Dr Jon P Hesk
Senior Lecturer in Greek & Classical Studies
Director of Postgraduate Studies, Impact Officer
Phone: 01334 462620
Room: S2
Research Interests
Greek literature and culture, especially Homer, tragedy, comedy, oratory and rhetorical theory, the Sophists, Athenian democracy and ideology, ancient political theory, ancient and modern literary theory. I am currently working on, or thinking about working on, the following projects: the representation of deliberative and intellectual virtues and vices in Classical Greek texts, Sophoclean tragedy, Xenophon, anthropological responses to Thucydides, Greek rhetoric and education, and the influence of Athenian democracy on western culture since the eighteenth century.
Research projects
With the assistance of a teaching development grant from the History, Classics and Archaeology Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN, now HEA), I enhanced our School's computer assisted learning for students studying Ancient Greek. This project was ultimately made possible through the creation of a website called Hieronymus by one of our former PhD students, Richard Goodrich. Dr Goodrich secured further funding from St Andrews for the development of our CAL teaching and worked full-time for a year on Hieronymus. He is now a Research Fellow in the Classics dept. at Bristol University. Our jointly-authored report on the LTSN-sponsored first phase of the project can be found at: http://www.hca.ltsn.ac.uk/resources/TDG/reports/Hesk-Goodrich.pdf
I ran a workshop called ‘Greek Drama and the Polis’, the first of which took place on 13th September 2007. I hope to find funding for more of these and related conferences in the future.
Publications
Sophocles: Ajax
Hesk, J. P.
2003
Duckworth
.
208 p.
Research output
:
Book/Report
›
Book
Deception and Democracy in Classical Athens
Hesk, J. P.
2000
Cambridge University Press
.
Research output
:
Book/Report
›
Book
'Seeing in the dark:
Kleos
, Tragedy, and Perception in
Iliad
10'
Hesk, J. P.
Oct-2013
In:
Epic Visions
.
Lovatt, H. & Vout, C. (eds.).
Cambridge University Press
Research output
:
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
›
Chapter
Oedipus at Colonus
Hesk, J. P.
31-Jul-2012
In:
Brill's Companion to Sophocles.
Markantonatos, A. (ed.).
Brill Academic Publishers
, (Brill's Companions in Classical Studies).
Research output
:
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
›
Chapter
Common knowledge and the contestation of history in some fourth-century Athenian trials
Hesk, J. P.
Jul-2012
In:
Greek Notions of the Past in the Archaic and Classical Eras: History Without Historians.
Marincola, J., Llewellyn-Jones, L. & Maciver, C. (eds.).
Edinburgh University Press
, (Edinburgh Leventis Studies ).
Research output
:
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
›
Chapter
Euripidean
euboulia
and the problem of 'tragic politics'
Hesk, J. P.
Mar-2011
In:
Why Athens? A Reappraisal of Tragic Politics.
Carter, D. (ed.). Oxford:
Oxford University Press
,
p. 119-143.
24 p.
Research output
:
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
›
Chapter
Types of oratory
Hesk, J. P.
2009
In:
The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Rhetoric.
Gunderson, E. (ed.).
Cambridge University Press
,
p. 145-161.
Research output
:
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
›
Chapter
The Socio-political Dimension of Ancient Tragedy
Hesk, J. P.
2007
In:
The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Theatre.
McDonald, M. & Walton, J. M. (eds.).
Cambridge University Press
,
p. 72-91.
Research output
:
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
›
Chapter
Intratext and Irony in Aristophanes
Hesk, J. P.
2000
In:
Intratextuality: Greek and Roman Textual Relations.
Morales, H. & Sharrock, A. (eds.).
Oxford University Press
,
p. 227-261.
Research output
:
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
›
Chapter
The Rhetoric of Anti-rhetoric in Athenian oratory
Hesk, J. P.
1999
In:
Performance Culture and Athenian Democracy.
Osborne, R. & Goldhill, S. (eds.).
Cambridge University Press
,
p. 201-230.
Research output
:
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
›
Chapter
'Leadership and Individuality in the Athenian Funeral Orations'
Hesk, J.
Jun-2013
In :
Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies
.
56
,
1
Research output
:
Contribution to journal
›
Article
' Why did Socrates have to die? Politics, philosophy, and drinking-parties in Xenophon
Hesk, J. P.
