News and Events

For the most up-to-date information about forthcoming events, research seminars, and conferences in the Department of Classics please follow the links in the side bar menu (on the left).

For news specifically about our research, please click here.

Department successful in UROP bid 2012

The Department of Classics is delighted to announce that it has, again, been successful in its bid for two UROP placements in 2012. Reading's Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP) is a scheme that allows second-year Undergraduates to carry out a paid six-weeks research project in close collaboration with an academic over the Summer vacation. These projects are an ideal preparation for students who consider an academic career beyond their first degree, and they are an excellent preparation for the third-year dissertation project. (For further information please refer to the UROP pages .)

The two projects this year will be:

• Creating a Digital Model of the Antikythera Mechanism (with Dr Matthew Nicholls)
• Investigating the 'Sound of War in Caesar's Gallic War' (with Prof. Peter Kruschwitz). 

Further information as well as the application procedure will be made available in due course.

Reading Classicists elected Fellows of the Royal Historical Society

Dr Annalisa Marzano and Prof. Peter Kruschwitz were elected Fellows of the Royal Historical Society in December 2011.

The Royal Historical Society is 'the foremost body for those engaged professionally in the study of the past,' as the Society's website states. Those elected to the rank of Fellow must have made 'an original contribution to historical scholarship in the form of significant published work'.

For further information see the wepages of the Royal Historical Society.

Ure-View, a 'Stories of the World' Project with the Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology

The Ure Museum is delighted to announce that we have been awarded funding to develop a student panel who will design and deliver workshops for secondary school students in the Reading area. We will be working with Brighton and Hove Museums as part of the World Stories South East grants programme as part of the Stories of the World Partnership Project that is currently running nationwide. Stories of the World is an official partner of the cultural Olympiad for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Through Ure-View we will investigate the relevance of our Classical collections to modern British Society by reinterpreting our objects through an outdoor art installation and temporary exhibition. We hope this project will demonstrate an interesting and exciting collision of ancient and modern, but you will be able to see for yourself by visiting the exhibition from May 2012!

Youth Language and Identity in Ancient Rome

Prof. Peter Kruschwitz and Ms Egizia Maria Felice, a current finalist, were delighted to be given the opportunity to present the findings of their UROP project 'Youth Language Phenomena in Ancient Rome' at the University of Pisa, Italy, in November 2011.

Their presentation in the Sala storica della Biblioteca Universitaria in Pisa's Palazzo della Sapienza, in addition to a general introduction to the field, covered aspects of linguistic identity in networks such as the family, the circle of friends (with a focus on first amorous encounters), and linguistic education.

The results of this research project, part of Reading's Language, Text, and Power research theme, enriched by the observations of a lively debate at Pisa, will be prepared for publication in due course.

Reading's Classics Department is proud of its successful faculty-student research: find out more about this aspect of the Department's research culture in the Autumn 2011 issue of Teaching Matters (pdf document).

A Generous Donation of Books

The Department is very grateful to a recent alumna, Clare Stephens (BA Classical Studies 2010), for a generous gift of books. The volumes will be added to our resources room collection for future generations of students to enjoy. Many thanks, Clare!

Student Satisfaction and Employability

Today the results of the 2011 National Student Survey were released on the Unistats website. Reading's Classics Department achieved an outstanding 100% overall satisfaction rate this year, a result only paralleled by the University of Cambridge. Additionally, the 2010 DLHE Destinations statistics show 52% of our 2010 graduates in graduate-level employment or further study six months after graduation. Another 40% were in other forms of employment.

Prof. Peter Kruschwitz, Head of Classics at Reading, said: "I would like to congratulate all teaching staff in my department on this fantastic achievement - this is a credit to our hard work, building up Reading as the most exciting and most attractive teaching environment in Classics. It is truly gratifying to see that our enthusiasm and passion for Classics has been honoured by our students - students who leave us with excellent employment prospects, even in the current economic climate. With one of Reading's Early Career Teaching Fellow among our staff, I am positive that we will be able to live up to this standard in the future."

I know what you did last summer...

