Research
My research spans widely across Greek and Latin poetry and prose, with particular interests in politics, aesthetics and intertextuality. I’m especially interested in rethinking traditional narratives of literary history, an aspiration which is reflected in the two main strands of my current research: first, I explore the (dis)continuities between the intertextual practices of archaic/classical poets and those of later literary cultures; and second, I aim to unearth the distinctive aesthetics and priorities of Hellenistic poets located beyond Ptolemaic Alexandria and the impact of these alternative poetic traditions at Rome.
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My first book, Markers of Allusion in Archaic Greek Poetry, was published in 2023 with Cambridge University Press. It explores how the earliest known Greek poets self-consciously acknowledged the familiarity of their subject matter and signalled their references to tradition – placing markers in their works for audiences to recognise. This kind of signposting has often been considered the preserve of later literary cultures, closely linked with the development of libraries, literacy and writing. But I show that these devices were already deeply ingrained in our earliest oral archaic Greek poetry. In other publications, I've extended this work into Attic drama and explored comparable allusive phenomena across archaic and classical literature, such as the early re-use of Homeric rarities and allusions to incipits (the openings of a text).
My other major research interest lies in the field of Hellenistic poetry, where I'm especially interested in the fragments and traces of poetic traditions beyond Ptolemaic Alexandria. In particular, I focus on the literary cultures of the Attalids and Seleucids, as well as the rich dossier of extant epic fragments from throughout the Hellenistic world. I have written a chapter on 'Hellenistic Poetry Outside Alexandria' for a new Cambridge Companion to Hellenistic Poetry and I am currently producing a new edition, translation and commentary of The Hellenistic Epic Fragments. Alongside my individual projects, I enjoy the intellectual riches of collaborative research. I have co-authored several articles and papers, and I am currently co-editing three volumes, the first on collaboration and ancient literature, the second on the relationship of Pergamon and Rome, and the third on Hellenistic aesthetics. I am very happy to be contacted about any ideas for further collaborations, however preliminary. |
I've also (co-)organised a number of conferences and conference panels: I co-organised a panel on Hellenistic Poetry at CA 2016 and a conference on 'Hellenistic Poetry Beyond Callimachean Aesthetics' in Cambridge (1-3 September 2016). I was a member of the organising committee for the Cambridge AHRC DTP's Conference on Time and Temporality (14-16 September 2016) and co-organised the Laurence Seminar on 'Collaboration and Ancient Literature' in the Cambridge Classics Faculty (3-5 June 2021). For the 2019 CA/FIEC conference, I organised a panel entitled 'Poetics Between Greece and the Near East' (4-8 July) and I have co-organised panels for the three most recent SCS/AIA Annual Meetings: 'The Poetics and Pragmatics of Hellenistic Aesthetics' (5-8 January 2022), 'Hellenistic Epigram in New Contexts' (5-8 January 2023) and 'The "Silver Age" of Hellenistic Poetry' (4-7 January 2024).
More details about my research are available on other pages of this site, alongside my article in the 2019 edition of Corpus' Pelican, as well as my academia.edu and Humanities Common profile pages.
More details about my research are available on other pages of this site, alongside my article in the 2019 edition of Corpus' Pelican, as well as my academia.edu and Humanities Common profile pages.