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Faculty of Classics

 

Biography

I am a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Classics and a member of Corpus Christi College. My work is generously funded by a Gates Cambridge Scholarship from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and a Cambridge Australia Honorary Scholarship from the Cambridge Australia Trust. Before arriving in Cambridge in Michaelmas 2019, I studied for six years at the University of Sydney, where I completed a Bachelor of Arts in Ancient Greek and Ancient History (First Class Honours and the University Medal) and a Master of Philosophy in Classics and Ancient History.

Research

My research focusses primarily on ancient geographical literature. I am currently completing a doctoral thesis on Greek Periplography in the Roman Imperial Period under the supervision of Professor Tim Whitmarsh and Professor Renaud Gagné. The thesis reimagines periplography as a vibrant, dynamic, and politically engaged arena of literary production under the Roman Empire via an exploration of its volatile politics of form. 

I am concurrently undertaking several smaller research projects on postclassical geographical verse, with a particular focus on the traffic between technical prose and didactic poetry. Articles based on this work are forthcoming in Classical Quarterly and Mnemosyne.

I also maintain an active interest in early Christian apologetic literature, especially of the second and third centuries. I am particularly interested in Clement of Alexandria and am currently finalising an article on his apologetic use of etymology in the Protrepticus.

I am open to collaborative work in all of these areas and am happy to be contacted with developed or preliminary suggestions.

Publications

Key publications: 

Peer Reviewed Articles:

  • (with Grant Kynaston) (Forthcoming) ‘Autopsy and Didactic Authority: Rethinking the Prologue of the Periodos to Nicomedes’, Classical Quarterly.
  • (2022) ‘Geography in Couplets? A Note on the Fragment(s) of Zenothemis’ Periplous’, Mnemosyne 75.3: 521-30. 
  • (2016) ‘The Paradox of Gerontocracy in Homer’s Iliad’, Classicum 42(1): 14-18.

Book Chapters:

  • (Forthcoming) 'Prayer' in Julia Kindt (ed.) Ancient Greek Personal Religion (Cambridge University Press).
  • (Forthcoming) 'Almost There: Ekphrasis and Virtual Experience in Heliodorus' Aethiopica' in Eric Csapo, Emmanuela Bakola, Xavier Buxton, and Zhara Newby (edd.) Experiencing Ancient Festivals (Oxford University Press). 
  • (with Estelle Strazdins) (In Preparation) 'Introduction' in Daniel Hanigan and Estelle Strazdins (edd.) Terraqueous Topographies in Postclassical Greek Literature
  • (In Preparation) 'Floating in the Contact Zone: Dionysius of Byzantium and the Politics of Plurality' in Daniel Hanigan and Estelle Strazdins (edd.) Terraqueous Topographies in Postclassical Greek Literature

Edited Volumes: 

  • (with Estelle Strazdins) (In Preparation) Terraqueous Topographies in Postclassical Greek Literature.

Reviews:

  • (Forthcoming) Georgia L. Irby, 'Conceptions of the Watery World in Greco-Roman Antiquity', Journal of Roman Studies
  • (2022) Duane Roller, 'Three Ancient Geographical Treatises in Translation: Hanno, The King Nikomedes Periodos, and Avienus'. Classical Review 73.1: 1-3. 
  • (2021) Alice König, Rebecca Langlands, and James Uden (eds.) ‘Literature and Culture in the Roman Empire, 96-235: Cross-Cultural Interactions’, Bryn Mawr Classical Review.

Reference Entries:

  • (Forthcoming) 'Dionysius of Byzantium', Oxford Classical Dictionary

Translations:

  • (of Florian Steger and Frank Ursin) (2020) ‘Animals in Asclepian Medicine: Myth, Cult, and Miracle Healings’ in Julia Kindt (ed.) Animals in Ancient Greek Religion (London: Routledge): 239-59. (German to English)

Popular Audience:

  • (2020) ‘Orbis Terrarum: The Global Imaginary from Antiquity to Earthrise’, The Scholar.
  • (2016) ‘Brothers: A Translation of the New Sappho’, in ARNA (Sydney Arts Students Society Literary Journal).

Teaching and Supervisions

Teaching: 

I currently hold the post of Praeceptor in Classics at Corpus Christi College. I also supervise students both in the Faculty of Classics as a Postgraduate Teaching Assistant (PTA) and at several colleges on a range of topics related to Greek and Latin language and literature. I have previously supervised students from under-represented social and educational backgrounds through the Corpus Christi College Bridging Course (2020). 

Other Professional Activities

In September 2021, I convened (with Conor Mckee, University of Cambridge) Macrocosms and Microcosms from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages. This international symposium interrogated the combative and collaborative traditions of cosmic representation (in Greek, Latin, Arabic, Syriac, Middle English, and Medieval French) in circulation between the second and twelfth centuries, focussing particularly on points of thematic intersection between diverse cultural and linguistic communities. In April 2022, I convened (with Estelle Strazdins, University of Queensland) Terraqueous Topographies in Postclassical Greek Literature. This international conference explored the presentation and manipulation of amphibian spaces (coasts, marshes, straits, promontories, swamps, etc.) by Hellenistic and Roman authors with a view to recovering these hybrid zones as sites of cultural and literary interest in the expanding and increasingly interconnected world(s) of postclassical antiquity. 

I also founded and currently convene the Ecocritical Classics Reading Group in the Faculty of Classics (2021-22) and have previously convened (with Rares Marinescu, University of Cambridge) the Cambridge Late Antique Network Seminar Series (2020-21).

I am a member in good standing of the Society for Classical Studies (SCS), the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies (SPHS), and the Classical Association of the United Kingdom (CA).

Praeceptor in Classics at Corpus Christi College
Supervisor: Prof. Tim Whitmarsh
Title of Thesis: The Politics of Form in Imperial Greek Periplography
 Daniel  Hanigan
Not available for consultancy

Affiliations

Latest news

Classics Shorts with Mary Beard: videos for schools

19 February 2023

We are thrilled to be launching Classics Shorts : a series of videos for schools introducing the ancient Greek and Roman worlds and exploring themes with continuing resonance for the modern classroom. Each film is accompanied by teaching materials for use in schools. Celebrity guests join Mary Beard and her colleagues to...

New appointment in Classical Archaeology

10 February 2023

The Faculty is delighted to announce that Dr Jane Rempel has been appointed to an Assistant Professorship in Classics from 1 September 2023. She is currently Lecturer in Classical Archaeology at the University of Sheffield.

Regius Professorship of Greek

16 January 2023

The Faculty is delighted to announce that Professor Tim Whitmarsh FBA has been elected Regius Professor of Greek from 1 April 2023. He is currently the A. G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture in the University. Looking ahead to his new role, Professor Whitmarsh commented: ’I am thrilled and honoured to be taking up this...

Mary Beard receives THE Outstanding Achievement Award

18 November 2022

Professor Mary Beard received the Outstanding Achievement Award at the 2022 Times Higher Education Awards . The citation hailed how she had “broken through the ivory tower’s walls and brought her unique enthusiasm for her subject – and crucially, what it can teach us about contemporary life and politics – to the world”...