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Aerial view of five students at a table
Here you'll find information about our current PhD students and the research projects they're working on.

Berkay Balyer

Title of thesis: Some ‘lost’ Sumero-Akkadian poetic and narrative techniques and their echoes in early Greek epic

Supervisors: Prof. Ian Rutherford and Prof. Rachel Mairs 

Year joined: 2024

c.balyer@pgr.reading.ac.uk

Amy Keighley

Title of thesis: Divine mouthpiece or deviant magic: an exploration of the roles of female oracles and the witch in Classical Greece and Mesopotamia

Supervisors: Prof. Ian Rutherford 

Year joined: 2024

amy.keighley@pgr.reading.ac.uk

Wendy Smith

Title of thesis: The uses of trees and timber in the context of the ancient Greeks' perception of the natural environment

Supervisors: Prof. Emma Aston 

Year joined: 2024

 

Ilaria Truzzi

Title of thesis: Playing in ancient Iberia: the materiality of games in a multicultural context (c. 800 BCE-800 CE)

Supervisors: Dr. Tim Penn and Prof. Amy Smith 

Year joined: 2024

i.truzzi@pgr.reading.ac.uk

Personal webpage

Danlei Zhou

Title of thesis: Navigating networks and developing practice: people and biography in the British Museum Collection Database

Supervisors: Prof. Rachel Mairs 

Year joined: 2024

danlei.zhou@pgr.reading.ac.uk

Adél Ternovácz

Title of thesis: The re-use of ancient gems in medieval Britain

Supervisors: Professor Amy Smith and Professor Mathers-Lawrence 

Year joined: 2023

a.ternovacz@pgr.reading.ac.uk

Tom Patel

Title of thesis: The starry-eyed goddess: Ištar's astral aspect in Old Babylonian poetry

Supervisor: Professor. Ian Rutherford and Prof. Rachel Mairs

Year joined: 2023

tom.patel@pgr.reading.ac.uk

Isolde Law

Title of thesis: ‘There must be something in the water’: exploring the significance of water in ancient Roman epic and its readings according to modern theories

Supervisor: Dr. Christa Gray and Prof. Emma Aston

Year joined: 2023

i.m.law@pgr.reading.ac.uk

Aaron Cox

Title of thesis: Death and resurrection of the polis: the destruction of the polis and its place in the Hellenistic world

Supervisor: Professor Timothy Duff

Year joined: 2023

aaron.cox@pgr.reading.ac.uk

Anne (Nancy) Antonellis

Title of thesis: Museum outreach as a tool to broaden diversity in classical studies

Supervisor: Professor Amy Smith and Dr. Timothy Penn

Year joined: 2023

a.antonellis@pgr.reading.ac.uk

Klara Hegedus

Title of thesis: The influence of education on the political actions of the elite in late republican Rome, late antique Rome, and Florence under the Medici 

Supervisors: Professor Eleanor Dickey and Dr Christa Gray 

Year joined: 2023

k.hegedus@pgr.reading.ac.uk

Daniel Bartle

Title of thesis: The imperial frontier: an examination of the cultural and military interactions of India with the early Hellenistic world (328–204 BC)

Supervisors: Professor Rachel Mairs and Professor Timothy Duff

Year joined: 2022

d.j.g.bartle@pgr.reading.ac.uk

Beren-Dain Delbrooke-Jones

Title of thesis: Fishing and fishermen in early Greek culture

Supervisors: Professor Emma Aston and Professor Timothy Duff

Year joined: 2021

b.delbrooke-jones@pgr.reading.ac.uk

Charalampos Papathanasiou

Title of thesis: Empathy in the ancient novel: strategies on shaping morals

Supervisors: Professor Ian Rutherford and Dr Christa Gray

Year joined: 2021

c.papathanasiou@pgr.reading.ac.uk

David Spiller

Title of thesis: Warlordism in Britain, circa AD 400-circa 700

Supervisors: Professor Ken Dark and Dr. Timothy Penn

Year joined: 2020

d.m.spiller@pgr.reading.ac.uk

Eleanor Goddard

Title of thesis: Unveiling Andromache: a (re)reading of the character in early imperial Latin literature.

Supervisors: Dr. Christa Gray, Prof. Barbara Goff and Prof. Timothy Duff

Year joined: 2020

e.f.goddard@pgr.reading.ac.uk

Edward Ross (completed)

Title of thesis: A crucible of religious interchange: understanding the evolving spirituality of the Hellenistic Far East

Supervisors: Professor Rachel Mairs and Professor Ian Rutherford

Year joined: 2020

e.a.s.ross@pgr.reading.ac.uk

Orcid

Personal webpage

Meryt Ramble-Wallace

Title of thesis: Development of the middle voice: use, frequency, and categorisation in Ancient Greek

Supervisors: Professor Eleanor Dickey and Professor Ian Rutherford

Year joined: 2020

m.ramble-wallace@pgr.reading.ac.uk

Personal webpage

Becca Grose (completed)

Title of thesis: Changing presentations of virtue in the region of Burgundian hegemony: epigraphic evidence from the IV-VII centuries AD 

Supervisors: Dr Arietta Papaconstantinou and Professor Richard Flower

Year joined: 2017

r.c.grose@pgr.reading.ac.uk

Orcid

Doukissa Kamini (completed)

Title of thesis: Killing in the name of power: political interpretations and intra-familial violence in the story of Orestes

Supervisors: Professor Barbara Goff and Professor David Carter

Year joined: 2017

d.kamini@pgr.reading.ac.uk

Personal webpage

Rebecca Rusk (completed)

Title of thesis: The power dynamics of the family of the gods in Archaic Greek verse

Supervisors: Professor Emma Aston and Professor Ian Rutherford

Year joined: 2017

r.c.rusk@pgr.reading.ac.uk

Jessica Feito (completed)

Title of thesis: Regional variation in diet and crop choices: a comparison of Roman Italy and the Near East

Supervisors: Professor Annalisa Marzano and Dr. Gundula Müldner

Year joined: 2016

j.n.feito@pgr.reading.ac.uk

Personal webpage

Una Markham (completed)

Title of thesis: Boiotia through the eyes of a Boiotian: the depiction of Boiotia in Plutarch’s corpus

Supervisors: Professor Emma Aston, Professor Timothy Duff and Professor Rachel Mairs

Year joined: 2016

una.markham@pgr.reading.ac.uk

Rosanagh Mack (completed)

Title of thesis: The role of the horse on Thessalian coinage 479-320 BC

Supervisors: Professor Emma Aston and Professor Rachel Mairs

Year joined: 2016

r.m.b.mack@pgr.reading.ac.uk

Personal webpage