Summertime is an exciting time of year for all academics in the Classics Department: this is when we carry out most of our intensive research, work on our publications, and of course prepare our next year's lectures. Even though most of our Undergraduate studentship tends to be away from Reading over the summer, the Department is busy as always. Here are some of the highlights -

• The Classics Department, uniquely across the whole University, secured funding for no fewer than four placements through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP). Reading's UROP scheme gives undergraduate students the paid opportunity to work for six summer weeks with academic staff on actual research projects, often leading to publications or other outputs with the student's contribution properly acknowledged. This year undergraduates Jemima Duce, Egizia Maria Felice, Ed Howkins, and Aspen Rogers have been working on UROP projects reflecting our wide range of staff research interests: youth language phenomena in Latin, former Reading academic K. D. White's unfinished book on food and nutrition in antiquity, virtual reconstructions of Roman buildings, and ceramic standardisation in the work of the so-called Pan Painter.

• We are delighted to welcome Ms Marta Campagna to her placement in our Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology. For Marta the placement is part of her Master's programme at the University of Turin. The Museum has been busy throughout the summer with a programme of visits as well as its own conservation and research work.

• In July and August, we have been hosting the first Reading Latin Summer School: in an intensive programme over one month, a group of about ten students - from places as far away as Israel or even China- get to refresh their knowledge of the principles of the Latin language, preparing them for postgraduate study in a variety of fields (not just Classics: lots of subjects find a bit of Latin useful at master's level!). Their experience at Reading is further enhanced by a series of research staff-led seminars. The Summer school is led by Mr Stephen Moorby and Reading's very own Clare Coombe. Please contact us if you would be interested in attending a similar school next year!

Moreover, Dr Matthew Nicholls has been successful in a substantial bid for funding under his recently awarded Early Career Teaching Fellowship. Over the next few years, funds in excess of £19k will be invested in the development of virtual teaching resources at Classics, most notably a virtual model of Silchester which Dr Nicholls aims to produce with student participation (building on the UROP project mentioned above). Silchester is a Romano-British township, Calleva Atrebatum, close to Reading, with ongoing excavations by Reading's world-leading Archaeology Department. Dr Nicholls said 'I am delighted to be able to continue my work in this field, and to help bring Silchester back to life in digital form.'

Picture: work-in-progress shot of Dr Matthew Nicholls' digital model of ancient Rome, which he has been working on this summer with UROP student Ed Howkins and two postgraduate students, Giansimone Poggi and Orlando Kalossakas. © Matthew Nicholls 2011.

Prof. Peter Kruschwitz, Head of Classics, said: "In its one-hundredth year, Classics at Reading presents itself as a vibrant community of scholars, committed to high-quality research and teaching, and fostering the links between the two. I am particularly proud of our excellent practice of joint staff-student research, something that is quite unique to Reading's student experience. The substantial investment in teaching and learning in Classics will make a significant contribution to our competitiveness and attractiveness under the new fees regime. We will continue our efforts to ensure that Reading's Classics Department remains a driving force for research and teaching excellence, both in the UK and internationally."

Our international reach: Reading Classicists visit Spain

At the end of May 2011, Dr Amy Smith represented the Department of Classics on an Erasmus teaching exchange to Barcelona, where she lectured to MA students in ancient history at the Universitat Autònoma di Barcelona (UAB). Her lecture on political personifications in Classical Athens - the subject of her very recently published book, Polis & Personification in Classical Athenian Art (see http://www.brill.nl/polis-and-personification-classical-athenian-art) - attracted a diverse and enthusiastic audience consisting of staff as well as students.

Turnout was impressive considering the student protests taking place at that time in Barcelona and other Spanish urban centres! Although Smith chose to lecture in her native English rather than Catalan or the romance languages with which people in Catalonia are also familiar (Spanish and Italian were suggested as possible options) the audience asked challenging questions and made insightful comments, showing a particular enthusiasm for ancient religious ideas.

