About Liz Gloyn

Thanks for coming by!

I’ve always been classically inclined, ever since my first encounter with a history book (the fabulous Usbourne Book of World History), when I’m informed I used to turn between the pages that covered the Greeks and the Romans again and again. The books on Greek myth were the ones I would take out of my classroom bookshelves in primary school; I picked up Latin at secondary school in year eight (so at about age twelve); I carried on to do my GCSE and A-level… and it just seemed natural to go on and do a B.A., an M.Phil. and a Ph.D. after that, really.

I studied for my B.A. and M.Phil. at Newnham College, Cambridge, and for my Ph.D. at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, via an intricate pathway of coincidence that I will explain one day. I  finished my Ph.D. in May 2011 and have moved back to the UK to pursue my academic career here – it’s good to have visited the American system, but there’s no place like home.

My research interests are pretty broad. My thesis looked at the ethics of the family in Seneca’s philosophy (you can find a Plain English Guide here), and I want to look at how those work in his tragedies as well. I have written an article on Fortunata, Trimalchio’s wife in the Cena Trimalchionis; I have published on pedagogical issues; I work with classical reception on topics as broad as Hope Mirrlees (a twentieth century writer in many genres who went to Newnham), queer theory, film and Barbie dolls.

This blog is a place for me to share my thoughts about research, teaching and my development as an academic. I hope you enjoy sojourning with me.