skip to content

Faculty of Classics

 

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.”

Latest news

Teaching Associate in Classical Art and Archaeology

27 February 2026

The Faculty of Classics is seeking to appoint a temporary Teaching Associate in Classical Art and Archaeology from 1 October 2026 for twelve months. The post is open to those at any stage of their career, with a primary research and teaching interest in any area of Classical Archaeology. The Faculty is particularly...

Kennedy Professorship of Latin

19 January 2026

The Faculty is delighted to announce that Professor Christopher Whitton has accepted election to the Kennedy Professorship of Latin from 1 October 2026.

Professor Nicholas Zair awarded Leverhulme Research Fellowship

8 January 2026

The Faculty is pleased to announce that Professor Nicholas Zair has been awarded a 3 year Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship from 2026-2029 for his project Understanding Oscan. The Fellowship will allow Nick to spend the next three years working on Oscan, which was spoken widely across Southern Italy between the fifth...

Dr Ben Gray, Assistant Professor in Classics (Ancient History)

20 October 2025

The Faculty is delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Ben Gray ( Birkbeck, University of London) as Assistant Professor in Classics (Ancient History) from 1st January 2026.