The running argument of my DPhil thesis (submitted: 4 October 2026) is that anthropomorphism is the 'master trope' of epigrammatic poetics. Anthropomorphism was itself a flexible and polyvalent habit of mind across Greco-Roman thought, patterns of sociality and culture. It acquired a particularly powerful literary formalisation in the rhetorical trope of prosopopoeia, and from Xenophanes to the Christian apologists, anthropomorphism was further the object of virulent philosophical critique for its ethical and epistemological claims. The layered and multi-temporal form of the 'Greek Anthology' was itself the engine of a prolonged dialogue between these conceptual and formal histories of anthropomorphism in antiquity. The subject of my thesis is the poetic transmission of anthropomorphic thought: how it was formalised and opened to contestation and innovation through the medium of the 'Greek Anthology' itself.
Beyond my thesis, I have an article out in Arethusa (2023, 56.2) which builds on work from my MPhil at Cambridge on metaphors of 'surface' and 'depth' in ancient literary criticism. I am also interested in the intersection between modern poetic production and under-utilised ancient forms and am working on a literary collaboration which brings together my research and creative practice for publication. I have further forthcoming chapters on 'speaking objects; and poetic authority in Aesop and epigram and am developing a postdoctoral project on the Planudean Anthology (1301 AD).
I teach on broader topics such as Greek Tragedy, Early Greek Hexameter, Hellenistic Literature, Latin love elegy, and Greek and Latin Grammar.
