DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS AND ANCIENT HISTORY
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About the department
Research
Shelley Hales
Senior Lecturer in Art & Visual Culture
Phone: +44 (0)117 928 9807
Email: shelley.hales@bristol.ac.uk
Research
Shelley Hales has two main areas of research interest that cross the disciplines of Classics, Art History and Archaeology. The first is the role of art in expressing and forging identities in the Roman world. Her first book explored domestic art and architecture and she is now researching the prominence of Aphrodite and Dionysos in Roman domestic and commemorative art. Last year Shelley collaborated on a conference, ‘Crossing Cultures: Identities in the Material World’ with Tamar Hodos (Archaeology and Anthropology). They are currently working on an edited volume exploring themes arising from the conference.
Shelley’s other interest is in the reception of Roman material culture since the eighteenth century. She is currently working on the impact of the Pompeii since its rediscovery in 1748 and, with Joanna Paul and colleagues from Exeter Univeristy, will be hosting a major conference ‘Ruins & Reconstructions: Pompeii in the Popular Imagination’ in July 2007.
Shelley is currently supervising PhD dissertations on the Roman villa in Italy, the Classical Revival in nineteenth century Italian painting, the display of antiquity in British museums and the relationship between Baroque art and the Classical ideal. She is interested in supervising projects on any aspect of Roman art and its reception or on topics which use material culture to explore issues of identity or imperialism in the Roman empire.
Teaching
Shelley teaches units in art and architectural history (and its reception) and Roman imperial cultural topics. She is also joint course director of the BA in Ancient History and Archaeology, with Dr Tamar Hodos (Archaeology & Anthropology).
Selected publications
- ‘Aphrodite and Dionysus: Role Models for Romans?’ in S. Bell & I. Hansen eds Role Models: Identity in the Roman World (University of Michigan Press) 2006
- ‘Re-Casting Antiquity in the Crystal Palace’ Arion 14.1 2006
- ‘Men are Mars, Women are Venus: Dressing Up and Down’ L. Cleland, Llewellyn-Jones & M. Harlow eds The Clothed Body in the Ancient World (Oxbow) 2005
- Roman Houses & Social Identity (Cambridge University Press) 2003
- ‘How the Venus de Milo lost her Arms’ in D. Ogden ed. The Hellenistic World (Classical Press of Wales) 2003
- ‘The Houses of Antioch: A Study of the Domestic Sphere in the Imperial Near East’ in J. Webster & S. Scott eds Art and Imperialism in the Roman Provinces (Cambridge University Press) 2003