New blog

We would like to direct any visitors to the site of our new blog, Topica! https://classicstopica.wixsite.com/topica Continue reading →

Pan, Plato, and the Nymphs: exploring Vari Cave

Mount Hymettus is known to the local people of Attica as the ‘Mad Mountain’, η Τρελοβούνι. Situated on the western side of the Attica peninsula and stretching above the coastal towns of Elliniko, Glyfada, and Voula, this mountain and its undulating topography are eclectic — if not ‘mad’. The granular limestone of the mountain makes … Continue reading →

World Cup Latin

World Cup fever is sweeping the country, as the men’s England football team are set to compete in what will be their first World Cup Semi-final in most of this graduate body’s lifetime (but let’s not forget that the women’s team did the same as recently as 2015!). To mark the occasion, the Cambridge Classics … Continue reading →

Island hopping around Greece, volume 5: Milos, Amorgos, and Santorini

Cast your mind back a few weeks — when the weather was still cool and the cicadas were still quiet. In mid-June, I took my last exploratory trip around the Aegean islands (if you’re late to the party, catch up here: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4). This voyage of discovery (also, an … Continue reading →

The Lego Acropolis: history brick by brick

If you find time to visit only one of Athens’ many museum collections, make it the Acropolis museum. Right in the centre of the historic city, this award-winning museum houses over 4,000 objects from the Acropolis — the fortified hill in Athens, most famous for its fifth century B.C. marble temples. The Parthenon, in particular, … Continue reading →

Island hopping around Greece, volume 4: Samos and Rhodes

The next stage of my itinerant fieldwork round the Aegean islands sees me working my way further alongside the coast of Turkey (parts one, two, and three here). In fact, I was a mere mile from Turkey at one stage — and Didim was perfectly clear on the horizon, where I’ve happily spent the past few … Continue reading →

Island hopping around Greece, volume 3: Lesbos and Chios

The next stage of my research on the islands of Greece (parts one and two here) brings me to the coast of Turkey. I’m moving down a set of islands that are so close to the Turkish mainland that I’ve been able to see across to Ayvalık and Çeşme — and I can almost taste … Continue reading →

Island hopping around Greece, volume 2: Andros, Naxos, and Paros

Continuing on from last time, here’s the next thrilling instalment of my Greek Island hopping fieldwork adventure. Having been left abandoned on the shores of Mykonos in the last episode, I was soon back on the road (/the sea). Next stop: more of the Northern Cyclades. Andros Andros is the northern-most of the Cycladic islands, … Continue reading →

Island hopping around Greece, volume 1: Mykonos, Delos, and Tinos

For the next few months —and thanks to the generosity of my funding body— I’m on a Greek Odyssey. As part of my PhD fieldwork, I’m visiting the archaeological sites and museum collections from some of the Cyclades, Dodecanese, and Northern Aegean islands. These groups of islands comprise some of 6000 islands in the middle … Continue reading →

How Classicists can have more influence on public policy

“How did you get from Classics to policy?!” – a question often posed to me, often incredulously, during my internship at the Cambridge Centre for Science and Policy (CSaP) funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).   And yet, far from being irrelevant to the “real” world, the ancient world cropped up again … Continue reading →