Barbara Graziosi


Barbara Graziosi is an Italian classicist and academic. She is Professor of Classics at Princeton University. Her interests lie in ancient Greek literature, and the way in which readers make it their own. She has written extensively on the subject of Homeric literature, in particular the Iliad, and more generally on the transition of the Twelve Olympians from antiquity to the Renaissance. Her most recent research was a project entitled 'Living Poets: A New Approach to Ancient Poetry, which was funded by the European Research Council.

Early life and education

Barbara was born in Trieste, Italy, and lived there until she was 17. She attended a local liceo classico, and then the United World College of the Adriatic. Having been granted a local government scholarship, she studied Literae Humaniores at Corpus Christi College, Oxford in England. She graduated from the University of Oxford with a first class Bachelor of Arts degree in 1995. She remained at Oxford and completed a Master of Studies degree in 1996.
Having been granted a graduate scholarship, Graziosi moved to the University of Cambridge to undertake postgraduate research at Magdalene College, Cambridge. She completed her Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1999. Her doctoral supervisor was P. E. Easterling, and her thesis was titled "Inventing the poet: a study of the early reception of the Homeric poems".

Career

After a brief spell back in Oxford, as a Cox Junior Research Fellow at New College, and then in Reading, as a Lecturer in Greek Literature, she settled in Durham in 2001, first as a Lecturer, and then as a Senior Lecturer in Classics. She is also a doctorate supervisor for the university.
In 2003, she was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship. Also in 2003, she was a Summer Fellow at the Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington, D.C..
In 2018 she joined the classics faculty at Princeton University.
She has also been consulted on her work on a number of popular radio stations and television shows, including: discussing the Iliad with poets Carol Ann Duffy and Ruth Padel, assessing the discovery of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri together with a team of classicists, scientists and journalists ; arguing about the location of Ithaca with Quentin Cooper and John Underhill, discussing her work with Bill Buschel on US Public Radio, and talking about Homer and Sappho on BBC Radio 3.

Publications

Author