Ode for the London Olympics 2012
On 2 August 2012 Boris Johnson declaimed my ancient Greek Ode for London 2012 and unveiled a bronze Plaque of it in the Olympic Park: watch here.
Read it here or on the Plaque (right) and hear my short speech about it.
Latest news
Mar 2013 Thanks to the award of a British Academy Research Fellowship I will be investigating ancient Greek music for two years from October 2013. Most classical Greek poetry was sung music, but we know it only as text. How would the music change our understanding of it?
Jan 2013 Review of my book in Bryn Mawr Classical Review: ‘dazzling…fascinating…not to be missed’. (And that’s just the review…).
In brief
I teach Classics at Jesus College Oxford, where I’ve been a Fellow and Tutor since October 2000. My areas of interest include Greek music, metre, psychology and philosophy, tragedy and comedy, Greek and Latin poetry and verse composition (see examples here, pp. 11-14).
Getting in the Flow
A talk on Innovation and ‘the classic’, with cello, for TED Oxbridge. Watch and listen here.
Other activities
I’m completing a business book about innovation called Eureka. I’m active in Classics outreach to schools, including Hackney college BSix. In 2012 I co-organised the New Imago Forum and a conference on the sounds of Latin; sequels will take place in 2013.
My article on restoring Sappho’s poem ‘He seems to me…’ (fr. 31) is summarised here.
Broadcasts on Classical themes
After my Ancient Greek solutions to the debt crisis, I broadcast ‘letters’ and interviews on the BBC World Service as follows:
7 Dec 2012: Greeks on the fiscal cliff, here from 47.50 mins.
27 Nov 2012: Urbanisation in ancient Greece from 13.00 mins.
23 Oct 2012: Inflation in ancient Rome (text here).
7 June 2012: The wisdom of Socrates from 7.30 mins.