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Reader in Classical Studies, The Open University

I'm a Reader in Classical Studies, having joined The Open University as a Lecturer in July 2009. Before then, I had been a Tutor and Lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford (2004-9), and also lectured at Bristol, Nottingham and Reading.

My research interests cross generic and disciplinary boundaries. I have written widely on verbal contest in ancient Greek culture, understanding the striking predominance of debate representations in literature as offering opportunities to think through tensions between dissent and authority; listening to epic, reading history, or attending tragic drama become political performances.

Since 2008, I have been leading and co-running a series of collaborative projects, which are pioneering the use of digital resources to rethink spatial understanding of the ancient world. The Hestia project (http://hestia.open.ac.uk/) is using digital maps to rethink the geopolitical landscape of the Histories of Herodotus; the Pelagios project (http://pelagios-project.blogspot.com) is developing the Web infrastructure for linking online documents of varying kinds—not only texts but also inscriptions, archaeological finds or sites, museum objects, photographs, etc.—to enable discoverability and provide richer contextualisation.

Books
Entering the Agon: Dissent and Authority in Homer, Historiography, and Tragedy (https://global.oup.com/academic/product/entering-the-agon-9780199542710?cc=cy&lang=en&)
Homer: A Beginner's Guide - with Joel Christensen (https://www.oneworld-publications.com/books/elton-barker-joel-christensen/homer#.VmFwpOOLR3k)

Experience

  • –present
    Reader in Classical Studies, The Open University

Education

  • 2003 
    Pembroke College, Cambridge, PhD Classics