Monthly Archives: July 2025

Students, professors and alumni to offer hands-on experiences of ancient activities

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Would you like to try learning Latin the way it was done 2000 years ago? Or would your child enjoy performing a Greek tragedy or Roman comedy, or experimenting with Roman magic, or learning Roman arithmetic? Or attending a Roman school for a few hours? If so, we have something for you this August! The Reading Ancient Schoolroom is teaming up with Butser Ancient Farm to offer a series of high-quality research-based workshops for adults and children in the idyllic setting of Butser’s reconstructed Roman villa (pictured). Highlights include:

Professor Eleanor Dickey FBA, the leading expert on how people learned Latin in ancient times, offers a one-day Latin workshop for adults. She will attempt to re-create the learning experience provided by the very first Roman schools in England, which were set up in the first century AD by the Roman general Agricola:

https://www.butserancientfarm.co.uk/whats-on/calendar/learning-latin

 

Charles Stewart, who graduated with a BA in Ancient History in 2018 and an MA in 2019, offers a half-day workshop for children on Roman arithmetic, in collaboration with Professor Philomen Probert of Oxford University. This arithmetic, done with counters on a board, is highly visual and feels very different from our own writing-based maths, making it a perfect way for children to explore arithmetical processes in a creative and non-threatening manner:

https://www.butserancientfarm.co.uk/whats-on/calendar/roman-arithmetic-kids-workshop

 

Jacinta Hunter, who has just graduated with a BA in Classical Studies, offers two one-day drama workshops for children, giving them the chance to act in (a shortened version of) an ancient play without having to memorise lines. The first workshop will culminate in a performance of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon and the second in one of Plautus’ Braggart Soldier:

https://www.butserancientfarm.co.uk/whats-on/calendar/youth-drama-day-greek-tragedy

https://www.butserancientfarm.co.uk/whats-on/calendar/youth-drama-day-roman-comedy

 

Adel Ternovacz, a current PhD student, offers a half-day workshop on Roman magic for children, in collaboration with Professor Eleanor Dickey FBA. Adel brings her research on magical gems to life with a charm against tummyache, while Eleanor shows participants how the Romans invoked divine help to recover stolen goods:

https://www.butserancientfarm.co.uk/whats-on/calendar/roman-magic-kids-workshop

 

And the whole team, including three current undergraduates, will offer a re-creation of a Roman school:

https://www.butserancientfarm.co.uk/whats-on/calendar/august-ancient-schoolroom-1

We look forward to seeing you there!

Classics Staff awarded for Teaching, Research, and Outreach

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As we come to the end of the 2024-2025 academic year, we would like to take a moment to celebrate the recent successes of UoR Classics staff for their teaching, research, and outreach work.

 

RSU Teaching Excellence Award for the School of Humanities

Dr. Dania Kamini received this award from the Reading Student Union for the second year in a row in May 2025. Student testimonials attest that Dania has gone “above and beyond” for her students, supporting them with extra tutorials and accommodating their needs.

Prof. Emma Aston and Dr. Andrew Fox were also nominated for this award for their teaching work during the 2024-2025 academic year.

Dr Tim Penn, Prof. Eleanor Dickey, and Dr. Dania Kamini were nominated for the RSU Academic Tutor Excellence Award as well.

 

Collaborative Award for Outstanding Contribution to Teaching and Learning

The iGAIAS project team, lead by Jackie Baines and Dr. Edward A. S. Ross, received this award in April 2025 as recognition for their work exploring how generative artificial intelligence (AI) is impacting teaching and learning the ancient world and making AI ethics accessible to the broader public. This outreach work included their recent temporary exhibit at the Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology, “Distorted History: AI’s Skewed Visions of the Ancient World”.

The full collaborative team includes: Jackie Baines, Dr. Edward A. S. Ross, Prof. Amy Smith, Prof. Enza Siciliano Verruccio, Jayne Holly, Dr. Tim Penn, Victoria Stevens, Shona Carter-Griffiths, Hannah Gage, Jacinta Hunter, Fleur McRitchie Pratt, Nisha Patel, Eve Richards-Fowkes, and Henry Tandy.

 

ECR Output Prize (Heritage and Creativity)

Dr. Sam Agbamu received this award for his recent monograph Restorations of Empire in Africa: Ancient Rome and Modern Italy’s African Colonies in April 2025. This book is the first full-length study to investigate how modern Italian imperialism used the memory of the Roman empire in support of its colonial endeavours in Africa. It is available through Oxford University Press here.

 

Professional Services Award – Engaged University (Nominee)

Naomi Miller was nominated for this award for her work bringing Ancient Rome to school children across the Berkshire region. In just the past year, her work has successfully rolled out fascinating teaching and research innovation from UoR Classics to hundreds of children. Naomi’s work was recently featured in the UoR Community Festival Research highlights here.