Staff Profile:Dr Jo Brown

Name::

Dr Jo Brown

Position / Job Title:

Sessional lecturer

Responsibilities:

In 2011-12 I will be teaching seminars in Greek History, and will convene and  teach a module on Greek Historical Writing. In the past, I have contributed to  the teaching of modules on Fifth-Century Athens, Augustan Rome, Gender in  the Ancient World and Text and Object.

Areas of Interest:

My doctoral thesis focuses upon the analysis of nineteenth- and early  twentieth-century academic accounts of classical Athenian women, and the  effect on this discussion of the discoveries in Knossos in 1900. I argue that the  dominant paradigm in the nineteenth-century discourse on Athenian women  consisted of a scale of oppression on which the Athenian woman was situated,  between the 'Oriental' woman at one end and the 'modern Christian woman'  at the other. Construed as 'modern,' the Minoan woman signified the new  discipline of classical archaeology, as she appeared to undermine the  Athenians' claims to superiority and cultural relevance. However, I note that  despite the disruption caused to the discourse of classics in general, and her  shadowy appearance in early twentieth-century classical studies, the Minoan  woman failed to fundamentally alter the terms of the argument. I conclude that  the basis of the study of Minoan women in the less prestigious discipline of  archaeology and her association with the 'primitive matriarchy' allowed for  her neglect by Classicists.

Research groups / Centres:

Publications:

• 'The Athenian Harem: Orientalism and the Historiography of Athenian  Women in the Nineteenth Century" New Voices in Classical Reception  Studies (2011, forthcoming)

Conference papers:

•  "The Ancients and the Locals: Arthur Evans and the Depiction of Ancient and  Modern Cretan Women in Archaeology" University of Reading, June 2011
•  "The Athenian Harem: Orientalism and the Historiography of Ancient  Athenian Women in the Nineteenth Century" University of Reading,  December 2010
• ""Preferring the Roots to the Fruit": the Ideological Clash between Classical  and Prehistoric Archaeology in the Early Twentieth Century," University of  Reading, June 2010
•  "Deciphering the Women: the Study of Ancient Greek Women since the Nineteenth Century," BIRTHA 2009, University of Bristol, September 2009 
• ""No Harem Slave": Constructions of Classical Athenian Women in  Nineteenth Century Social Histories of Greece," AMPAH 2008, University of  Cambridge, March 2008