About our staff

I was born in Athens and studied Classics in Greece (Athens and Ioannina), before moving to London where I received a PhD in Classics from University College London (UCL) in 2012. During and after my PhD studies, I worked as a Postgraduate Teaching Assistant (2008-11) and Teaching Fellow (2012-14) at UCL, and as an Associate Lecturer at Birkbeck College (2012-14). Before coming to Edinburgh, I was a Teaching Fellow at the School of Classics, University of St Andrews, for four years (2014-18), where I taught a variety of courses in Greek and Latin language and literature (Homer, Early Greek poetry, Greek tragedy and historiography, Hellenistic poetry, Roman imperial poetry and historiography).

Summary of research interests

• Europe
• Mediterranean

• Ancient Civilisations
• Culture
• Ideas
• Language & Literature
• Politics
• Society

• Antiquity

My research focuses on the cultural values of archaic and classical Greece and the history of Greek ethical and political thought. I am especially interested in the ways in which philosophers (especially Plato and Aristotle) respond to their cultural and literary background and engage with the system(s) of inherited ethical and political beliefs encapsulated primarily in the works of the poets of the archaic age (Homer, Hesiod, lyric and elegiac poetry). In my doctoral thesis, I examined how traditional beliefs about wealth and honour inform Aristotle’s discussion of the two concepts, and how Aristotle refined those beliefs in accordance with his own philosophical doctrine.

Through the study of Aristotle’s virtues of ‘magnificence’ and ‘greatness of soul’, I became interested in ideas about the virtues, role, and duties of exceptional individuals and ultimately in notions of leadership. I am interested in exploring the ways in which contemporary developments in the field of Leadership Studies (relational leadership, identity leadership, leadership ethics) map on to Greek ideas of leadership, focusing primarily on the works of Herodotus and Thucydides.

I am currently a Research Fellow in the ERC-funded 'Honour in Classical Greece' project, and my research focuses on the ethical and political works of Aristotle. I explore Aristotle’s views on honour, esteem, and related ideas, aiming to highlight the variety of ways in which honour was conceptualized, and to analyse the complex workings of honour and its central role at both personal (as a motivating factor associated with emotions, virtues, and ideas of the good life) and social level (associated with political behaviour and conceptions of friendship, reciprocity, equality and justice). I am also particularly interested in exploring the links between Aristotle’s views on honour and traditional Greek thought.

Honour in Classical Greece: esteem, status, identity, and society in ancient Greek literature, life, and thought (http://research.shca.ed.ac.uk/honour-in-greece/).