Prof Elizabeth Craik

Prof Elizabeth Craik

Honorary Professor

Researcher profile

Email
ec@st-andrews.ac.uk

 

Biography

In 1960 I graduated MA with first class honours in Greek and Latin at St Andrews. I returned there in 1964 after achieving an MLitt degree at Cambridge and working as research fellow in Greek at the University of Birmingham. Back at St Andrews I was employed for one year, 1964-65, in the Department of Humanity (Latin) before securing a post in the Department of Greek; at that time there were three separate classical departments, the third being ancient history.

            Thereafter, I spent the years 1965-96 in the small Greek Department. In addition to undergraduate teaching – dealing with language exercises, such as prose composition, in tutorials; and covering all aspects of many authors and diverse topics in a demanding syllabus of lectures – I supervised numerous postgraduate students for advanced degrees on a wide range of subjects, including aspects of tragedy (lyric metre; influence and reception of Euripides), philosophy (Presocratic thought) and medicine (Oribasius). In later years, I was also head of department for a time.

            A change came with the award of a Wellcome Trust research leave fellowship in 1993 to work on Hippocratic anatomical treatises. The brief respite from arduous duties in teaching and administration, combined with some long overdue research leave, proved so attractive that I was glad to take up a new post as Professor in Classics at Kyoto University, Japan, where I worked 1997-2002. At the same time, I became honorary professor in St Andrews. In 2000, I was awarded a DLitt degree at St Andrews. On return from Japan, I held a Leverhulme Emeritus Fellowship, 2003-2005 and from 2006 was a visiting professor at University of Newcastle.

Research areas

My publications demonstrate an unusually wide and deep scholarly range, covering historical and philosophical topics as well as many different literary genres. My main interests, initially in drama, turned later to Hippocratic medicine. I raised grants to support research in such different fields as computer applications and study of Modern Greek. I gave invited lectures in many classical departments as well as at many different conferences in UK and overseas. My research was recognized by invitations to examine doctoral degrees at many universities, including London and Leiden. Later, I taught and examined all regular courses at Kyoto University and gave invited lectures at many other Japanese universities.

Recognition is marked in the volume Ancient Medicine, Behind and Beyond Hippocrates, Essays in Honour of Elizabeth Craik edited by Vivian Nutton and Laurence Totelin, TECHNAI 11, Rome 2020. 

Miscellaneous other work

Book Reviews for many journals, including: Classical Review, Journal of Hellenic Studies, Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences, Echos du monde classique, Isis, Scholia, Mnemosyne, Medical History, Japan Classical Studies etc.

Articles for Dictionary of National Biography: Lewis Campbell; James Donaldson; Herbert Jennings Rose

Contributions to Encyclopaedias, including: Biographical Encyclopedia of Ancient Natural Scientists, edd. P. T. Keyser, G. L. Irby-Massie (Routledge, 2008); Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome (OUP, 2009); Oxford Handbook of Science and Medicine in the Classical World, edd. P Keyser and J. Scarborough (OUP, 2018); GROH (de Gruyter, forthcoming 2026/27)

Short Japanese geppoh: Philolaos' View of the Body (for translation of Diels-Kranz VS); The Scholarly Galen (for translation of Galen); Comedy and Life (for volume of essays on comedy)

Selected publications

 

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