About our staff
Professor Judith Barringer
BA, MA, MPhil, PhD
Professor of Greek Art and Archaeology
- Tel: +44 (0)131 650 3584
- Email: J.M.Barringer@ed.ac.uk
- Room 00M.12, William Robertson Wing, Old Medical School, Teviot Place
Biography
I received my PhD in Classical Archaeology from Yale University and have taught at several colleges and universities in the USA. I joined the staff at the University of Edinburgh in 2005. My scholarly work centers on the archaeology, art, and culture of Greece, particularly the intersection between art, myth, and religion, from the Archaic through Hellenistic periods. More specifically, I am interested in why structures and images, particularly sculpture and vase painting, appear as they do and how they acquire meaning for ancient patrons and viewers from their physical and social contexts.
I have received numerous awards, including fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, a British Academy Larger Research Grant, a Senior Fellowship at the Internationales Forschungszentrum Kulturwissenschaften in Vienna in 2011-2012, and a Marie Curie Fellowship from the Gerda Henkel Stiftung (2013-2015) at the Freie Universität in Berlin. I also was elected as a Korrespondierendes Mitglied des Deutsches Archäologisches Institut.
My publications concentrate on vase painting iconology, myth and religion, social history, and contextual readings of sculpture in both public sanctuaries and private contexts. My most recent monograph is Olympia: A Cultural History (Princeton University Press, 2021), and a collection of essays that I co-edited with François Lissarrague: Images at the Crossroads (Edinburgh University Press, 2022). My textbook, The Art and Archaeology of Ancient Greece (Cambridge University Press 2014) received the PROSE (Professional Scholarly Excellence) Award for the best textbook in the Arts and Humanities from the American Association of Publishers (2016) and the Bolchazy Book Award (2018).
Summary of research interests
Places:- Mediterranean
- Culture
- Landscapes & Monuments
- Material Culture
- Politics
- Religion
- Society
- Antiquity
Research interests
Greek art and archaeology from the archaic through Hellenistic periods
Greek sanctuaries
Greek sculpture
Greek vase painting
Greek mythology
Greek religion
Topography
Infrastructure
Current research activities
I am working on a new monograph, Seeking the Divine in a Faraway Place, concerning the relationship between western Greek cities and sanctuaries on the Greek mainland and Aegean islands from the 7th to 1st centuries B.C.I am also co-editing (with Gunnel Ekroth and David Scahill) a volume of conference papers, Logistics in Greek Sanctuaries, to which I contributed an essay on workers in Greek sanctuaries.
Research projects
Seeking the Divine in a Faraway Place
Logistics in Greek Sanctuaries
Knowledge Exchange and Impact
Television:
2012 BBC series, Divine Women, part 2
2006 History Channel, Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
Newspaper Interviews:
2012 http://science.orf.at/stories/1694107
2012 http://derstandard.at/1326503611132/Interview-Olympia-war-ein-interaktiver-Raum
Podcasts:
https://ithacabound.podbean.com/e/ancient-olympia-w-dr-judith-barringer/
https://ithacabound.com/podcast/ancient-olympic-games-w-dr-judith-barringer/
https://podfollow.com/the-ancients/episode/22ee55d2edfda1e5f02d7f78814ed411be26136c/view
https://podfollow.com/the-ancients/episode/dcc61498f23eadef83e21d773adcf4385725a203/view
Undergraduate teaching
- Greek World 1a
- Greek Art and Archaeology
- Early and Archaic Greek Art and Archaeology
- Classical Greek Sculpture
- Hellenistic Art
- The Athenian Akropolis
Postgraduate teaching
- Greek Vase Painting
- Early and Archaic Greek Art and Archaeology
- Hellenistic Art and Archaeology
- Classical Greek Sculpture
- The Athenian Akropolis
Current Students:
| Name | Degree | Thesis topic | Supervision type | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Magnani, Alex | PhD | The Mistress of the Animals in Archaic and Classical Greece | Primary | link |
Past Students:
| Name | Degree | Thesis topic | Supervision type | Completion year | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nenci, Nicola | PhD | Taking Apollo by the horns. Reconsidering the cult(s) of Apollo Karneios in the Mediterranean | Primary | 2016 | link |
| Foukara, Lavinia | PhD | All in the family: the Apollonian triad in Attic art of the sixth and fifth centuries BC | Primary | 2014 | |
| Pavlides, Nicolette | PhD | Hero-Cult in Sparta in the Archaic and Classical Periods: a study of local religion | Primary | 2011 | |
| Baldassi, Claudia | PhD | Leucippides in Greek myth: abductions, rituals and weddings | Secondary | 2019 | |
Publications
Books
Judith Barringer, Olympia: A Cultural History. Princeton 2021.
Judith Barringer, The Art and Archaeology of Ancient Greece .Cambridge 2014.
