Dr Gary Vos (BA, (Res)MA, PhD)
Teaching Fellow
Background
I took my undergraduate degrees in Classics (BA) and Classics and Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations ((Res)MA) from Leiden University in the Netherlands and obtained my doctorate in Classics from the University of Edinburgh in 2018. I am a big believer in the transformative powers of education and the continuing value of Classics for contemporary society.
In the Netherlands I worked as a highschool teacher of Greek, Latin, Classical Civilization, and philosophy, and I count myself fortunate to be able to continue that job here with courses on World Mythologies, Etruscan Language and Culture, and the Trojan War in Archaeology and Literature for the Centre of Open Learning. In addition to my own academic work, I am a serial reviewer for Classics for All and occasionally contribute to other venues as well. Beyond research, teaching, and the many distractions Edinburgh has to offer, I enjoy football (both playing and watching), long walks, and listening to music.
Responsibilities & affiliations
In the past, I served as a member of the Library committee and Computing and Equipment committee at the School of History, Classics, and Archaeology.
Undergraduate teaching
At the Centre for Open Learning I developed and taught courses on World Mythologies, the Trojan War in Archaeology and Literature, and Etruscan Language and Culture.
At the School of History, Classics, and Archaeology, I taught intermediate and advanced Greek and Latin language tutorials, as well as survey courses of classical history (the Greek and Roman World courses).
Research summary
I would like to consider myself a comparativist, with a broad interest in Greek and Latin literature and mythology throughout the ages, from antiquity to the Renaissance. I mostly work on poetic texts of the Hellenistic and Augustan periods and try to combine the study of these with the application of literary theory. Much of what I do is concerned with intertextuality and metapoetics, in other words the relationships between texts (and the games texts play with each other) and the implicit, metaphorical representation of the act of writing in literary texts. More recently, I have taken an interest in the reception of Plato in Latin poetry, on which I hope to start publishing soon.
Current research interests
Intertextuality, metapoetics, the Linus-song in antiquity and beyond, the humanist George Buchanan (1506-1582).Project activity
My PhD thesis ('Linus Songs: Time, Narrative, and Intertextuality in Graeco-Roman Poetry') aimed to connect the divergent representations of the mythological figure(s) Linus in Greek and Roman poetic texts by means of an intertextual reading. Paradoxically, this much-neglected minor mythological figure makes a number of very marked appearances in key texts ranging from Homer's Iliad and Hesiod's Catalogue of Women via Callimachus' Aetia and Theocritus' Idyll 24, to Vergil's fourth and sixth Eclogues, and far beyond, to Statius and Nonnus - not to mention a host of Renaissance texts.
I am also researching towards a new big project, which will look at the reception of Plato in Latin poetry. A prepatory article is in the offing and will be followed by a monograph in the not-too-distant future. Furthermore, I am currently involved in editing a volume (with Astrid Khoo, Maciej Paprocki, and David Wright) tentatively entitled "The Staying Power of Thetis: Allusion, Interaction, and Reception from Homer to the 21st Century."
- 'Weaving together the Present and Past: Theocritus' Linus and the Reinvention of Time and Literature in Idyll 24', in: A.M. Harder, R.F. Regtuit & G.C. Wakker (eds), Past and Present in Hellenistic Poetry. Leuven - Paris - Bristol, CT: Peeters, 2017. pp. 101-136.
- 'Buchanan, George (1506-82)', in: K. Pollmann et al. (eds), The Oxford Guide to the Historical Reception of Augustine. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Vol. 2, pp. 718-720 (co-authored with R.P.H. Green).