Durham Department of Classics and Ancient History

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Durham Department of Classics and Ancient History

Classics and Ancient History at Durham University belongs to the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and is one of the most vibrant Classics departments in the UK.

Our academic staff specialise in a wide range of artistic, historical, literary, linguistic, cul Our academic staff specialise in a wide range of artistic, historical, literary, linguistic, cultural and philosophical aspects of the Graeco-Roman world.

01/09/2026

🎉 The latest issue of 'Ostraka' is now online, the student journal run by our Classics Society!

👏 Congratulations to Indya Burke and her team on this fantastic publication.

🔗https://www.ostrakajournal.co.uk/_files/ugd/f1b593_9de9c9babcd74f09b5c41b4944b0476f.pdf

27/08/2026

✨ Joining us in September? Now is the perfect time to .
👉 Dr Thea Sommerschield will be teaching you all our incoming students for 'Introduction to the Greek World'.

🔗 Learn more on our website under 'information for offerholders': https://www.durham.ac.uk/.../undergraduate.../offer-holders/

25/08/2026

⛵ Still not recovered from Odyssey-mania? No, neither have we!

🎙️ Dr George Gazis appeared on the 'Talking History with Patrick Geoghegan' podcast to discuss the poem behind Nolan's new tour de force.

🔗 https://www.newstalk.com/podcasts/highlights-from-talking-history/the-odyssey

20/08/2026

✨ Joining us in September? Now is the perfect time to .
👉 Dr Chris de Lisle tells us about language teaching in the department.

🔗 Learn more on our website under 'information for offerholders': https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/classics-ancient-history/undergraduate-study/offer-holders/

18/08/2026

👏 Congratulations to Dr Lucy Jackson, whose review of Rosa Andújar's 'Playing the Chorus in Greek Tragedy' recently appeared in the Times Literary Supplement!

🔗 https://www.the-tls.com/classics/greek/playing-the-chorus-in-greek-tragedy-rosa-andujar-book-review-lucy-jackson

13/08/2026

🎉 Congratulations to all students receiving their A Level results today! We hope you are very proud of what you have achieved.

🎓 To those students holding offers from Durham Classics that are now confirmed - welcome! We are really looking forward to teaching you soon.

👀 Keep checking back to this account over the coming weeks. We'll give you lots of handy information about the Department before you join us.

11/08/2026

🐴 Have we all seen 'The Odyssey' now? ?

📣 Catch up with reviews, thoughts and comments by our departmental members past and present!

👉 Dr Lucy Jackson: https://shorturl.at/WbwiI
👉 Prof. Edith Hall: https://shorturl.at/5FyuP (BBC Front Row), https://shorturl.at/a7qCu (ABC Nightlife), https://shorturl.at/42BNj (Times Radio)
👉 Prof. Arlene Holmes-Henderson: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1VYqNCmcrn/
👉 Dr Peter Swallow MP: https://shorturl.at/YtMCR

06/08/2026

🎉 Congratulations to Dr Thea Sommerschield, who is part of a Google DeepMind team that has produced new AI-powered research tool designed to analyse ancient Greek and Latin inscriptions.

👉 The new system, called Predicting the Past Skill for Google Antigravity, enables historians to study ancient inscriptions, analyse patterns across thousands of texts, and generate visualisations. This can be achieved by having interactive conversations with the AI Skill without the need for any coding or separate technical tools.

🔗 Learn more: https://www.durham.ac.uk/news-events/latest-news/2026/07/google-deepmind-partnership/

04/08/2026

🇬🇷 What a great time we had on our L2 study trip to Greece!

🏛️ Our students visited the Parthenon, Acropolis Museum, Delphi, Olympia, Mycenae and other sites and museums. Well done to all for surviving the July heat!

👏 Thank you to our trip leaders Dr Erica Bexley and Dr Michael Loy; to the British School at Athens for hosting us in Athens; and to our guest speakers Alexandra Katevaini, Dr Julia Shear, Dr Daphne Martin, Prof. Edward Harris, Dr Sharon Stocker and Prof. Jack Davis.

🤩 Alumni: would you like to help ensure we can bring this wonderful trip to future generations of students? Consider making a donation to our study tour fund! Remember to select ‘Classics’ from the support drop-down, and add a note in the comments box to say this is for ‘field trips’: https://l1nq.com/g39dya3

30/07/2026

💥 Congratulations to Dr Jacob Lollar, who has a new publication in the journal 'Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies'!

👉 Dr Lollar presents the text and translation of a fifth- or sixth-century Syriac manuscript currently housed at the Russian National Library, arguing that its paratext is two columns of riddles about Oedipus, the mythical king of Thebes.

🔗 Read here for free, open-access: https://grbs.library.duke.edu/index.php/grbs/article/view/17224

Address

38 North Bailey
Durham
DH13EU

Website

https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/classics-ancient-history/

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