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James Lloyd

A black and white image  of  a man wearing a checked shirt and glasses, standing on a rooftop playing two flutes

Areas of interest

My main areas of interest stem from the focus of my PhD thesis, music and Sparta, with particular interests in Spartan lead votive figurines, Spartan art and archaeology, ancient musical instruments (not just Greek and Roman), and music and identity. I also have a keen interest in photogrammetry and museums and am the Communications Officer for the Classical Collections Network. I am currently researching music and musical instruments in Roman Britain, supported by the Society of Antiquaries of London’s William Lambarde Travel Award.

I keep a blog where I occasionally post about research, and you can hear me talk about ancient music here. If you are in Reading, you can even have a look at a very rare and well-crafted example of an ancient Greek musical pipe yourself. It is in the Ure Museum and called the Reading aulos, it is over 2000 years old!

I am always happy to talk about collaborations or chat about the ancient world.

Teaching

I have taught on a range of modules at Reading, from Greek and Roman history to ancient Greek language. I have had a great experience running my own Part 3 module, Ancient Sparta (CL3SP), and you can read about some of the amazing work students produced in 2020-21 here.

Background

I grew up in Birmingham and moved to the University of Exeter for a BA in Hellenic Studies with Archaeology and then an MA in Classics and Ancient History. I came to Reading in 2015 for my PhD, which was funded by the AHRC’s SWW-DTP. The project was supervised by Ian Rutherford (Reading) and co-supervised by Lynette Mitchell (Exeter). If you are thinking of applying for a PhD at Reading, I’d be more than happy to chat about my experiences and help with any questions you might have!

I completed my PhD in 2019, and in April 2022 I will start a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, titled “Musical Identities, Knowledge, and Exchange in the Archaic Greek Mediterranean”.

A more complete academic CV can be found here.

Publications

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