Spotlight on Dr Ifigeneia Giannadaki

This week the spotlight is on Dr Ifigeneia Giannadaki, Academic Tutor and Honorary Research Fellow, UCL Greek and Latin.

What is your role and what does it involve?

I am an academic tutor and an Honorary Research Fellow in the UCL Department of Greek and Latin. Teaching, which I enormously enjoy, is combined with a number of other roles I undertake as a researcher too; I have been especially active in conference organisation at the department ('Use and Abuse of Law in the Athenian Courts' in 2013, and 'Ancient Family Law Conference' in 2015) and I am pursuing my own research in a very vibrant and lively academic community. At the moment, my co-organiser Professor Chris Carey and I, along with Dr Brenda Griffith-Williams, are editing the proceedings. So, in brief, my role combines the joy of teaching and the joy of research in its various forms.

How long have you been at UCL and what was your previous role?

Well, I have been teaching Greek and Latin language and literature modules for five years now, first as a PhD student and then as a tutor. In fact, I have obtained an MA in Classics at UCL, Greek and Latin too. I have spent quite a long time at UCL and I would say it feels like home!

As a doctoral student (my main previous role), I worked under the supervision of Professor Chris Carey on Attic oratory and Athenian law, on a project fully funded by the State Scholarships Foundation of Greece: 'A Commentary on the Speech of Demosthenes Against Androtion', which is currently being prepared for publication.

What working achievement or initiative are you most proud of?

If I had to choose a single working achievement I am most proud of, the 'Use and Abuse of Law in the Athenian Courts' conference comes straight to mind! It was an international conference co-organised with my supervisor, Professor Chris Carey, at UCL.

I was a PhD student back then, so I had to combine full-time study with enormous administrative work for the conference, much more than the mind of a postgraduate at the time would have thought. But I enjoyed every single moment of this project - every single moment and aspect of the preparations! So the idea was conceived as a result of my desire to gather together and meet the leading experts on my field of study from all over the world, and, therefore, organise a high-standard and large-scale event on a subject that always fascinated me - the use and abuse of laws by the litigants in the Athenian law courts. It was really a dream that it came true and it took me some time to fully realise what had happened! The outcome was spectacular, according to our participants and the publication plans, and the whole experience could not have been more rewarding and inspiring for a young postgraduate!

I think it was a great moment in my academic life because we managed to attract nearly thirty leading experts on Athenian law from the USA, the UK, continental Europe and Japan, and we also offered an extremely high-standard event thanks to the significant funds that we obtained. The event was generously endorsed by former UCL Provost, Professor Malcolm Grant with £8k among other generous sponsors (Classical Association, Institute of Classical Studies, UCL Leventis Fund), which meant that we could cover all of the accommodation expenses for all of our speakers, on top of the other essential costs and bursaries, which is highly unusual for academic conferences nowadays.

Due to the significant funds we attracted, we also had the opportunity to publish the proceedings online and disseminate the outcomes of the event into a wider community of students, academics and the general interested public. I supervised the website development of the online publication and the development of our iTunes album, which featured the lectures - this was the first publication of an entire conference on iTunes at the time. So I think we were leaders in terms of public engagement and the statistics show that the online publication of the proceedings has been used extensively, which makes us extremely delighted. I relish every opportunity to disseminate academic work and I was thrilled to receive very positive feedback by users of our site.

I could talk about the event for ever - it was a dream that came true through hard work, great enthusiasm and excellent support by Professor Carey - but to conclude, I will give you an idea of how inspiring and rewarding it was for the next steps of my academic career: Professor Carey and I were asked to give an interview at the end of the event and, despite the relative lack of sleep mixed with indescribable excitement, I recall my last words in the interview that envisioned another conference, the sequel, in 'four years' time or so'. Professor Carey's concluding sentence was 'the best is yet to come' and, in fact, the sequel conference followed two years later, much sooner than I had imagined! Equally successful and extremely diverse and thoroughly inspiring! I am currently supervising the online publication of the proceedings until the publication of the Ancient Family Law volume.

Tell us about a project you are working on now which is top of your to-do list?

At the moment, the highest priority for me is the publication of a number of studies I have been working on lately (including my doctoral dissertation and the edition of the volume 'Use and Abuse of Law in the Athenian Courts', which is under contract with Brill). Simultaneously, other top items on my to-do list before summer include the supervision of the publication of the proceedings of the conference 'Aspects of Family Law in the Ancient World' and performing all the administrative duties for the organisation of the 'Poetics of War' conference to be held at UCL in June, in my capacity as Executive Administrative Officer to the organising committee.

What is your favourite album, film and novel?

I have more than one favourite album, but I love Abbey Road (The Beatles) - it has 'Something' in it! One of my favourite movies is Lost in Translation, and novel… Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray.

What would it surprise people to know about you?

Well, I enormously enjoy duels - fencing duels, and especially the ones I take part in. I love fencing as it combines both excellent physical training and complex mental exercise, and I always try to find time for some bouts on a weekly basis, despite my demanding workload. I used to fence with the UCL and ULU fencing clubs, and I was coached by the late James Chambers - an extremely inspiring man and coach - in my early stages.

What is your favourite place?

Crete (Greece).