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Ancient World: New Voices

Welcome to this new podcast series featuring the research of UCL's staff and students on fascinating topics relating to the ancient world.

Meet the team

Dr Giovanna Di Martino, Co-Host

Dr Giovanna Di Martino
Hello! I'm a research fellow in Ancient Greek Literature at UCL working on translations, adaptations, and performances of ancient Greek drama in the early modern period. I am very excited to be hosting this podcast series and to learn about exciting new areas of research in the ancient world from our wonderful guests!
Mateen Arghandehpour, Co-Host

Mateen Arghandehpour
Hello! I'm a PhD student at UCL and I host the podcast with Giovanna. I love talking to people about their research and am very pleased to publish such talks as podcasts. I believe that the ancient world was a wonderful world and am excited to see so many facets of that from everyone's research!
Sofia Bongiovanni, Producer

Sofia Bongiovanni
Hi, all! I am a PhD student at the Department of Greek and Latin at UCL; alongside producing this podcast, I chair the Lyceum Classics Community Seminar and am a Latin tutor. I received my MA at UCL and throughout my postgraduate experience, I have had the chance to meet many amazing graduate students who are investigating various aspects of the ancient world. I hope that you will enjoy listening to their voices as much as I do!
Melissa Pires Da Silva, Producer

Melissa Pires Da Silva
Hi there! I’m a PhD student at UCL, working on the reception of Homer and Virgil’s epics in twentieth-century French and German literature. I previously hosted the UCL Lyceum Seminar, and am now excited to be a host on UCL’s new Podcast Series, to continue building a space of exchange for fellow ancient world researchers and passionates from all areas!

Season One Podcasts

In this season, you can listen to some exciting and fascinating individual research projects being conducted on aspects of classical antiquity and its reception. Feel free to drop your comments in the feedback form provided below if you have a few minutes to spare!

Episode 1: Culture and Politics of the Achaemenid Empire

Painted bricks featuring Achaemenid soldiers bearing spears and bows. From the Palace of Darius I in Susa, now in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin (source: www.realmofhistory.com)
Map showing the extent of the Achaemenid empire before Xerxes' invasion of Greece c. 481 BCE (source: www.study.com)

Host: Giovanna Di Martino

Guest Speaker: Mateen Arghandehpour

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Production: Giovanna Di Martino

Music: Anna Marcanio
 

Episode 2: Violence in Seneca the Younger

The death of Seneca Jacques, Louis David 1748, Paris- 1825, Brussels
Sofia Bongiovanni

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Host: Mateen Arghandehpour

Guest Speaker: Sofia Bongiovanni

Production: Sofia Bongiovanni

Music: Anna Marcanio

Episode 3: 'Family' in Broch and Giraudoux's receptions of the Homeric and Virgilian epics

Scene photograph from The Trojan War Will Not Take Place, Act I Scene 7. 1935. Bnf, Coll. L. Jouvet.
Melissa Pires Da Silva

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Host: Sofia Bongiovanni

Guest Speaker: Melissa Pires da Silva

Production: Sofia Bongiovanni

Music: Anna Marcanio

Episode 4: Lucretius' De Rerum Natura

Botticelli Primavera
Marta Martín Díaz
 

Host: Giovanna Di Martino

Guest Speaker: Marta Martín Díaz

Production: Sofia Bongiovanni

Music: Anna Marcanio

Episode 5: (Mis)understanding heroes: from Achilles to Superman

Achilles and Superman
Antony Makrinos

What do Achilles and Superman have in common and how do they differ? What is heroism in Homer and in modern times? Why is Achilles the best of ancient heroes? A fascinating interview with Homerist Dr Antony Makrinos who talks about heroism and his favourite Homeric hero, the mighty, swifty footed Achilles sharing the same heroic qualities with our own Superman. 

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Download the Episode 5 transcript

Host: Mateen Arghandehpour

Guest Speaker: Dr. Antony Makrinos

Production: Sofia Bongiovanni

Music: Anna Marcanio

Season Two Podcasts 

In this season, you can listen to some of the exciting, international collaborative research projects our staff are engaged with here at UCL. Feel free to drop your comments in the feedback form provided below if you have a few minutes to spare!

Episode 6: Comparative Classics: Greece, Rome, and India

Phiroze Vasunia

Season Two begins with a discussion with Prof. Phiroze Vasunia who talks about his new inter-institution research project ‘Comparative Classics, Greece, Rome, and India’. You can see more about Prof. Vasunia at the Departmental People page and more on the project is situated on the Departmental Research pages. 

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Host: Mélissa Pires Da Silva

Guest Speaker: Prof. Phiroze Vasunia

Production: Giovanna Di Martino

Music: Anna Marcanio

Episode 7: The History and Literature of the Cuneiform World

Dr Mark Weeden

In the Second Episode of Season Two Professor Mark Weeden talks about his current research across the Cuneiform World from hieroglyphic inscriptions discovered in Turkey to cuneiform tablets found in Iraq. You can see more about Prof. Weeden at the Departmental People page.

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Host: Sofia Bongiovanni

Guest Speaker: Dr. Mark Weeden

Production: Mélissa Pires Da Silva

Music: Anna Marcanio 

Episode 8: Ancient Greek Women Philosophers

 In this Third Episode of Season Two, Dr Caterina Pellò talks about her current research on Ancient Greek Women Philosophers and offers a sneak peek at the volume she is co-editing on Ancient Women Philosophers: Recovered Ideas and New Perspectives for Cambridge University Press. See more about Dr Pellò here

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Download the Episode 8 transcript

Host: Giovanna Di Martino 

Guest Speaker: Caterina Pellò 

Producer: Sofia Bongiovanni  

Music: Anna Marcanio  

Feedback

Enjoying these podcasts? Have you any recommendations, thoughts to share or questions to pose? Drop us a line!