Professor Neville Morley (Director)

Neville Morley is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Bristol. His main research interests are in the economic, social and ecological history of classical antiquity, particularly trade, demography, urbanisation and agriculture; in the reception of antiquity in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century economic and social thought, especially the critiques of modernity developed by Marx and Nietzsche; and in theoretical and philosophical approaches to historiography, including its narrative structures and rhetorical techniques.

He has recently published Antiquity and Modernity, on the mutual interdependence of those concepts during the 'long nineteenth century' (Wiley-Blackwell, 2008), and The Roman Empire: roots of imperialism (Pluto Press, 2010) about Roman imperialism and its modern reception and influence. He is co-editor with Katherine Harloe (Reading) of Thucydides and the Modern World: reception, reinterpretation and influence from the Renaissance to the present (CUP, 2012). As part of the project he is co-editing with Christine Lee a multi-author Handbook on the Reception of Thucydides (Wiley-Blackwell) and writing a monograph on Thucydides and the Idea of History (I.B.Tauris), as well as writing papers on such topics as the Austrian writer Peter Handke’s readings of Thucydides, the patterns of quoting Thucydidean aphorisms, conflicting conceptions of the nature of Thucydides' text and the consequences of this for its deployment in political debate, and the idea of history as political therapy.

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Dr. Christine M. Lee (Postdoctoral Research Fellow, 2009-13)

Christine Lee received her PhD in political science (international relations, political theory) from Duke University in 2009.  Her work employs humanistic modes of inquiry to appraise and inform socio-scientific research, focusing especially on the ethical and political presuppositions and implications of various theoretical approaches to global politics.

In addition to her research on the reception of Thucydides, Christine is currently revising her doctoral thesis for publication. Her thesis, The Radicalism of Political Realism, critically investigates two strands of modern political realism and their divergent ethics, politics, and philosophical commitments: the mid- to late 20th century realism of Hans Morgenthau and E.H. Carr and the scientific realism of contemporary international relations scholarship. Through immanent critique and genealogy, the work demonstrates the scientific and political shortcomings of contemporary realism and reclaims the radical substantive concerns and methodological orientation of earlier realists. By examining what has happened to the predominant political tradition that frames our vision of international relations, The Radicalism of Political Realism aims to prompt a rethinking of the commitments and values that orient contemporary politics and political inquiry.

Dr Lee is now a Tutor at St John's College Annapolis: contact Christine.Lee@sjc.edu

Ben Earley (Project Student, 2009-13)

Ben Earley studied Classics and Ancient History at the University of Durham, graduating in 2007 with a postgraduate masters degree and a dissertation on the dating and political significance of the Harmodius and Aristogeiton inscription.  He is interested in the reception of classical histories and political texts since the renaissance and the ways in which authors such as Thucydides have influenced modern political discourse.  His research focuses on the way Thucydides was received by historians and political commentators during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Building upon the work of the Cambridge School and the ideas of the contextualists, he examines the ways in which Thucydides contributed to contemporary political language of ‘democracy’, ‘mob rule’, ‘tyranny’ and ‘republicanism’.

Andreas Stradis (Project Student, 2009-13)

Andreas Stradis read English Literature at Magdalen College, Oxford, then completed an MSc in International Relations at the London School of economics, where he focused on the strategic aspects of IR, the history of warfare and cultures of war and culture and religion in international politics.  His Masters dissertation was on the neoconservative appropriation/rewriting of Thucydides’ History, exploring this through an analysis of Thucydides’ treatment of human agency in the causes of the Peloponnesian War.  His research project focuses on the place of Thucydides in military education since 1972, when the History was introduced into the curriculum at the US Naval War College.