skip to content

Faculty of Classics

 

Biography

Carol Atack returned to Cambridge in 2019, after holding teaching positions in Classics at Oxford and Warwick, and working on the Anachronism and Antiquity project at the Faculty of Classics, University of Oxford. 

Research

Ancient Greek political thought, historiography, gender and sexuality, classical reception.

Publications

Key publications: 

Anachronism and Antiquity (2020), with Tim Rood and Tom Phillips, Bloomsbury Academic.

The Discourse of Kingship in Classical Greece (2019), Routledge Classical Monographs. 

‘Plato’s Queer Time: dialogic moments in the life and death of Socrates’ (2020), Classical Receptions JournalAnachronism and Antiquity special issue, Vol 12, Issue 1, pp. 10-31.

 ‘“I will interpret”: the Eighth Letter as a response to Plato’s literary method and political thought’ (2019), Classical Quarterly Vol. 69, Issue 2, pp. 616-35.

‘Tradition and innovation in the polis-kosmos analogy’, (2019) in P. Horky (ed.) Ancient Cosmos: Concord among Worlds, Cambridge University Press, pp. 164-187.

‘Plato, Foucault and the conceptualization of parrhēsia’ (2019), History of Political Thought Vol. 40, Issue 1, pp. 23-48.

Politeia and the past in Xenophon and Isocrates’ (2018), in M. Tamiolaki (ed.) ‘Xenophon and Isocrates. Political Affinities and Literary Interactions’, Trends in Classics Vol. 10, Issue 1, pp. 171-194.

‘Xenophon and the performativity of kingship’ (2018), in D. Allen, P. Christesen and P. Millett (edd.), How To Do Things With History, Oxford University Press, pp. 109-135.

‘Plato’s Statesman and Xenophon’s Cyrus’ (2018), in G. Danzig, D. Johnson and D. Morrison (edd.), Plato and Xenophon: comparative studies, Brill, pp. 510-543.

‘Imagined Superpowers: Isocrates on Athens and Sparta’ (2018), in A. Powell and P. Cartledge (edd.) The Greek Superpower: Sparta in the Self-Definitions of Athenians, Classical Press of Wales, pp. 157-184.

‘Aristotle’s pambasileia and the metaphysics of monarchy’ (2015), Polis Vol. 32, Issue 2, pp. 297-320.

‘The discourse of kingship in classical Athenian thought’ (2014), Histos Vol. 8, pp. 329-362.

Director of Studies in Classics, Bye-fellow and assistant tutor, Newnham College.
Dr Carol  Atack
Not available for consultancy

Affiliations

Classifications: 

Latest news

Senior Curator: Mediterranean Antiquities

28 April 2025

The Faculty and the Fitzwilliam Museum and are seeking to appoint a Senior Curator of Mediterranean Antiquities. The post-holder will be the curatorial and research lead for the Fitzwilliam's substantial collection of Mediterranean antiquities, and will also be a senior member of the Faculty of Classics: 20% of the role...

Ralegh Radford Rome Award

3 April 2025

The Faculty is delighted to report that Jonathan Steward has been awarded the Ralegh Radford Rome Award, BSR, for Lent Term 2026.

Pat Story

2 April 2025

We are very sad to pass on the news of the death of Pat Story on 25th March, after a short illness. Pat has been the single most important figure in classics education for the last 50 years and her passing marks the end of an era. There will be a celebration of her life in Hughes Hall at 2pm on Saturday 17 May. All are...

VIEWS Visiting Fellowships and Remote Inclusivity Fellowships

31 March 2025

The Faculty is pleased to announce that the UKRI funded VIEWS project has launched this year’s visiting fellowship competition, with a new virtual fellowship aimed at tackling inequalities in academia alongside the usual competition. For more information see here . The deadline for both competitions is Friday 23rd May 2025...