Postgraduate Research Convener: 
Dr Jane Draycott

 

Postgraduate research in Classics

We provide a supportive environment to our students in a number of ways:

  • Postgraduates play a full role in the research culture of the subject, with a regular programme of seminars, workshops and reading groups;
  • Individual postgraduate review panels are held each April/May at which the Postgraduate Convener and individual supervisors meet to discuss progress with each student 
  • Postgraduates may get teaching experience;
  • A dedicated postgraduate study space is available, which makes available an extensive research collection (now augmented by a bequest from the late Professor Douglas MacDowell)

There are a number of attractions to studying for a postgraduate degree in Classics at Glasgow, from the very well-stocked University Library, to the Hunterian Museum (with its notably fine coin collection).

Staff members would be delighted to supervise in any of the areas set out above, or any others where they have research interests (see their respective list of publications).   Other areas supervised recently include Greek scientific and medical writing, Roman eschatology and numismatics (in conjunction with the Hunterian Museum). Please do not hesitate to contact members of staff to discuss potential research projects.‌

 

Postgraduate Research Convener: 
Dr Jane Draycott

 

The postgraduate experience

‘I studied Classics at Glasgow for seven years: first as an undergraduate, and then as a doctoral candidate. Without a doubt, they were the fullest and most rewarding years of my life: not only because of my own interest in the subject and the top-drawer resources provided to cultivate that interest (including a library with two million books!), but also because of the truly nurturing and warm character of the Classics department.

By far the highest point in my Ph.D. was my work as a graduate teaching assistant, in which capacity I usually spent about three or four hours a week in the classroom; just enough to keep me on the ball and keep my routine structured, but not so much as to be overwhelming. It was fantastic: when classes were voluble and well-prepared, I left the seminars buzzing and have formed some genuinely fun and fulfilling friendships with some of my former students. The way in which Classics at Glasgow makes teaching an integral part of the Ph.D. programme – unless one really doesn’t want to do it – is really distinctive to Glasgow and encouraged me to do things of which I never would have believed myself capable. Standing at the front of a lecture theatre for the first time and speaking for an hour about Plato, with a video recorder and fifty students watching you, is absolutely terrifying, but truly thrilling and rewarding.

As such, the Ph.D. programme Classics at Glasgow has helped me to grow unrecognisably in confidence and self-awareness. Recently, I’ve been lucky to have the opportunity to put this new-found self-confidence to good use: having finished my doctorate, I now work as an editorial assistant on a research project within the university, and in September I’ll be taking up a post as Lecturer in Roman history at Durham. I am absolutely convinced that this would have been impossible without the opportunities and experience offered to me in Classics at Glasgow and without the close networks of support and advice created by my colleagues and research supervisors. The only thing I really dislike about Classics at Glasgow is the fact that I have to leave!’

Christopher Burden-Strevens, Glasgow alumnus 2016

Current PhD students

Lee Baker MPhil by Research Investigating sexual imagery & vocabulary in Horace's Epodes
Kirsten Blackham PhD The Daughters of Ptolemy: Gendered Negotiations of Power in Rome's transition from Republic to Empire
Jinlu Li PhD Between Tragedy and Philosophy:Aristophanes' Divine Writings
Louise McCafferty Master of Research Lucian the Comic
Niamh McDade Master of Research Polybius and Exile: Trauma and Melancholy in the Histories
Harlan McGlinchey Master of Research The Portrayal of Trauma and PTSD in Roman Epic Poetry
Alexander Moss Master of Research Did the Emperor Aurelian provide greater stability to the empire through his military campaigns or social reforms?
Charles Pring Master of Research Homer and the East - The Influence of Near Eastern Literature and Culture on Homeric Poetry
Jamie Young PhD PTSD and Learned Helplessness in slaves from antiquity

Recently completed theses

PhDs

MPhil by Research

Masters of Research (MRes)