Here you'll find information about our current PhD students and the research projects they're working on.
Berkay Balyer
Title of thesis: Some ‘lost’ Sumero-Akkadian poetic and narrative techniques and their echoes in early Greek epic
Supervisors: Prof. Ian Rutherford and Prof. Rachel Mairs
Year joined: 2024
Amy Keighley
Title of thesis: Divine mouthpiece or deviant magic: an exploration of the roles of female oracles and the witch in Classical Greece and Mesopotamia
Supervisors: Prof. Ian Rutherford
Year joined: 2024
Wendy Smith
Title of thesis: The uses of trees and timber in the context of the ancient Greeks' perception of the natural environment
Supervisors: Prof. Emma Aston
Year joined: 2024
Ilaria Truzzi
Title of thesis: Playing in ancient Iberia: the materiality of games in a multicultural context (c. 800 BCE-800 CE)
Supervisors: Dr. Tim Penn and Prof. Amy Smith
Year joined: 2024
Danlei Zhou
Title of thesis: Navigating networks and developing practice: people and biography in the British Museum Collection Database
Supervisors: Prof. Rachel Mairs
Year joined: 2024
Adél Ternovácz
Title of thesis: The re-use of ancient gems in medieval Britain
Supervisors: Professor Amy Smith and Professor Mathers-Lawrence
Year joined: 2023
Tom Patel
Title of thesis: The starry-eyed goddess: Ištar's astral aspect in Old Babylonian poetry
Supervisor: Professor. Ian Rutherford and Prof. Rachel Mairs
Year joined: 2023
Isolde Law
Title of thesis: ‘There must be something in the water’: exploring the significance of water in ancient Roman epic and its readings according to modern theories
Supervisor: Dr. Christa Gray and Prof. Emma Aston
Year joined: 2023
Aaron Cox
Title of thesis: Death and resurrection of the polis: the destruction of the polis and its place in the Hellenistic world
Supervisor: Professor Timothy Duff
Year joined: 2023
Anne (Nancy) Antonellis
Title of thesis: Museum outreach as a tool to broaden diversity in classical studies
Supervisor: Professor Amy Smith
Year joined: 2023
Klara Hegedus
Title of thesis: The influence of education on the political actions of the elite in late republican Rome, late antique Rome, and Florence under the Medici
Supervisors: Professor Eleanor Dickey and Dr Christa Gray
Year joined: 2023
Daniel Bartle
Title of thesis: The imperial frontier: an examination of the cultural and military interactions of India with the early Hellenistic world (328–204 BC)
Supervisors: Professor Rachel Mairs and Professor Timothy Duff
Year joined: 2022
Beren-Dain Delbrooke-Jones
Title of thesis: Fishing and fishermen in early Greek culture
Supervisors: Professor Emma Aston and Professor Timothy Duff
Year joined: 2021
Charalampos Papathanasiou
Title of thesis: Empathy in the ancient novel: strategies on shaping morals
Supervisors: Professor Ian Rutherford and Dr Christa Gray
Year joined: 2021
David Spiller
Title of thesis: Warlordism in Britain, circa AD 400-circa 700
Supervisors: Professor Ken Dark and Dr. Timothy Penn
Year joined: 2020
Eleanor Goddard
Title of thesis: Unveiling Andromache: a (re)reading of the character in early imperial Latin literature.
Supervisors: Dr. Christa Gray, Prof. Barbara Goff and Prof. Timothy Duff
Year joined: 2020
Edward Ross (completed)
Title of thesis: A crucible of religious interchange: understanding the evolving spirituality of the Hellenistic Far East
Supervisors: Professor Rachel Mairs and Professor Ian Rutherford
Year joined: 2020
Meryt Ramble-Wallace
Title of thesis: Development of the middle voice: use, frequency, and categorisation in Ancient Greek
Supervisors: Professor Eleanor Dickey and Professor Ian Rutherford
Year joined: 2020
Becca Grose (completed)
Title of thesis: Changing presentations of virtue in the region of Burgundian hegemony: epigraphic evidence from the IV-VII centuries AD
Supervisors: Dr Arietta Papaconstantinou and Professor Richard Flower
Year joined: 2017
Doukissa Kamini (completed)
Title of thesis: Killing in the name of power: political interpretations and intra-familial violence in the story of Orestes
Supervisors: Professor Barbara Goff and Professor David Carter
Year joined: 2017
Rebecca Rusk (completed)
Title of thesis: The power dynamics of the family of the gods in Archaic Greek verse
Supervisors: Professor Emma Aston and Professor Ian Rutherford
Year joined: 2017
Jessica Feito (completed)
Title of thesis: Regional variation in diet and crop choices: a comparison of Roman Italy and the Near East
Supervisors: Professor Annalisa Marzano and Dr. Gundula Müldner
Year joined: 2016
Una Markham (completed)
Title of thesis: Boiotia through the eyes of a Boiotian: the depiction of Boiotia in Plutarch’s corpus
Supervisors: Professor Emma Aston, Professor Timothy Duff and Professor Rachel Mairs
Year joined: 2016
Rosanagh Mack (completed)
Title of thesis: The role of the horse on Thessalian coinage 479-320 BC
Supervisors: Professor Emma Aston and Professor Rachel Mairs
Year joined: 2016