor" on Friday 4 May, as part of a one-day workshop on "Metaphor in Greek and Roman Literature and Culture".

Visiting Scholar at Yale University

Wednesday 18 April 2012

Emma Buckley spent two weeks in April as a visiting scholar at Yale University, as part of the St-Andrews Yale Classics Exchange. While there, she spoke at the 'Marginality, Canonicity, Passion' conference, delivered papers on Valerius Flaccus and Christopher Marlowe's translation of Lucan, and led graduate seminars on post-Virgilian epic and Senecan tragedy.

Ancient and Modern Olympics

Tuesday 17 April 2012

Dr Jason König has launched a new blog, 'Ancient and Modern Olympics':
http://ancientandmodernolympics.wordpress.com.

It will run for the next 6 months or so, over the period of the London Olympics, with weekly updates. It offers among other things translations of texts related to the ancient Olympics festival and ancient Greek athletics generally, with a particular focus on texts which have something to tell us about the connections and the gaps between ancient and modern sport.

Alice Koenig wins Leverhulme Research Fellowship

Thursday 12 April 2012

The School is delighted to announce the award of a two-year Research Fellowship by the Leverhulme Trust to Alice Koenig for work on her project 'Frontinus' "Technical" Treatises in close-up and in context'.

Rome. An Empire's Story

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Greg Woolf's new book, Rome. An Empire's Story, will be published by Oxford University Press in May 2012 (UK) and in June 2012 (US). For further information, please visit:

• http://tinyurl.com/oup-uk-rome-an-empires-story
• http://tinyurl.com/oup-us-rome-an-empires-story

Imperial Rome AD 284 to 363

Saturday 31 March 2012

 Jill Harries' new book, Imperial Rome AD 284 to 363: The New Empire was published in March 2012 by Edinburgh University Press. The volume is part of the series 'The Edinburgh History of Ancient Rome'. For further information please visit: http://www.euppublishing.com/book/9780748620524

Classical Greek: a New Grammar

Thursday 22 March 2012

 Juan Coderch's new book Classical Greek: A New Grammar: Greek grammar taught and explained, with examples was published in March 2012. It is aimed at both absolute beginners and more advanced students who need to revise and enhance their existing knowledge of the language. For further details please visit http://www.amazon.com/Classical-Greek-Grammar-explained-examples/dp/0957138709

Radio 4: 'In Our Time'

Tuesday 20 March 2012

Alice König took part in the popular Radio 4 history of ideas programme, 'In our Time', presented by Melvyn Bragg, on 15 March. The topic was Vitruvius' De Architectura and the programme is available on the BBC 'In our Time' website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/iot

Latin Panegyric

Thursday 15 March 2012

Roger Rees edited Latin Panegyric, published in March 2012 by Oxford University Press. The volume is part of the series 'Oxford Readings in Classical Studies'. For further information, plesae visit: http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199576715.do

Greek Poetics

Monday 20 February 2012

Stephen Halliwell’s new book,  Between Ecstasy and Truth: Interpretations of Greek Poetics from Homer to Longinus, will be published by Oxford University Press on March 1st (though with a printed date of 2011). For further information see: http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199570560.do