Speakers

Fifteen papers presented at the conference will include:

• a keynote lecture by Prof. Jenny Strauss Clay,
• six papers by invited speakers,
• ​eight open-call papers  

To read paper abstracts, click here.
​To read conference programme, click here.

Keynote speaker

Prof. Jenny Strauss Clay
University of Virginia, USA

The keynote speaker, Professor Strauss Clay, has published extensively on early Greek epics, focusing on circulation of political power in the divine societies of Homer and Hesiod. Pursuing several projects, she is currently preparing a commentary on Hesiod's Theogony.

Invited speakers

---

Dr. Diana Burton
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

In her research, Dr. Burton explores the interactions between art, cult, death and immortality in the early ancient Greek culture, particularly through the iconography of mythical figures. She is currently writing a monograph on Hades.

Prof. Daniel Ogden
​University of Exeter, UK

A Professor of Ancient History in the University of Exeter and Honorary Research Fellow in UNISA, Professor Ogden authored a dozen books on ancient history and literature, including Drakōn: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman Worlds. He will shortly publish The Legend of Seleucus (CUP, Cambridge, 2017).

Dr. George A. Gazis
​​Durham University, UK​

A scholar of early Greek literature, Dr. Gazis investigates ideas of mortality and the afterlife in the Homeric epics and early lyric (especially Stesichorus and Bacchylides) and the ways in which these concepts help shape a meta-poetic understanding of the Underworld as a poetic space of free expression for the poet.

​​Dr. Maciej Paprocki (organiser)
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Germany

The conference’s organiser, Dr. Paprocki is keenly interested in ancient Greek political theology, especially in assigning and transferring divine powers, rebellions against Zeus and ontologies of Ancient Greek godhood. Fascinated by Titanic deities, he has recently begun writing a monograph on descendants of Hyperion.

​Dr. Ellie Mackin (organiser)
University of Leicester/ICS, UK

Dr. Mackin is a Teaching Fellow in Ancient History at the University of Leicester and a Research Associate at the Institute of Classical Studies. Her primary research interest is in personal experiences and ‘lived’ religion in ancient Greece. She is currently working on a monograph titled ‘Death and Reciprocity: Underworld Gods in Early Greek Religion’.

​Gary Vos, MA (organiser)
University of Edinburgh, UK

Gary Vos considers himself a comparativist, with a broad interest in Greek and Latin literature and mythology throughout the ages, from antiquity to the Renaissance. Mostly working on poetic texts of the Hellenistic and Augustan periods, he has recently developed an interest in the reception of Plato in the poetry of these periods.

Open-call speakers

---

Natasha M. Binek
Cornell University, USA

​Natasha M. Binek is very close to completing her doctoral dissertation on the reception of Aphrodite in Vergil’s Aeneid. In addition to her fascination with Greek myth, she has a keen interest in the ‘dark’ elements of Greek erotic poetry. 

Prof. Marco Antonio Santamaría Álvarez
University of Salamanca, Spain

An associate professor of Greek philology, Marco Antonio Santamaría researches Greek religion, Orphism, afterlife conceptions and their influence in Greek literature, especially in epic and lyric poetry, early philosophers, and comedy. He is currently working on the Derveni Papyrus, myths of the origin and the end, and the development of the allegorical interpretation of poetry in Greece.

Katarzyna Kostecka
University of Warsaw, Poland

Katarzyna Kostecka is interested in the different generations or groups of heroes: their unstable status and specific attitudes towards the gods, especially in the archaic epic poems. She has currently begun working on a project on the mythical genealogies of the Greek aristocratic families.

David J. Wright
Rutgers University, USA
​
David is a PhD candidate at Rutgers University. His research centres on Greek and Latin poetry, especially of the Augustan era. He is currently writing a dissertation on the Giants, Titans, and civil strife in Roman literature.

Dr. Karolina Sekita
Oxford University, UK

Dr. Sekita is Lecturer in Classics, Brasenose College, Oxford. Her research interests gravitate around Greek Religion. She is currently preparing her DPhil thesis on Hades as an Oxford Classical Monograph; her next project is on divine pairs and combinations.

Dr. Fritz-Gregor Herrmann
Swansea University, UK

Fritz-Gregor Herrmann’s research interests are Plato in his philosophical and cultural context; Greek tragedy and archaic and classical Greek thought. He is currently working on a monograph on Plato’s political psychology, and on Aristophanes’ response to Euripides in 411BC.

Yukiko Saito
University of Liverpool, UK / Kyoto Seika University, Japan

Yukiko Saito, an Honorary Fellow at the University of Liverpool, currently teaches in Japan. She has pursued the expression of colour in antiquity since studying at St. Andrews. Her translation of Graziosi’s The Gods of Olympus was published in 2017, with forthcoming papers on the poetic and cultural significance of colour in Homer. Her current research theme is ‘brightness.’ 

Athena and Alkyoneus, Pergamon Altar, Berlin

Eleonora Colangelo
Paris Diderot University – AnHiMA Centre, France

E. Colangelo carries out her research and teaching activities as PhD candidate in ancient Greek history at Paris Diderot University – AnHiMA Centre, Paris. Her research interest is in relationships between metric, pragmatic techniques and rituals in the ancient Greek hymns.

---