Elton Barker
Professional biography
I'm a Professor of Greek Literature and Culture. I joined The Open University in July 2009, after having been a Tutor and Lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford (2004-9), and also lectured at Bristol, Nottingham and Reading.
I came to Classical Studies late - my "A" levels were in English, Geography and Mathematics. I studied Classical Civilisation at the University of Leeds, and went on to do a Masters in Greek Civilisation there, and then, in order to learn the languages, a further Masters in Greek and Latin at Ohio State University in the USA. For my PhD, I studied in Cambridge (Pembroke College), where I investigated representations of verbal contest - or agon - in different ancient Greek genres, under the supervision of Simon Goldhill and Paul Cartledge.
I have been a Junior Research Fellowship at Wolfson College, Cambridge (2002-4) and a Visiting Fellow at Venice International University (2003-4). From 2012-2013 I had a Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers awarded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for research at the Freie Universität Berlin and the University of Leipzig. I have been awarded a Graduate Teaching Award from Pembroke College (Cambridge) and twice won awards from the University of Oxford for an Outstanding Contribution to Teaching.
Research interests
My research interests cross generic and disciplinary boundaries. In my first book, Entering the Agon (OUP, 2009), I explore the ways in which debate is represented in Homer, historiography and tragedy through a framework of dissent and authority. I have followed this up with a series of articles jointly written with Joel Christensen on poetic rivalry (in Homer and Archilochus), as well as the reception of Homer in the Epic Cycle. With Joel, I have published a Beginner's Guide to Homer, and have begun a book on Homer's Thebes - how Homer makes the Theban tradition speak to the aims and ambitions of his Iliad and Odyssey.
Since 2008, I have been leading and co-running a series of collaborative projects, which are using digital resources to rethink spatial understanding of the ancient world. The Hestia project investigates the underlying ways in which Herodotus constructs space in book 5 of his Histories. Producing a series of ‘X-ray’ maps based on relations between peoples and places rather than according to topographic ‘reality’ (Barker et al. 2013a), our network maps challenge: (i) the Europe vs. Asia polarity, through which the Histories are usually read and (ii) the Cartesian view of space, by which we usually perceive the ancient world. The Google Ancient Places, or GAP, project uses fully automated processes to first discover and then visualise places mentioned in a text, thereby enabling narratives with a strongly geographic basis to be read spatially.
Meanwhile, the Pelagios project has been establishing the Web infrastructure by which data produced and curated by different content providers - from academic projects like the Perseus Classical Library to cultural heritage institutions like the British Museum - can be linked through their common references to places. By means of this connectivity through common references, online documents of varying kinds can be read in relation to each other—not only literary texts but also inscriptions, archaeological finds or sites, museum objects, photographs, etc. Such resources provide context for thinking about ancient places. One way of visualising this graph of data is through a heat map, showing the spatial depth and breadth of the documents in the Pelagios network.
I'm a Professor of Greek Literature and Culture. I joined The Open University in July 2009, after having been a Tutor and Lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford (2004-9), and also lectured at Bristol, Nottingham and Reading.
I came to Classical Studies late - my "A" levels were in English, Geography and Mathematics. I studied Classical Civilisation at the University of Leeds, and went on to do a Masters in Greek Civilisation there, and then, in order to learn the languages, a further Masters in Greek and Latin at Ohio State University in the USA. For my PhD, I studied in Cambridge (Pembroke College), where I investigated representations of verbal contest - or agon - in different ancient Greek genres, under the supervision of Simon Goldhill and Paul Cartledge.
I have been a Junior Research Fellowship at Wolfson College, Cambridge (2002-4) and a Visiting Fellow at Venice International University (2003-4). From 2012-2013 I had a Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers awarded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for research at the Freie Universität Berlin and the University of Leipzig. I have been awarded a Graduate Teaching Award from Pembroke College (Cambridge) and twice won awards from the University of Oxford for an Outstanding Contribution to Teaching.
Research interests
My research interests cross generic and disciplinary boundaries. In my first book, Entering the Agon (OUP, 2009), I explore the ways in which debate is represented in Homer, historiography and tragedy through a framework of dissent and authority. I have followed this up with a series of articles jointly written with Joel Christensen on poetic rivalry (in Homer and Archilochus), as well as the reception of Homer in the Epic Cycle. With Joel, I have published a Beginner's Guide to Homer, and have begun a book on Homer's Thebes - how Homer makes the Theban tradition speak to the aims and ambitions of his Iliad and Odyssey.
Since 2008, I have been leading and co-running a series of collaborative projects, which are using digital resources to rethink spatial understanding of the ancient world. The Hestia project investigates the underlying ways in which Herodotus constructs space in book 5 of his Histories. Producing a series of ‘X-ray’ maps based on relations between peoples and places rather than according to topographic ‘reality’ (Barker et al. 2013a), our network maps challenge: (i) the Europe vs. Asia polarity, through which the Histories are usually read and (ii) the Cartesian view of space, by which we usually perceive the ancient world. The Google Ancient Places, or GAP, project uses fully automated processes to first discover and then visualise places mentioned in a text, thereby enabling narratives with a strongly geographic basis to be read spatially.
Meanwhile, the Pelagios project has been establishing the Web infrastructure by which data produced and curated by different content providers - from academic projects like the Perseus Classical Library to cultural heritage institutions like the British Museum - can be linked through their common references to places. By means of this connectivity through common references, online documents of varying kinds can be read in relation to each other—not only literary texts but also inscriptions, archaeological finds or sites, museum objects, photographs, etc. Such resources provide context for thinking about ancient places. One way of visualising this graph of data is through a heat map, showing the spatial depth and breadth of the documents in the Pelagios network.
less
InterestsView All (29)
Uploads
Books by Elton Barker
Aimed at both scholar and student, including anyone interested in the origins of political thought, this book demonstrates not only the fundamental importance of debate to these genres, but also the ways representations of debate construct an agonistic mentality which intersects with and informs the broader cultural construction of a citizen community.
"
Papers by Elton Barker
Aimed at both scholar and student, including anyone interested in the origins of political thought, this book demonstrates not only the fundamental importance of debate to these genres, but also the ways representations of debate construct an agonistic mentality which intersects with and informs the broader cultural construction of a citizen community.
"