Jan-2008
In :
Omnibus
.
55
Research output
:
Contribution to journal
›
Article
Combative Capping in Aristophanic Comedy
Hesk, J. P.
Dec-2007
In :
Cambridge Classical Journal
.
53
,
p. 124-160.
Research output
:
Contribution to journal
›
Article
'Despisers of the Commonplace': Meta-topoi and Para-topoi in Attic Oratory
Hesk, J. P.
Sep-2007
In :
Rhetorica
.
25
,
4
,
p. 361-384.
24 p.
Research output
:
Contribution to journal
›
Article
Abuse in Athenian Democracy
Hesk, J. P.
Jan-2006
In :
Omnibus
.
51
,
p. 1-2.
Research output
:
Contribution to journal
›
Article
Homeric Flyting and how to read it: Performance and Intratext in 'Iliad' 20.83-109 and 20.178-258
Hesk, J. P.
Jan-2006
In :
Ramus: Critical Studies in Greek and Roman Literature
.
35
,
1
,
p. 4-28.
25 p.
Research output
:
Contribution to journal
›
Article
In Brief (New releases)
Howard, S. , Quinn, P. ,
Walker, N.
,
Hesk, J.
, Shack, N. , Quinn, T. , Beckett, I. , Wassenaar, I. & Fawcett, P.
2-Jul-2004
In :
TLS, The Times Literary Supplement
.
p. 28-29.
2 p.
Research output
:
Contribution to journal
›
Article
Antiphon the Athenian - Oratory, law and justice in the age of the sophists
Hesk, J.
7-Mar-2003
In :
TLS, The Times Literary Supplement
.
p. 13-13.
1 p.
Research output
:
Contribution to journal
›
Article
Antiphon the Sophist - The 'Fragments'
Hesk, J.
7-Mar-2003
In :
TLS, The Times Literary Supplement
.
p. 13-13.
1 p.
Research output
:
Contribution to journal
›
Article
Greed and injustice in classical Athens
Hesk, J.
2003
In :
Journal of Hellenic Studies
.
123
,
p. 229-230.
2 p.
Research output
:
Contribution to journal
›
Article
Female acts in Greek tragedy
Hesk, J.
17-Aug-2001
In :
TLS, The Times Literary Supplement
.
p. 24-24.
1 p.
Research output
:
Contribution to journal
›
Article
The beginnings of rhetorical theory in classical Greece
Hesk, J.
2001
In :
Classical Review
.
51
,
p. 60-61.
2 p.
Research output
:
Contribution to journal
›
Article
The Cambridge companion to Greek tragedy
Hesk, J.
2000
In :
Journal of Hellenic Studies
.
120
,
p. 156-157.
2 p.
Research output
:
Contribution to journal
›
Article
Taming democracy: Models of political rhetoric in classical Athens
Hesk, J.
1999
In :
Journal of Hellenic Studies
.
119
,
p. 183-183.
1 p.
Research output
:
Contribution to journal
›
Article
Sleazy Odysseus?
Hesk, J. P.
1997
In :
Omnibus
.
34
Research output
:
Contribution to journal
›
Article
Review of
Greed and Injustice in classical Athens
by R. Balot (2001)
Hesk, J. P.
2002
In :
Journal of Hellenic Studies
.
Research output
:
Contribution to journal
›
Book/Film/Article review
For further information on publications, please view my profile on the university's research portal.
Research students
I am happy to direct the studies of post-graduates in any of the areas outlined in 'Research interests' above.
Teaching
I teach across several subhonours Greek & Classical Studies Modules.
My honours and taught postgraduate modules are as follows:
- GK4102 Greek Tragedy
- GK4105 Greek Rhetoric and its represntation
- CL4416 Responses to War: Athenian Drama and Civic Culture
- CL4420 Fame, Tradition and Narrative: Homer's Illiad
- CL5201 Themes and Methods in Classics
- GK5102 Greek Tragedy and Athenian Culture
- GK5104 Greek Rhetoric and Ideology.
Academic career
I did my undergraduate degree in Classics at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. In 1991 I moved to King's College, Cambridge where I started my Ph.D. In 1995, I spent two terms as a temporary lecturer in Greek and Classical Studies at Reading University. From 1995-1998, I was a Research Fellow at St. John's College, Cambridge. I arrived in St Andrews in September 1998 and a very nice place it is too!
