Dr Sian Lewis
Senior Lecturer
- Phone
- +44 (0)1334 46 2605
- sl50@st-andrews.ac.uk
- Office
- S15
- Location
- Swallowgate
Biography
I grew up in South Wales and gained my MA and DPhil from University College, Oxford. At the start of my career I held temporary lectureships at Trinity College, Dublin, St John's College in Oxford and Swansea University; in 1996 I was appointed as Lecturer in Ancient History at Cardiff University. In 2004 I moved from Cardiff to take up my present post in St Andrews.
Teaching
I teach broadly across Greek and Roman history, with a concentration in archaic and classical Greek history and in the study of gender in antiquity. Also of particular interest to me in teaching are ancient animal-human interactions, sensory history and the 'hidden voices' of antiquity.
My current Honours modules are:
- CL4438 Animals in the Greco-Roman World
- CL4442 Greek Painted Pottery
- CL4445 Women in Ancient Societies
- AN4146 Athens, Sparta and Thebes 478-338 BC
Research areas
My research encompasses ancient Greek political and social history, with a particular focus on innovative approaches to ancient material. At the beginning of my career I worked on the transmission of news in classical Greece and the development of ancient media. I then followed my interest in the history of gender to write on the representation of women on Greek painted pottery; my study The Athenian Woman: an iconographic handbook has had significant influence on subsequent approaches to the topic. Similarly my work on ancient tyranny as a mode of government helped bring a neglected topic to prominence.
Since 2013 my research has focused on human-animal interactions in the classical world: with Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones I co-authored a major reference work on ancient animals which brings together archaeological and literary evidence and considers issues of ancient taxonomy and scientific thought. My current research project, Zoa Politika: animals that live in the polis, draws on this material to study animal-human interactions across the Greek Mediterranean, identifying the distinctive animal experience of individual poleis and demonstrating how each Greek community created a ‘conceptual bestiary’ of its own.
Over the next five years I aim to initiate a larger project building on the recently-formed Ancient Mediterranean Animals Network (https://www.aman-uk.org/), to create an interactive database of animal regionality which will make research data more widely available and encourage conversations between classicists, zooarchaeologists and environmental scientists.
I welcome research students in any area of my interests above, and particularly those intending to work on ancient animal studies.
PhD supervision
- Elizabeth Weinberg
- Michael Alexander Dyer
- Florence Felsheim
Selected publications
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Classical tyrants and the assembly
Lewis, S., 18 Jan 2021, In: Dialogues d'Histoire Ancienne. 21, S21, p. 57-77 21 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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The culture of animals in antiquity: a sourcebook with commentaries
Lewis, S. & Llewellyn-Jones, L., 19 Dec 2017, Abingdon: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. 768 p.Research output: Book/Report › Book
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Tyranny: new contexts
Lewis, S., Mar 2021, Besancon: Presses universitaires de Franche-Comté.Research output: Book/Report › Book
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A lifetime together? Temporal perspectives on animal-human interactions in antiquity
Lewis, S., Aug 2017, Interactions between Animals and Humans in Graeco-Roman Antiquity. Foegen, T. & Thomas, E. (eds.). Berlin: de Gruyter, p. 19-38 19 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
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Tyrants, letters and legitimacy
Lewis, S., 24 Aug 2018, Letters and Communities: Socio-Political Aspects of Ancient Epistolography.. Gildenhard, I., Ceccarelli, P., Doering, L. & Fogen, T. (eds.). Oxford: Oxford University PressResearch output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
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The Athenian Woman: An Iconographic Handbook
Lewis, S., 2002, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. 261 p.Research output: Book/Report › Book
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Entries on 'Periander of Corinth', 'Polycrates of Samos', 'Peisistratus', 'Thrasyboulos of Miletus', 'Greek Tyrants' and 'Tyranny'
Lewis, S., Feb 2012, The Encyclopaedia of Ancient History. Bagnall, R. (ed.). Wiley-BlackwellResearch output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
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‘Tyranny and Response’: Introduction
Lewis, S., 11 Dec 2012, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies. 55, 2, p. 69-71 3 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Entries on 'Tyranny' and 'Tyrannicide'
Lewis, S., 2010, SAGE Encyclopaedia of Ancient Political Thought. Bevir, M. (ed.). SageResearch output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
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Images of Craft on Athenian Pottery: Context and Interpretation
Lewis, S., 2010, p. 12-26. 15 p.Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review