Professor Oriol Olesti Vila, an ancient historian specialising in Roman cultures, who is the Erasmus coordinator for UAB's Department of the Study of Antiquity, and has himself lectured to Classics students at the University of Reading, also took Dr. Smith to the National Museum of Archaeology of Catalonia, in Barcelona, where he introduced her to museum colleagues, glass experts installing a new display, and the excavators of Empùries (Emporion), an important ancient harbour North of Barcelona, where Archaic Greeks had settled from the 8th century BC.

In conversation with Dr. Marta Santos, the site's director, Dr. Smith learned of a recently published fragment attributed to the Classical Athenian vase painter known as the 'Pan Painter', in whom Smith has become an international authority. When granted access to this find, Dr Smith was happy to agree with the attribution. She was also fortunate enough to find and study 4 vases in the National Archaeological Museum, in Madrid (currently undergoing major rebuilding and redesign), during her visit to Spain.

Three of Reading's undergraduates are currently participating in Professor Olesti Vila's excavations in the Pyrenees, and Oriol Olesti Vila and Amy Smith and their colleagues continue to explore other ways in which the departmental relationship can be intensified.

Reading Classics Undergraduates Engage in Research!

Reading's Classics Department strongly believes in the value and the support of Undergraduate research projects. We have attracted a decent number of UROP projects in the past, and this year we will be able to offer four summer placements (see the UROP pages for further information). Our efforts find their match in our students' most recent excellent achievements:

Two of our current Undergraduates had their papers accepted for the British Conference of Undergraduate Research that took place in April 2011 at the University of Central Lancashire. Sarah Wallace gave a presentation on her third-year dissertation project on the Changing Faces of Medusa. Patrick Holmes presented on his work on the so-called First Catilinarian Conspiracy, resulting from his coursework for CL2RR - Roman Republic. Sarah's presentation was awarded a book token for the best presentation in the Society and Culture section, and Patrick has been invited to submit his paper to a journal of undergraduate research.

Alicia Cleary-Venables and Prof. Peter Kruschwitz attended a conference on Form and Meaning in Roman Drama (Bochum, Germany) in May 2011. They gave a joint presentation of the results of their last year's UROP project on Latin Forms of Apology: the Case of Terence. The results of their research will be published as a co-authored article in an edited volume in due course. (Photo: courtesy of Prof. Roberto Danese, Urbino)

Peter Kruschwitz (Head of Department) said: "The Classics Department is very aware of the excellent work that our students do, and we are keen to support them as much as possible to develop their full potential. The most recent successes are a credit to our studentship, and we are proud of them. I am looking forward to future student research initiatives."

Celebrating the Reading Aulos

The aulos in the Ure Museum in Reading is a rare example of a popular musical instrument from Ancient Greece. We were delighted to host an international colloquium in its honour on 27 March 2011, attracting scholars from the UK, Austria, Belgium, Greece, Italy, Japan, and the United States. Presenters on this occasion included Amy Smith, Stelios Psaroudakes, Stefan Hagel, Helen King, and Ewen Bowie, and the convenor was Ian Rutherford. A short video, giving an impression of both the event and Dr Hagel's musical performance on that occasion, can be found on our YouTube channel.

Success for Dr Roselaar

Dr Saskia Roselaar, who is a fixed-term Teaching Fellow in the Department of Classics, has secured an Advanced Research Fellowship at the University of Nottingham. She will leave Reading's Classics Department as planned on 30 September to take up the Fellowship afterwards. Many congratulations!

Teaching and Learning Excellence in Classics

Dr Matthew Nicholls has been elected Early Career Teaching Fellow of the University of Reading. This outstanding achievement recognises Dr Nicholls's excellence in developing Teaching and Learning in the Department of Classics, most notably his achievements in the development of digital learning resources. The award also is a credit to the Department's ongoing efforts and investments to be among the most competitive and most attractive places for undergraduate and postgraduate study in the UK. The award will allow Dr Nicholls to bid for funding of up to £20k over the next three years to develop further teaching-and-learning related projects.

Dr Kruschwitz, Head of Classics, says: "I would like to congratulate Dr Nicholls for this well-deserved award. World-class teaching of our undergraduate and postgraduate students is at the heart of what we do in Reading's Classics Department, and I am delighted that this effort has been recognised."

Further information on Reading's Teaching Fellowship scheme can be found here.

