The Department has special expertise in a range of areas – literary, historical, and philosophical – within the field of classical studies. It is particularly strong in the areas of the ancient novel, ancient philosophy (especially Cynicism and Epicureanism), and late Antiquity/early Christianity, but other areas in which thesis supervision can be offered include death and writing on death in Antiquity, epistolography, Greek epic and drama, Greek social history, Hellenistic history, Latin poetry, Roman Republican history, Roman religion, the Second Sophistic, and modern receptions of the classical world. These do not exhaust the possibilities for higher-degree research in the Department, however, and enquiries are welcome.
Dr Gordon Campbell
Gordon Campbell works primarily on ancient philosophical poetry, particularly Lucretius and Empedocles. He has published a commentary on part of Book Five of Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of the Universe), and also a monograph on anthropology in antiquity. He has also recently edited a multi-author volume on animals in the ancient world. His other specialist areas are Epicurus, and Presocratic cosmology.
Dr William Desmond
William Desmond’s main research focuses on the literature, history, and cultural life of the Classical Greek period. He has a particular interest in Plato and the Cynics, in both their essential ‘Greekness’ and their manifold influence beyond the Greek world. He has published monographs on Classical Greek understandings of wealth and poverty, on the Cynics, and on the historical varieties of the ‘philosopher-king’ from Plato to the twentieth century. He also has some expertise in nineteenth-century receptions of the Classics, and in process philosophy from Heraclitus to Whitehead.
Dr Kieran McGroarty
Kieran McGroarty’s research career began in the area of Neoplatonic philosophy, his work culminating in a monograph on Plotinus. He now works in the field of Greek social and cultural history, especially of the Classical period. He has also published on Alexander the Great, and maintains a keen interest in this area.
Dr Maeve O’Brien
Maeve O’Brien’s principal research subject is the second-century-AD Latin writer Apuleius. She works chiefly on his novel the Metamorphoses (The Golden Ass), but is also interested in his philosophical writing. Beyond this, her specialist areas extend to take in Petronius and the genre of the ancient novel generally; Middle Platonism and other philosophical doctrines of the period known as the Second Sophistic; and the reception of the classical world in Irish writing of the eighteenth century, with a particular focus on women writers and their reading publics.
Prof David Scourfield
David Scourfield’s research interests are broad, and embrace both literature and ancient social and cultural history. He has written and edited books on the literature of late Antiquity, with Jerome a key focus of attention, and has recently published a co-edited volume on representations of violence in Latin literature. He is currently working on a monograph on the ancient consolatory letter, where sociohistorical questions are as much of a concern as more traditional literary and philosophical matters. Other central areas of his work are the Greek and Roman novel, and twentieth-century receptions of the classical world, especially in English literature from 1900 to 1939.
Dr Michael Williams
Michael Williams’ primary research interest is in the intellectual history of Christianity, and in particular the representation and performance of religious, social, and cultural identities in late Antiquity. He has published on ancient biography and hagiography, while his more recent work focuses on the rhetorical construction of the status and role of Christian bishops and ascetics. Other interests include Roman religion, historiography, and the modern reception of daily life in ancient Rome.