Classics Research
Current Research in Classics is organised around four main themes in the study of ancient Greece and Rome: drama; historical and fictional narrative, politics; and the receptions of classical antiquity.
As part of the politics strand, Classics is home to a five-year ERC research project on the fragments of the Roman orators, under the direction of Professor Catherine Steel.
Cross-cutting issues include the interpretative challenges posed by fragmentary texts, in which the subject area has particularly wide experience (comedy, historiography, oratory).
Themes
Drama
(School themes: Enlightenment and Engagement/Public Humanities; Imagination and Society)
The subject has particular strengths in the study of comedy, Greek and Roman, using a full range of methodologies from traditional philology to theoretical investigation. Major publications are Costas Panyotakis' edition and commentary on the writer of Roman mime, Decimus Laberius (Cambridge University Press, 2010) and Ian Ruffell's study of the theory and practice of anti-realism in Greek comedy (Oxford University Press, 2011), along with numerous articles on all aspects of ancient comedy. Dr Panayotakis is further working on an edition with commentary of the sententiae of the mime writer Publilius Syrus and of the fragments of Atellane farce. Panayotakis and Ruffell collaborate on a number of projects, most significantly a forthcoming conference on Popular Comedy and an international project on Plautus.
Ruffell is also working in the field of Greek tragedy, with his Aeschylus: Prometheus Bound due in early 2012 and a panel (co-organised with Dr Lisa Hau) on tragedy and historiography's constructions of the past at the 2012 Celtic Conference in Classics (see below).
Historical and Fictional Narrative
(School themes: Enlightenment and Engagement; Imagination and Society)
Matthew Fox and Lisa Hau lead the subject's interests in historiography. Fox's major publications are studies of Roman Historical Myths (Oxford University Press, 1996) and of Cicero's Philosophy of History (Oxford University Press, 2007). Hellenistic historiography is a particular current focus, with Hau's monograph, entitled History as Teacher: Moral Didacticism in Greek Historiography, in preparation and a very successful recent conference in Glasgow, ‘Diodorus Siculus: Shared Myths, World Community, and Universal History’ (2011), the procedings of which will be published with Peeters, Leuven. A panel on ‘Pluralising the Past: Truth, Fiction and Belief in Tragedy and Historiography’ is part of the 2012 Celtic Conference in Classics in Bordeaux, and large-scale narratological project on the Greek historians is in preparation.
Fictional and satirical narrative has been a longstanding interest of Dr Panayotakis, intersecting with work on drama. His book, Theatrum Arbitri: Theatrical Elements in the Satyrica of Petronius (Brill, 1995) has been followed by a series of articles, and he is currently working on a commentary on ‘Dinner at Trimalchio’s’ from Petronius' Satyrica.
Politics
(School themes: Enlightenment and Engagement/Public Humanities; Imagination and Society)
Catherine Steel's authoritative work on Roman oratory, particularly Cicero (Cicero: Rhetoric and Empire, Oxford University Press, 2002; Reading Cicero, Duckworth, 2005), and her forthcoming history of the late Republic (Edinburgh University Press, expected 2012) have led into two current major research projects on politics and communication in the Roman Republic.
- SPQR: the Roman Senate in the 21st century is supported by a British Academy mid-career fellowship to develop a series of articles on the Roman Senate, leading to a monograph on The Senate of Republican Rome, and host a symposium in Glasgow in September 2012, ‘The Legacy of the Roman Senate’
- The Fragments of the Roman Republican Orators is a five-year European Research Council project to edit, translate and comment on the surviving fragments of oratory in the Roman Republic: for further details see the FRRO Project page.
Political engagement is also central to Matthew Fox's work on dialogue. He is preparing the ground for a multi-disciplinary project on the hermeneutics of dialogue, authority and models of justice. Politics, ancient and modern, are also central to Ian Ruffell's work on Greek drama, both comedy and tragedy.
Reception of classical antiquity
(School themes: Scotland and Scottish Culture; Enlightenment and Engagment/Public Humanities)
The subject has a wide interest in the reception of antiquity, from the Renaissance through to contemporary theatre. Luke Houghton has already published a number of papers on the afterlives of Augustan Poetry, particularly in the Renaissance, and is preparing a major monograph on Virgil’s Fourth Eclogue: a cultural history is in preparation. Together with Dr Marco Sgarbi (University of Verona), he is organising a conference on Virgil and Renaissance Culture / Virgilio e la cultura del Rinascimento, to be held at the Accademia Nazionale Virgiliana in Mantua, 15-16 October 2012. This follows a conference on the reception of Horace, proceedings published in 2009 with Cambridge University Press (co-edited with Professor Maria Wyke, UCL).
Matthew Fox has been investigating the evolution of Classics as a discipline in the early eighteenth century, and looking at the boundaries between history of scholarship and reception studies, in particular during the Enlightenment.
Neo-Latin poetry in Scotland and in Britain more widely is another focus, developing the interests of Emeritus Professor Roger Green, who recently published the proceedings of a conference on George Buchanan (with Philip Ford, Classical Press of Wales, 2009). Neo-Latin poetry in the British Isles is a collection of essays edited by Dr Houghton and Professor Gesine Manuwald (UCL) which will appear in 2012. Together with Dr Steven Reid in History, Dr Houghton is exploring the Latin culture of Jacobean Scotland. The classical tradition in Scotland more widely is an ongoing interest of both Dr Houghton and Professor Fox, with a number of research and cultural projects slated for the coming years.
Finally, the reception of ancient drama has been a dimension of Dr Ruffell's recent output, including studies of the expurgation of comic texts and on the (primarily) extra-dramatic reception history of Prometheus Bound, in addition to his contribution as a practitioner with translation work.
Postgraduate Research
There are a number of attractions to studying for a postgraduate degree in Classics at Glasgow, from the very well-stocked University Library, to the Hunterian Museum (with its notably fine coin collection), to a major centre in humanities computing (also part of the School of Humanities). There is a dedicated postgraduate study space, which makes available an extensive research collection, now augmented by a bequest from the late Professor Douglas MacDowell. Postgraduates play a full role in the research culture of the subject, with a regular programme of seminars, workshops and reading groups.
Staff members would be delighted to supervise in any of the areas set out above, or any others where they have research interests (see their respective list of publications). Other areas supervised recently include Greek scientific and medical writing, Roman eschatology and numismatics (in conjunction with the Hunterian Museum). Please do not hesitate to contact members of staff to discuss potential research projects.
Further Details
For further details, see individual staff pages.