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Projects

Durham, as a founding member of the Classical Reception Studies Network (CRSN), has, for many years, been one of the key centres for research in Classical Reception and the Classical Tradition.

Our Centre was founded in 2007, as the Centre for the Study of the Classical Tradition, under the directorship of Ingo Gildenhard. The study of the legacies of the ancient world is a fundamentally interdisciplinary enterprise - and our Centre's aim has always been to facilitate interdisciplinary dialogue, both within Durham, and beyond. The University is particularly fortunate to have a large research community, spanning many departments, with interests in classical reception, broadly defined. Thus Dr David Ashurst (English Studies) is one of the world's leading experts in the medieval reception of Alexander the Great. Professor David Cowling (Modern Languages and Cultures) has special expertise in one of the greatest printers of classical texts, Henri Estienne. Professor Richard Gameson (History) holds the recently established Chair in the History of the Book. Professor Richard Hingley (Archaeology) has written the 'biography' of Hadrian's Wall. And within the Department of Classics and Ancient History, interests in Classical Reception include Prof. Jennifer Ingleheart's work on modern responses to ancient sexuality (particularly what we would now call homosexuality) and translation as a form of reception; Dr Caroline Barron's work on the cultural significance of epigraphy from antiquity to the present day; Prof. Edmund Richardson's work on spiritualism and the Classics; and Prof. Nora Goldschmidt's work on ancient fragments in the discourses of modernism.

  • Our People

    Find out more about our team working in the Centre for Classical Reception.
    Students on a laptop listening to lecturer.
  • Our Research

    Durham is one of the world's leading centres for research in Classical Reception. Find out more about our work.
    A collection of books featuring Aristotle.

Our People

Find out more about our team working in the Centre for Classical Reception.
Students on a laptop listening to lecturer.

Our Research

Durham is one of the world's leading centres for research in Classical Reception. Find out more about our work.
A collection of books featuring Aristotle.

Aristotle Beyond the Academy

The Project PI is Edith Hall and the Research Fellows are Arlene Holmes-Henderson and Peter Swallow. Their findings are to be published in a monograph contracted to Routledge Taylor Francis; dates of the international conference: 26th-27th March 2025.

This research project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust (2022-2026), asks how, where and why Aristotle has made cultural appearances in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales since the Restoration (1660). It focusses on the three 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.
For more details see project website
Aristotle beyond the academy

Afterlives of the Aeneid's Women

In 2023-4, Cypriot theatre writer and director, and classical scholar, Dr Magdalena Zira joined the department as visiting Fellow with the Institute of Advanced Study. Her project is a new play about Dido based on the ancient Phoenician and Carthaginian, rather than Virgil’s Aeneid. The play was workshopped with our undergraduates and culminated in a public performance.
Click here for more information
Afterlives of the Aeneid's Women