Judith Barringer, Art, Myth, and Ritual in Classical Greece. Cambridge 2008.
Judith Barringer, The Hunt in Ancient Greece. Baltimore 2001.
Judith Barringer, Divine Escorts: Nereids in Archaic and Classical Greek Art. Ann Arbor 1995.
Edited Books
Judith Barringer, co-editor with François Lissarrague, Images at the Crossroads: Media and Meaning in Greek Art. Edinburgh 2022.
Judith Barringer, co-editor with Jeffrey M. Hurwit, Periklean Athens and its Legacy: Problems and Perspectives. Austin 2005.
Articles and Book Chapters
“Handworkers and Repair in Greek Sanctuaries”, in Logistics in Greek Sanctuaries, edited by G. Ekroth, J. Barringer, and D. Scahill (forthcoming).
“Olympia: Archaic and Classical Monuments”, in The Oxford Handbook of Greek Sanctuaries, edited by Catherine Keesling (forthcoming, Oxford University Press).
“Images of Greek Myth: Sanctuaries, Graves and Private Contexts: The Archaic and Classical Period”, in The Cambridge Guide to Greek Myth and the Ancient Mediterranean, edited by F. Meinel (forthcoming, Cambridge University Press).
“The Message is in the Medium: White-Ground Lekythoi and Stone Grave Markers in Classical Athens”, in Images at the Crossroads: Media and Meaning in Greek Art, edited by F. Lissarrague and J. Barringer, 310-331. Edinburgh 2022.
“The Design of the Trysa Heroon and Narrative Structures”, in Das Heroon von Trysa, edited by A. Gottsmann und G. Plattner. Leiden 2022.
“Western Greek Poleis and Sanctuaries Abroad”, in Transmission and Organization of Knowledge in the Ancient Mediterranean World, Fourth Euro-Japanese Colloquium on the Ancient Mediterranean World, edited by Y. Suto, 149-162, Vienna 2021.
“When Does ‘Classical’ Begin?” in Innovations and Inventions in Athens ca. 530-470 B.C.—Two Crucial Generations, edited by M. Meyer, 49-56. Vienna 2020.
“Olympia: More Than Meets the Eye,”, Classics Ireland 19-20, 2012-2013 (published: 2016), 26-49.
“The Shefton Dolphin Rider”, in On the Fascination of Objects: Greek and Etruscan Art in the Shefton Collection, edited by J. Boardman and S. Waite, 117-130. Oxford 2015.
“The Changing Image of Zeus at Olympia”, Archäologischer Anzeiger 2015/1, 19-37.
“Athenian State Monuments for the War Dead: Evidence from a Loutrophoros”, In Approaching the Ancient Artifact: Representation, Narrative, and Function, edited by A. Avramidou and D. Demetriou, 153-160. Berlin 2014.
"Hunters and Hunting on the Francois Vase' in The Francois Vase: New Perspectives, ed. H. A. Shapiro, M. Iozzo, Kilchberg 2013.
“The Legacy of the Pheidian Zeus at Olympia”, in The Statue of Zeus of Olympia: New Perspectives, edited by T. Stevenson, S. Puttock, and J. McWilliam, 61-71. Cambridge 2011.
"Zeus in Olympia", in The Gods of Ancient Greece: Identities and Transformations, ed. A. Erskine, J. N. Bremmer, 155-177. Edinburgh 2010.
“The Olympic Altis Before the Temple of Zeus.” Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 124 (2009) 223-250.
"Making Heroes in the Athenian Agora: A New Interpretation of the Hephaisteion," In Structure, Image, Ornament: Architectural Sculpture of the Greek World, edited by P. Schultz and R. von den Hoff, 105-120. Oxford 2009.
"The Temple of Zeus at Olympia, Heroes, and Athletes", Hesperia (2005), 211-241.
"Alkamenes’ Prokne and Itys in Context", in Periklean Athens and its Legacy: Problems and Perspectives (University of Texas Press, 2005), 163-76.
"Skythian Hunters on Attic Vases", in Greek Vases, Images, and Controversies, Proceedings of the Conference Sponsored by the Center for the Ancient Mediterranean at Columbia University, 23-24 March 2002, Columbia Studies in the Classical Tradition 25, edited by C. Marconi, 13-25. Leiden 2004.
“Panathenaic Games and Panathenaic Amphorae Under Macedonian Rule", in O. Palagia and S. Tracy (eds.), The Macedonians in Athens, 323-229 BC , 243-56. Oxford 2003.
"Atalanta as Model: The Hunter and the Hunted", Classical Antiquity, 15 (1996), 48-76.
"The Mythological Paintings in the Macellum at Pompeii", Classical Antiquity, 13 (1994), 149-66.
"Europa and the Nereids: wedding or funeral?" American Journal of Archaeology, 95 (1991), 657-67.