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Faculty of Classics

 

Dr Albert Bates is a Research Fellow in Classics, specialising in how the visual, literary, and philosophical cultures of Graeco-Roman antiquity interacted.

Biography

  • Research Fellow (2022-2025), Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
  • Lecturer in Classics (2022-2023), King's College London
  • PhD Classics (2018-2022), Christ's College, Cambridge
  • MPhil Classics (2016-2017), Wolfson College, Cambridge
  • MA Classics (2012-2016), St. Hilda's College, Oxford

Research

Key interests: art and text; ecphrasis (the description of an artwork); the historiography of ancient art; philosophical theories of sense-perception, imagination, and representation; Greek mythology in Roman culture; animals in ancient art and thought; Greek literature of the Roman empire.

I have two on-going, research projects. The first builds on my PhD, which was awarded Cambridge's 2023 Hare Prize for the best dissertation in Classics. It is on the philosophy of Greek mythology in the art and ecphrasis of the Roman empire. It explores how the picturing of certain myths enabled artworks and descriptions of artworks to intervene in complex philosophical debates about the nature of viewing, especially those concerned with phantasia (impression/imagination), katalēpsis (apprehension), and apatē (deception). Part of this project on Philostratus' Imagines, Hercules' infanticide and the Stoic-sceptic debate on katalēpsis has been published in the American Journal of Philology.

The second project is on the self-reflexivity of animals in Graeco-Roman art. Recouping animals from the sidelines of classical art history, this project interrogates how the depiction of certain animals – namely, those associated with theories of representation, deception, craftsmanship and beauty in the literary and philosophical traditions – enabled self-conscious reflection on the very nature of art. An early fruit of this project on the mimic octopus and the ontology of the image in Greek red-figure fish plates and Roman fish mosaics has recently been published in Art History.

Publications

Key publications: 

'Octopodal Pictoriality: The Self-Reflexivity of the Octopus in Graeco-Roman Art'. Art History 47(1): 154-186. 2024.

'Philostratus Visualises the Philosophical: Imagines 2.23, Hercules furens and the Cataleptic Impression'. American Journal of Philology 142(1): 137-175. 2021.

Teaching and Supervisions

Teaching: 

I supervise papers in Greek & Latin Language & Literature and Art & Archaeology for the Faculty of Classics. I also lecture for the Department of History of Art.

Research Fellow in Classics
Sidney Sussex College
Not available for consultancy

Latest news

Teaching Associate in Greek literature (Temporary Cover)

6 February 2025

The Faculty of Classics is seeking to appoint a Temporary Teaching Associate in Classics (Greek literature) from 1 October 2025 for two years. This post is open to those, at any stage in their career, with a primary research and teaching interest in ancient Greek literature. The successful applicant will benefit from the...

Assistant Professor in Classics (Ancient Greek History)

4 February 2025

The Faculty of Classics is seeking to appoint an Assistant Professor in Classics (Ancient Greek History) from 1 September 2025. The role is open to those, at any stage in their career, with a primary research interest in Archaic/Classical/Hellenistic Greek History. The successful candidate will have the ability, or be...

Philip Leverhulme Prizes 2024

18 October 2024

The Faculty is delighted to announce that both Dr Lea Niccolai and Dr Henry Spelman have been awarded Philip Leverhulme Prizes in the 2024 competition. Professor Anna Vignoles, Director of the Leverhulme Trust, said: “Now in its twenty-third year, this scheme continues to attract applications from extraordinarily high...

Elen Wynne Vanstone Award

3 October 2024

The Faculty would like to congratulate Sólveig Hilmarsdóttir for winning the The British Federation of Women Graduates' Elen Wynne Vanstone Award for her work Talis homo qualis oratio: social status and its connection to the language of Roman writers. Sólveig works on the interface between Latin linguistics and Latin...