Dr Jan Haywood

I received my undergraduate degree in History and master's degree in Classics and Ancient History both from the University of Manchester. I then moved to the University of Liverpool, where I gained my PhD in 2013. After graduating, I became the J. P. Postgate University Teacher in Classics at the University of Liverpool, a Teaching Fellow in Ancient History at the University of Leicester, and latterly as a Lecturer in Classical Studies at The Open University. I returned to the School of Archaeology & Ancient History as Lecturer in Ancient History in August 2021.

My research centres on ancient Greek historiography and its cultural-literary contexts as well as the reception of ancient Greek culture in antiquity and beyond. I am also the co-founder (with Professor Thomas Harrison University of St Andrews) of the Herodotus Helpline - a free online seminar series set up in April 2020 which explores Herodotus and his world.

(2023) 'Herodotus and non-Greek peoples', Omnibus 85: 30-32.

(2022) 'Tracing affinities between Herodotus' Croesus logos and Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrranus', co-authored with Dr. Doris Post, Classical World 115: 225-59.

(2022) 'Homeric allusions in Herodotus’ Histories’, in Ivan Matijašić (ed.) Herodotus – the Most Homeric Historian? (Histos Supplement 14), 59-90.

(2021) 'The use(s) of inscriptions in Herodotus' Histories', American Journal of Philology 142: 217-57.

(2021) 'Lade', 'Ichthyophagi', 'Fire', and 'Reception of Herodotus, ancient Greece and Rome', in C. Baron (ed.) The Herodotus Encyclopedia (Wiley).

(2020) 'Alice Oswald's Memorial, a new Iliad', in Maria de Fatima Silva, David Bouvier and Maria das Gracas Augusto (eds.) A Special Model of Classical Reception: Summaries and Short Narratives, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 73-90.

(2019) The Power of Individual and Community in Ancient Athens and Beyond. Essays in Honour of Professor J. K. Davies, co-edited with Dr. Zosia Archibald, Swansea: The Classical Press of Wales.

(2019) 'From Croesus to Pausanias: tragic individuals in early Greek historiography', in Z. Archibald and J. Haywood (eds.) The Power of Individual and Community in Ancient Athens and Beyond. Essays in Honour of Professor J. K. Davies, Swansea: The Classical Press of Wales, 115-145.

(2018) Homer's Iliad and the Trojan War: Dialogues on Tradition, co-authored with Professor Naoise Mac Sweeney, London: Bloomsbury.

(2016) 'Character and motivation in Aeschylus' Persae', Syllecta Classica 27: 29-63.

(2016) 'Divine narratives in Xenophon's Anabasis', Histos 10: 85-110.

I would be delighted to discuss research projects on any of my major research interests: ancient historiography, Greek divination literary culture in fifth-century BCE Greece, the Trojan War and its receptions, classical reception.

I am a passionate university teacher, and I have taught a variety of modules that touch upon Greek and Roman history, literature and culture, as well as ancient Greek and Latin language. I have also led four successful taught postgraduate study tours to Rome, in which students explored the archaeology of this site from antiquity up until today.

For 2023-2024, I am the module co-ordinator for AH1010: Introduction to Greek History, AH1013: Introduction to Classical Culture, and my new third-year module AH3086: Oracles, Dreams and Omens: Divination in the Ancient Greek World. I also co-ordinate the the distance-learning module AH1702: Approaching the Greek World.

I am also the School's Director of Research, Enterprise and Impact.

I would be delighted to discuss topics on any of my major research interests: ancient historiography, Greek divination literary culture in fifth-century BCE Greece, the Trojan War and its receptions, classical reception.

Membership Officer for the Hellenic Society

Co-founder of the Herodotus Helpline

I was elected as Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in November 2023

I have written several articles for The Conversation. Most recently: From the Iliad to Circe: culture’s enduring fascination with the myths of Troy

BA MA (Manchester) PhD (Liverpool) FHEA