'Nanti time like the present. come on, let's get it on...'. Loving Prof Jennifer Ingleheart's trio of translations of Catullus into Polari, the old language of gay Londoners, in Shearsman 145-6. www.shearsman.com/shearsman-ma...

Cambridge’s Black Atlantic connections, a major research project for the Fitzwilliam Museum - commemorating Olaudah Equiano’s Cambridgeshire family, www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

The Almeida Theatre adaptation of Alan Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty captures the glamour and grime of 1980s London, where financial buccaneering, racial inequality and the AIDS crisis upended lives, but we all danced to excellent music. Five stars from me especially for the cast & the design.

Great story and important history from the National Army Museum in today's @theguardian.com - a newly acquired portrait shines a light on a Black veteran of Waterloo, one of several Black soldiers honoured for their service in the Napoleonic wars. www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

On BBC4 tonight, Angie Hobbs on Bryan Magee's series the Great Philosophers, first broadcast in 1987, followed by the first three interviews: Myles Burnyeat on Plato, Martha Nussbaum on Aristotle, and Anthony Kenny on mediaeval philosophy: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Mixed verdict on the @nationaltheatre.org.uk Bacchae - amazing staging and design, loved the chorus, some great performances. Deeply unconvinced though by the back-story given to Pentheus, and some of Dionysus' story - and the omission of Cadmus. www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/...

Unmissable new exhibition at the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge - Made in Ancient Egypt explores this ancient culture through the makers of objects, their skills & the materials they used. Some exquisite objects - I liked this statuette. On show until April 2026.

I've been podcasting again! This time I spoke about how 'Plato: a civic life' provides the historical background to Plato's thought and helps to explain how his ideas developed - with Morteza Hajizadeh from New Books Network: newbooksnetwork.com/plato

My little Plato: a civic life, as reviewed in the New York Sun earlier this year - paywall but you can read one article for free.

'Histories' by Kerry James Marshall at London's Royal Academy - a powerful survey of the American artist's work, his long practice of exploring Black experience and challenging simple stories. Full of humour and moments of delight as well as profound commentary, as in 1994's 'Great America'.

Made in Ancient Egypt - Laura Cummings in the Observer on the artists and makers of ancient Egyptian art & the research that underpins the forthcoming Fitzwilliam Museum exhibition: observer.co.uk/culture/art/...

Important story about systemic failures - from the tragic state of Scarborough’s once magnificent Grand Hotel to the policy failures which have been exploited by private providers, at huge cost to the good of both communities and those in need.

It entirely passed me by that this @wsj.com article from February is in part a review of my Plato book!

Given the news about Melvyn Bragg stepping down from In Our Time, now might be a good time to share this list (thanks to Paul Cartledge for the reminder!) keenerclassics.wordpress.com/classics-in-...

From Burton Agnes Hall, a glorious late Elizabethan (1590s-1600s) country house near Bridlington, a riot of religious and moralising imagery with some classical moments, including a door jamb decorated with Saturn and Jupiter, in which Saturn is devouring a child...

youtube version of plato's tyrant with @carolatack.bsky.social youtu.be/GZnaz3nu_wQ

I've closed replies to my previous post, not because I don't care about the unhappy situation UK law on single-sex employment recruitment is in (I do), or about trans rights (am not going to list my bona fides here). If you need more information, contact the college directly.

The @newnhamcollege.bsky.social research fellowship competition is now open - if you're a woman looking for a 3-year postdoc in one of this year's subjects (see next post), please apply! Our research fellows bring so much to the life of the college & get great support. newn.cam.ac.uk/research/res...

The best news this morning! An important work by Barbara Hepworth, key to her artistic development, saved for the nation and heading to Wakefield's Hepworth Gallery. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

This is both funny and acute…might assign it to my incoming students as an introductory exercise…

Apparently this c.1330 hare with a satchel, in the gorgeous St Mary’s Church, Beverley, was an inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s white rabbit. Just one of the exceptional mediaeval sculptures and carvings in Beverley’s two great churches.

A bit of classical reception in William Kentridge's show at @yspsculpture.bsky.social - this large-scale plaster work is titled Laocoon, after the classical sculpture. In his studio films, displayed in an adjacent gallery, he talks about classical myths - Perseus, the sibyls.

Always a delight to pass the house with the spolia in Montepulciano, home town of the great classical scholar Politian.

Useful reflections on the role of blogging in classical scholarship from @lizgloyn.bsky.social .

An amazing week at the Collegium Phaenomenologicum in Città di Castello with the smartest students and friendliest colleagues, thinking about life/bios. Here’s an earlier encounter between Diogenes, Plato & a featherless biped in the Pinacoteca Comunale.

