Department of Classics and Ancient History

Annual Research Theme

A collection of book cover images

The Department’s Annual Research Theme encourages the exploration of innovative subjects emerging at the intersection of two or more members of research staff working in relatively diverse areas, and aims to be an engine for creating new agendas through fresh subdisciplinary collaborations. We normally reserve a number of slots from the Department’s Research Seminar for the theme, and provide funding for a dedicated international conference. The Research Theme is ultimately directed towards publication, often in association with postdoctoral researchers, visitors and graduate students. A series of edited collections has appeared with OUP, CUP, de Gruyter and Brill.

Annual Research Theme 2024/25: Aristotle Beyond the Academy

This year's department annual research theme is linked to the Durham University Centre for Classical Reception and Leverhulme funded research project, Aristotle Beyond the Academy (https://aristotlebeyond.co.uk/). Project team: Edith Hall, Arlene Holmes-Henderson, Rory McInnes-Gibbons

The project asks how, where and why Aristotle has made cultural appearances in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales since the Restoration (1660). We prioritise the key research areas of ethics, law and politics, rhetoric, and natural science. This ancient Greek intellectual titan’s authority has been omnipresent and vigorously contested. He has been both used to reinforce established authority and adopted by radicals and progressives.

Conference: Explorations in the Public Reception of Aristotle (Durham, 26 and 27 March 2025).

There will be sessions on Literature and Art, Race, Politics, Rhetoric and Poetics. Confirmed speakers include: Sara Monoson (Northwestern), Fran O'Rourke (UCD), Margaret Doody (Notre Dame), Henry Stead (St Andrews), David Bullen (Royal Holloway), Richard Toye (Exeter), Hatice Nur Erkizan (MUĞLA), Ashley Lance (Cambridge), Christopher Anaforian (St Andrews), Patrice Rankine (Chicago), Rhiannon Easterbrook (ICS) and Natalie Earl. We will also be joined by novelist Margaret Doody (Notre Dame).

Seminars

16 October 2024: Edith Hall (Durham) Aristotle in British Debates on the Constitution, Slavery, and Women

6 November 2024: Sophia Connell (Birkbeck) Aristotle, analytic philosophy and the birth of virtue ethics

11 December 2024: Alessandro Vatri (Durham) Aristotle and the Orators in Margaret Doody's Fourth-Century Athens

21 May 2025: Rory McInnes-Gibbons (Durham) Aristotle's Masterpiece, a seventeenth-century sex manual

Research Theme from previous academic year

Syriac Studies (2023/24)

Organisers: Karl Dahm, Ted Kaizer, Mara Nicosia, Alberto Rigolio

The 2023/24 Departmental Research Theme was Syriac Studies. In the broader context of ongoing academic conversations about the scope our field, we explored the contribution of Syriac to this subject. We further established our department within the scholarly landscape of Syriac Studies in the UK and internationally, through a conference and a series of seminar papers that focussed on important aspects of the history of Syriac studies as an academic discipline, and on the intersections of Classics and Syriac.

Conferences, Events and Workshops

Programmes and details for our conferences, events and workshops can be found on our events calendar.

Research and Work-in-Progress Seminars

The department holds a seminar each Wednesday during termtime. The seminars are held in hybrid format or via Zoom.

For the current seminar schedule and details of how to join in person or online, please visit our seminars page.