Cross-cultural encounters

Including: identity and ethnicity; archaeology of pre- and early Roman Italy; multilingualism and code-switching; Latin and vernacular languages; the heroic tradition.

Staff areas of focus include:

  • Dr Jacopo Bisagni: Latin and Old Irish bilingualism; interactions between Late Antique, Irish, Breton and Carolingian scholarship.
  • Prof. Michael Clarke: linguistic and cultural transfer from Graeco-Roman Antiquity to medieval vernacular literatures, especially Middle Irish; comparative study of epic poetry, including the traditions of Greek, Latin, Near Eastern languages.
  • Dr Edward Herring: history and archaeology of southern Italy with special reference to the study of the relations between the Greek, Roman and native communities; south Italian pottery; the Iron Age and Classical cultures of Italy, with special reference to state formation, ethnicity and identity.
  • Dr Pádraic Moran: reception of Latin educational texts in early medieval Ireland; comparative study of Classical and vernacular traditions, particularly between Europe and East Area.

Current researchers

Postdoctoral researchers:

PhD researchers:

  • Andrew Levie: narratives of Antiquity in Spenser's Faerie Queene.
  • Luke McDermott: metaphor in the language of prophecy between ancient Assyria and later European traditions.
  • Érin McKinney: Latin–Irish code-switching in early Irish hagiography.

Completed research

Postdoctoral researchers:

  • Dr Ciaran Arthur: Classical, biblical, vernacular and divine language in the early English intellectual tradition. 

PhD researchers:

  • Dr Micheál Geoghegan: inter-generational tensions in classical Athens.
  • Dr Eóin O'Donoghue: representation of gender in the material culture of archaic Etruria. (In 2022, Dr O'Donoghue took a new position as Assistant Professor of Ancient Classics in Brandeis University.)
  • Dr Anastasia Remoundou-Howley: contemporary Irish versions of Sophocles’ tragedy Antigone. (Dr Remoundou-Howley is now a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Galway.)
  • Dr Mary Sweeney: fragmentary Jewish texts in the Hellenistic world.