Dr Leo Kershaw

kershaw leo
Tower Junior Research Fellow in Greek Mythology, Christ Church College
leo.kershaw@classics.ox.ac.uk

Qualifications: BA, MSt, DPhil (University of Oxford)

Link to college page:

 

Academic Background

I hold a BA in Classics from Lady Margaret Hall (2020), an MSt in Greek and Latin Language and Literature from Balliol (2021), and a DPhil from Balliol (2024), which was funded by the AHRC, Clarendon Fund, and Balliol College (2021-2024). My doctoral thesis investigated the reception of Euripides’ Medea in South Africa from the 19th to the 21st century. I have taught as a Language Instructor in Greek and Latin at the University of Oxford and as a Lecturer in Greek language and literature at the University of Warwick (2024-2025). I am currently Tower Junior Research Fellow in Greek Mythology at Christ Church College.

Research Interests

I research the reception of ancient Greek theatre in modern drama and poetry, alongside study of literature and languages of the ancient world. My current project focuses on the reception of Greek tragedy and comedy in the South African Black Consciousness Movement of the 1960s to 1980s. I am especially interested in the reception of Greek tragedy in the Global South, fascinated by the complexities, problems, and potentials of subversive, decolonial adaptations of Graeco-Roman material. 

Research Keywords

Greek, Latin, literature, tragedy, comedy, drama, classical reception

Teaching

I do teaching for a variety of literature papers, including Classical Reception, Greek Tragedy, Homer, Early Greek Hexameter Poetry, and Ovid, as well as the set texts for Mods and Prelims. I have also taught Greek and Latin language at all levels as part of the Faculty’s Language Teaching Team.

Publications

Full Publications:

Selected Publications:

Kershaw, Leo. (forthcoming, 2025). ‘Herakles Outside the Western Canon.’ Harrison, In George W.M. ed. A Companion to Hercules (Blackwell-Wiley).

Kershaw, Leo. 2024. ‘The Academic in the Archive: Tracing the Workshopping Process of Oedipus at Colonus #aftersophocles.’ Reimagining Tragedy from Africa and the Global South(digital exhibit).

Kershaw, Leo. 2022. ‘“Beware of the neo-colonial wolf”: World Reception, Universality, and Decolonising the Academy.’ Classical Reception Studies Network, Realigning Reception Takeover (21 October).

In preparation for publication: 

Kershaw, Leo. (forthcoming, 2026/7). ‘Radical performativity in Third World Bunfight’s MedEia.’ In Gioannopoulou, Zina and Weiner, Jesse, eds. Intersectional Medeas. 

Kershaw, Leo and Whittle, Daniel. (forthcoming, 2026/7). ‘Excavating subterranean voices from the archive.’ In McConnell, Justine; Dudouyt, Cécile and Frade, Sofia, eds. Archiving and Performing Antiquity: Reshaping the Canon. 

Kershaw, Leo. (forthcoming,  2026/7). ‘Transgender Tiresias: Gender Fluidity in Ovid’s Metamorphoses and its Reception in Kae Tempest’s Hold Your Own’. In Rodda, Mar A. and Cullinan Herring, Sarah, eds. Queering the Ancient Body.