Thrilled to receive final approval for the Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Political Thought - will be wrangling its 42 chapters over the summer, & hoping to submit the full manuscript in October. More soon on the contents & amazing contributors who've been working with me over the last 5 years.

Anselm Kiefer's sunflowers are both a homage to van Gogh and an evocation of classical myth - here, Clytie and Cameiro the daughters of Pandareus (whom Polygnotus depicted as crowned with flowers) - on display at White Cube Mason's Yard to tie in with the Royal Academy Kiefer/van Gogh exhibition.

It's time for our graduation feast at Newnham and the @newnhamcollege.bsky.social college flag is flying as we celebrate the achievements of our undergraduate finalists. So pleased for and proud of the students I've taught and advised.

The highlight of this term - seeing alumna Diane Abbott honoured by @newnhamcollege.bsky.social with an honorary fellowship. Proud to have read out the citation outlining her extraordinary achievements at a lovely ceremony and inspired by her heartfelt speech. newn.cam.ac.uk/newnham-news...

Cambridge's honorary degree ceremony - obvs the bit you most likely want starts at around 17:50, when Stormzy is presented and honoured in Latin verse, written by Rupert Thompson and read out by Charlie Weiss... www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kzq...

Full review of Little Simz here!

Last night at the Royal Festival Hall: the multi-talented Little Simz closing her curation of the Southbank Centre’s Meltdown Festival with her band and lively backing from the Chineke! orchestra. Warm, vibrant and inclusive, a great example of London creativity.

Ithell Colquhoun’s Judgement of Paris, an early work in the retrospective at Tate Britain, very 1930 and interesting to compare with her later surrealist works.

Helen Chadwick (1953-96) was a visionary and radical artist. Her powerful work is showcased in a retrospective at the Hepworth Wakefield. Her autobiographical 'Ego Geometria Sum' ('I am geometry') presents her life in geometrical form and alludes to her Greek heritage.

I keep coming back to something @carolatack.bsky.social said in this - Ancients texts help us understand the world of Trump & Musk, but living in this world helps us understand the ancients better too www.politicalphilosophypodcast.com/pt

I'm speaking at the Political Classics: Past & Present seminar at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, tomorrow afternoon at 5pm on 'Reading the Republic across the Political Spectrum: Plato from left to right and back again'. www.ccc.ox.ac.uk/seminar-poli...

Intrigued by Francis Upritchard's classical references in her new show 'Sing Siren' at Kate MacGarry in Shoreditch. This snaky Medusa was especially striking, keeping some mermaids company in the gallery.

I've removed all my work from academia.edu. If you want to find open access versions of my published papers, they're all on my page at Knowledge Commons.

Final Version: 225 (!) UK-based politics academics signed our open letter warning anti-immigrant rhetoric will only embolden the far-right Text & signatories here - www.politicalphilosophypodcast.com/starmer

I thought it important to post a brief blog responding to Robert Tombs’ latest attempt to disparage fellow historians who worked for the Church of England. My response to his TLS article is here: alanlester.co.uk/blog/south-s...

Reminded of how central Presocratic thought is to the work of Ian Hamilton Finlay, who saw himself as a kind of Heraclitean figure, certainly a contrarian. This is on display at Victoria Miro in London but there are other shows for his centenary in Edinburgh and elsewhere.

Re-posting for the lunch-time Bsky UK university reader crowd. The survey is short. It is not sweet. It raises rather a lot of questions. It answers none of them. 1/2

The @newnhamcollege.bsky.social Iris Garden is bursting into bloom.

Another lovely photo from @jillwhitelock.bsky.social. I see these jackdaws patrolling the @theul.bsky.social lawns all the time. It's not our library, it's theirs...

Reading proofs of a chapter on Aristophanes, I wrote based on a paper from 2018 - another world. But I’ll stick with my analysis that ‘Praxagora is not an intersectional feminist’.

Okay, why does this book matter? We held a conference in Melbourne in 2023, believing democratic-decay scholarship needs to pay attention to Rome, the only old democracy to fall from internal causes. I don’t need to say why that matters now. We want to bring #ancientbluesky and #polisci together. 🧵

More Herculaneum carbonised papyrus scroll decipherment. Excellent news for Epicureans and really interesting to see how fast the decipherment of these once unreadable objects is progressing: www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Later today (noon US east coast time, tea-time for me in Cambridge UK) I'm speaking online to the Smithsonian Associates about 'Plato: his life in Athens'. Looking forward to telling Plato's story and exploring life in the classical city: smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/pr...

The perfect day for start of term meetings with students - my attic windows in Newnham's Kennedy building are now open, and the scent of the wisteria outside is wafting through them.

Important role open at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge- senior curator, Mediterranean Antiquities. Please share & if this sounds like you, consider applying! www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/51149/