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Faculty of Classics

 

Biography

  • BA Classics, Durham University (2012-2015) First 
  • MA Fine art and Decorative Design, Sotheby's Institute (2016-2017) Distinction
  • Phd Classics (2017-) Impact of the Ancient City Project (ERC), University of Cambridge

I work on the classical reception in the nineteenth century. My thesis researches how urban planners engaged with the ancient past as a strategy for renewal. Both classical attitudes to the city, and the physical remains of Greco-Roman cities affected the construction of modern cities and vice versa. I investigate how public health stimulated a renewed study of the ancient world and its cities amongst both planners and archaeologists, who affected each other's image of the past. The thesis examines this double reception through engineering treatises, architectural manuals and city plans. I show how modern city planning in Italy took the ancient Roman city as a conceptual model in order to regenerate the Italian race. Biological theories shaped infrastructural objectives and projects (from urban layout, to water systems, to the archaeological park in Rome). The Italians sought to make new 'Romans'. 

My Phd is part of the ERC funded 'Impact of the Ancient City' Project. More information is below. 

Other Academic Interests

  • Fascist urban planning
  • Spatial syntax and language planning
  • Utopia
  • Early 20th century Italian Modernism (Futurism, Giorgio de Chirico)
  • British Modernism and Classicism (Vorticism, Edward Wadsworth, John Armstrong)

 

Publications

Key publications: 
  • 'Renewing Neapolis; modernisation in late nineteenth century Naples,” in Remembering and Forgetting the Ancient City. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2020. [Forthcoming]
  • 'Modern and Ancient Grids. To be, or not be Rome," Rome and the Colonial City. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2020. [Forthcoming]

Papers

  • "Re-imagining the Grid in the Nineteenth Century. To be, or not to be Rome," The British School at Rome, Rome, January 2020 

  • "Antiquity and Purity in Nineteenth Century Rome," Ludwig University of Munich, February 2020

  • "Ideal cities. The intersect of urban planning and archaeology in Rome, 1870-1914", Ecole Francaise, Rome, October 2019

  • "Subversive Classicism. Giorgio de Chirico and the British modernists," Cambridge University, March 2019

  • "Ideals of the ancient city. Urban planning in Paris, Barcelona, and Naples," Cambridge University, March 2019

  • "Futurism and the ancient city," Graduate Interdisciplinary Seminar, Cambridge University, March 2019

Blog

Teaching and Supervisions

Research supervision: 
  • Undergraduate supervision for the 'Rome the Very Idea', classical reception module
  • Lecturing on Italian fascism 
Research Assistant, Impact of the Ancient City
 Sofia  Greaves
Not available for consultancy

Affiliations

Classifications: 

Latest news

VIEWS PhD Studentship

4 April 2023

The Faculty of Classics is recruiting for a PhD student to join the Visual Interactions in Early Writing Systems (VIEWS) project in October 2023. The student will work on a predetermined topic, namely visual aspects of the linear scripts of the Bronze Age Aegean (Cretan Hieroglyphic, Linear A and Linear B), although there...

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...