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Faculty of Classics

 

Biography

I studied Classics and Ancient History at the University of Bristol, where I completed my PhD in 2013. Since then, I have lectured in Roman History and Latin at the University of Manchester, the University of Queensland (Australia), and the University of Roehampton. I joined the University of Cambridge in September 2022.

Research

My research interests include Roman emperors and political culture, Roman historiography, and classical reception studies (particularly in relation to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries). I am currently Co-I on the joint AHRC-DFG funded project “Twisted Transfers”: Discursive Constructions of Corruption in Ancient Greece and Rome (2020-2023).

Publications

Key publications: 

Selected Publications:

[Forthcoming] Davenport, C. and Malik, S. (eds.) Representing Rome’s Emperors: Historical and Cultural Perspectives through Time, Oxford University Press.
[Forthcoming] ‘Roman Emperors in Montesquieu’s Considérations’, in Representing Rome’s Emperors: Historical and Cultural Perspectives through Time, Oxford University Press.
[Forthcoming] with C. Davenport, ‘Introduction’, in Representing Rome’s Emperors: Historical and Cultural Perspectives through Time, Oxford University Press.
[Forthcoming] with C. Davenport, ‘Epilogue’, in Representing Rome’s Emperors: Historical and Cultural Perspectives through Time, Oxford University Press.
[Forthcoming] ‘Nero’, in V. E. Pagán (ed.) The Tacitus Encyclopaedia, Wiley-Blackwell.
‘Republican Romans: Unlikely Decadent Prototypes’, in J. Desmarais and D. Weir (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Decadence, Oxford University Press, 2022: 21-38.
‘Cassius Dio’s Nero’, in C. Davenport and C. Mallan (eds.) Emperors and Political Culture in Cassius Dio’s Roman History, Cambridge University Press, 2021: 158-77.
The Nero-Antichrist: Founding and Fashioning a Paradigm, Cambridge University Press, 2020.
Cucuta ab rationibus Neronis Augusti: A Joke at Nero’s Expense?’ Classical Quarterly 69.2 (2019) 783-92.
‘Decadence and Roman Historiography’, in J. Desmarais and D. Weir (eds.) Cambridge Critical Concepts: Decadence and Literature, Cambridge University Press, 2019: 30-46.
‘The Criminal Emperors of Ancient Rome and Oscar Wilde’s “True Historical Sense”’, in K. Riley, A. J. L. Blanshard, and I. Manny (eds.) Oscar Wilde and Classical Antiquity, Oxford University Press, 2017: 305-20.
‘All Roads Lead to Rome?: Decadence, Paganism and Catholicism in the Later Life of Oscar Wilde’, Cahiers victoriens et édouardiens 80 (2015).

I also contribute to popular history publications on a regular basis, including articles for the Times Literary Supplement, the BBC History Magazine, the BBC World Histories Magazine, and History Today.

 

Teaching and Supervisions

Research supervision: 

Roman history and culture, receptions of Rome and ‘classical’ ideas.

Assistant Professor in Classics
Onassis Classics Fellow at Newnham College
Not available for consultancy

Latest news

The Kennedy Professorship of Latin

13 June 2025

The Board of Electors to the Kennedy Professorship of Latin invite applications for this Professorship from persons whose work falls within the general field of the Professorship to take up appointment on 1 September 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter. For more information see details here . Closing date: 8 September...

Masters Student wins Roman Society MA dissertation prize

28 May 2025

The Faculty is delighted to announce that Naomi Norden (King’s College) has won joint first place in the Roman Society MA dissertation prize for her 2024 MPhil thesis 'Creating complexity: Paratextuality and Intertextuality in the Works of Ausonius'. Congratulations Naomi!

St John's College Newell Lecture

27 May 2025

This year the St John's College Newell Lecture was delivered by Jackie Murray on the topic of Race and Injustice in Plato's Republic. You can watch a recording of the event here:

Marie Curie / BA postdoctoral fellowship schemes

19 May 2025

The Faculty of Classics invites potential applicants to the MSCA (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions) and the British Academy’s Postdoctoral Fellowship schemes within areas relevant to our research clusters: Greek and Latin Literature, Greek and Roman Philosophy, Ancient History, C lassical Art and Archaeology, Classical and...