The Faculty is delighted to announce the election of
Professor Josephine (Jo) Crawley Quinn to the Professorship of Ancient History and
Professor Serafina Cuomo to the A. G. Leventis Professorship of Greek Culture.
Jo will join the Faculty on 1 January 2025 and will be the first woman to hold the Professorship of Ancient History in the University. She is currently a Professor of Ancient History in the Faculty of Classics and Martin Frederiksen Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History at Worcester College, University of Oxford.
Her major publications include:
In Search of the Phoenicians. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018.
How the World Made the West: A 4,000-Year History. Bloomsbury Press, 2024.
She writes: "I’m thrilled to be joining Cambridge University and the Classics Faculty as scholars worldwide are breaking though traditional geographical, chronological, and linguistic boundaries to find new connections, ideas, and inspiration in ancient worlds. Cambridge’s remarkable strengths and tradition in Ancient History put it at the natural heart of these conversations, and I can’t wait to start exploring new approaches to antiquity with my students and colleagues there."
Serafina will join the Faculty on 1 September 2024. She is currently a Professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at Durham University.
Her major publications include:
Pappus of Alexandria and the Mathematics of Late Antiquity (Cambridge Classical Studies, Cambridge University Press, 2000)
Ancient Mathematics (Sciences of Antiquity, Routledge, 2001)
Technology and Culture in Greek and Roman Antiquity (Key Themes in Ancient History, Cambridge University Press, 2007)
Serafina will continue a strong tradition in the Faculty of an interest in ancient mathematics, technology, and science with close attention to their interaction with broader historical and cultural themes.
Serafina writes: “I am very excited to be joining the Faculty of Classics at Cambridge, and look forward to working together with such a vibrant, dynamic, and intellectually challenging community. It is an honour to follow in the footsteps of my predecessors in the role, and I am also proud to be the first woman to be elected to the Chair. It is my ambition to bring new perspectives to the study of Greek culture, and to engage with diverse audiences – I believe that classical antiquity is part of everybody’s past, and that it belongs to all of us.”