College:
Wolfson College
Course:
DPhil Asian & Middle Eastern Studies (Assyriology)
Thesis Title:
Conceptualising the erotic: Metaphor and the Sumerian "Love Songs"
Educational Background:
University of Oxford | DPhil Oriental Studies (Assyriology)| Open-Oxford-Cambridge DTP AHRC| Wolfson College Marriot Scholarship| Oct 2020-present | Supervisor: Professor Jacob Dahl
University of Oxford | MPhil Cuneiform Studies| Distinction | AHRC Full Scholarship| 2018-2020
University of Exeter| MA Classics & Ancient History | Distinction | Department and Dean Commendations | 2016-2017
University of Exeter | BA English | First Class (Hons) | 2011-2014
Research Interests:
Sumerian language, Old Babylonian literature
Gender, senses, emotions, the body in the ancient world
Metaphor & metaphor theory
Receptions of the ancient world
Eco-criticism, environmental humanities
Sumerian, Akkadian, Ugaritic, Hittite, biblical Hebrew, ancient Greek, Hurrian
Research Assistant in Assyriology| Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI)
Publications
'Liminal Lives: Tolstoy's Esarhaddon, King of Assyria' [Aula Orientalis 2023, 41.1]
'Desire and Hunger; Women and Food: The Earliest Example of a Universal Conceptual Metaphor in the Sumerian “Love Songs”?', Proceedings of the 67th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale [forthcoming; Zaphon]
Teaching
Sumerian; Akkadian; Old Babylonian literature; Women & Gender in Mesopotamia
Outreach researcher for Oxplore https://oxplore.org/ - teaching KS3 introductory sessions on Cuneiform/Sumerian
Course Leader- Introduction to Sumerian, The Classical Association of Scotland Online Seminar Series (Oct 2021), https://cas.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/2021/10/05/introduction-to-sumerian/
Tutor; Beginner's Sumerian, UCL Summer School of Classics (July 2023)
Conferences:
Co-organiser of the Oxford Postgraduate Conference in Assyriology (OPCA) https://oxfordassyriology.wordpress.com/
Co-organiser of the TORCH Critical-thinking Communities (Doctoral Network) Teaching and Translating Taboo https://www.torch.ox.ac.uk/teaching-and-translating-taboo
'Lying to sleep without eating...' The Danger of Love in Early Akkadian Literature'-OPCA 2023 (Mar 2023)
'The Sumerian Sacred Marriage Ritual'- Anthropology and Religion-Early Text Cultures (Feb 2023)
'Constructions of Desire and Pleasure in Sumerian erotic poetry'- AWRC ECR Festival (Feb 2023)
'Liminal Lives: Tolstoy's Esarhaddon, King of Assyria'- Conference Paper- OPCA 2022-(April 2022) [publication forthcoming]
Metaphor in the Sumerian "Love Songs"- Seminar Paper- Oxford Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies Seminar- (Feb 2022)
'Sexuality and Gendered Hierarchy: Old Babylonian Sumerian poetry; Ming-Qing literature'- Seminar paper- Gender Identities in early and premodern text cultures-University of Oxford (Feb 2022) https://www.earlytextcultures.org/events/current-events/gender-identities
Course Leader- Introduction to Sumerian, The Classical Association of Scotland Online Seminar Series (Oct 2021), https://cas.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/2021/10/05/introduction-to-sumerian/
'Desire and Hunger; Women and Food: The Earliest Example of a Universal Conceptual Metaphor in the Sumerian “Love Songs”?'- Conference Paper- 67th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale: Eating and Drinking in the Ancient Near East- University of Torino (July 2021) https://www.rai2021.unito.it/home-page [publication forthcoming]
'Seeing Straight: Considering "Heterosexuality" in the Sumerian "Love Songs"'- Conference Paper- Fourth Workshop on Gender, Methodology and the Ancient Near East- University of Helsinki- (June 2021) https://www2.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/ancient-near-eastern-empires/...
'The Sumerian "Love Songs": Unearthing the earliest expressions of female sexuality'- Conference Paper- Modern Women of the Past? Unearthing Gender and Antiquity Conference- University of Sydney- (March 2021)
'The Sumerian Debate Poems'- Reading group convenor- 'Mesopotamian and Egyptian Cosmogonies'- https://www.earlytextcultures.org/events/current-events/mesopotamian-and...
'Conceptualising Fertility in Mesopotamian Literature'- Conference Paper- OPCA (April 2019)
'Transcending and Transforming Sex: The Powers of the Sumerian Goddess Inanna/Ishtar'- Conference Paper- Annual Meeting of Postgraduates in Ancient Literature (July 2017)