Departmental Travel Awards 2011

Congratulations to this year's winners of the Departmental Travel Awards: Rebekah Print, Joshua Perella, and Katerina Volioti.

Classics successful in securing four UROP studentships in 2011

The Department is delighted to be able to offer four exciting and diverse UROP placements for current Undergraduates in 2011:

Principal Investigator	Project title
Dr Peter Kruschwitz	How to be cool in Latin. Youth Language Phenomena in Roman Sources
Dr Annalisa Marzano	Puzzling knowledge (together): the last work of Prof. K.D. White
Dr Matthew Nicholls	Virtual Rome - modelling the ancient city
Dr Amy Smith	Ceramic standardisation in the work of an Athenian vase painter (the Pan Painter)

For further information, please refer to the UROP webpage.

Classics welcomes Academic Visitor from Italy

Having graduated both in Classics and in Foreign Languages and Literatures (English and French), Chiara Rolli is currently undertaking a PhD in "Greek and Latin Philology, and Modern Literatures" at the University of Parma, Italy.  In the academic year 2010-2011, she taught seminars on British identity in the light of the British imperial experience, and organized a conference "Classics in the Modern", held at the University of Parma on February 16, 2011.  She is currently pursuing her doctoral research at the University of Reading, about the impact of Cicero and classical sources on the impeachment of Warren Hastings by Edmund Burke in the late eighteenth century.  Her areas of interest include British imperialism and the education of the British elite in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  She is also interested in the relationship between Classics, post-colonial literatures, and twentieth-century British literature.

A Generous Donation

The Department of Classics is very grateful for a recent gift of 34 Loeb volumes from PhD student Mick Stringer. The books, by a wide variety of authors, will be placed in our resources room and will be of great benefit to present and future students. This generous gift will be a real asset to them and to the Department, so we are very grateful to Mick.

Aphrodite Revealed

Amy Smith and Sadie Pickup (Oxford) have edited selected papers from the Aphrodite Revealed conference (May 2008), which has recently been republished been published as Brill's Companion to Aphrodite. It is a multidisciplinary treatment of the presentation and reception of the Greek goddess of love, from her Near Eastern 'roots' to the 19th-century art market.

Departmental Travel Awards 2010

Congratulations to this year's winners of the Departmental Travel Awards: Virginia Campbell, Patrick Holmes, Amy Knaggs, Joshua Perella, and Jemima Westwood.

Dr Annalisa Marzano awarded fellowship at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World

Dr Annalisa Marzano has been awarded a prestigious fellowship to spend the academic year 2010/11 as as Visiting Research Scholar at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University.  She will complete her monograph The Exploitation of Marine Resources in the Roman Mediterranean, plus give research seminars and public lectures.

Dr Emma Aston wins Think Space award

Dr Emma Aston, Part 1 Coordinator, has won one of the first of the new 'Think Space' awards from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.  These are designed to help develop Part 1 modules.  Dr Aston will
collaborate with colleagues in the Department to enhance the independent learning components of CL1CB, 'Rome in the Augustan Age', and to produce new teaching materials . 'Rome in the Augustan Age' is one of our core modules at Part 1 and regularly attracts up to 200 students.

Erasmus Exchange Programme with the University of Barcelona

An Erasmus Staff Exchange Programme has been set up over the summer between our department and the Department of Ancient History at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, building on preexisting research contacts between Dr Marzano and Spanish scholars at that institution.

Dr Oriol Olesti, Professor Titular de Historia Antigua, currently engaged in a project to locate Roman gold mines in the Pyrenees, will be visiting Reading from 22 to 27 of February, and on that occasion he will be offering two research seminars on recent research work on Roman Spain. Dr Marzano will be going to Barcelona in May.

A Generous Donation

The Department is very grateful to a recent alumna, Sarah Mayhew (MA City of Rome 2008, BA Ancient History 2007) for a generous gift of books. Sarah works as Publications Assistant at the Institute for Classical Studies, University of London. She is happy to talk to current students about careers in academic administration, management and publishing. Her contact details are: sarah.mayhew@sas.ac.uk.