Appointment of Regius
Professorship of Greek in the University of Oxford
The King of England has approved that Professor Laura Swift, Professor
of Greek at the University of Oxford and Fellow and Tutor in Classics at
Magdalen College, be appointed to the Regius Professorship of Greek at the
University of Oxford in succession to Professor Gregory Hutchinson. The Regius
Professorship of Greek was established by Henry VIII in 1541.
Professor Swift took her BA in Literae Humaniores at Magdalen College,
Oxford in 2002, followed by an MSt and DPhil at Oxford, completing her
doctorate in 2007. She subsequently held academic and research positions at
Oxford and University College London before taking up a Lectureship at the Open
University in 2012. She returned to Oxford in 2022 as Tutorial Fellow in
Classics at Magdalen College and Associate Professor of Greek in the Faculty of
Classics, and was awarded the title of Professor in 2024. The Regius
Professorship is held in association with an Ordinary Studentship (professorial
fellowship) at Christ Church.
Welcoming the appointment, The Very Revd Professor Sarah Foot FRHistS
FSA, Dean of Christ Church, commented:
Professor
Swift’s appointment is excellent news. Her distinguished work on ancient Greek
literature, alongside her commitment to widening engagement with Classics, will
enrich the academic life of Christ Church. We look forward with great pleasure
to her taking up the Regius Professorship.
Professor Swift is a literary critic of ancient Greece, specialising in
Greek tragedy and lyric poetry. Her doctoral thesis received the Hellenic
Foundation Thesis Prize and her subsequent research has received international
recognition including an Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellowship and a
Philip Leverhulme Prize.
She is known particularly for her work on the relationship between Greek
tragedy and other forms of choral poetry, including her book The Hidden Chorus,
and for her work on fragmentary texts from antiquity. She wrote the first
complete commentary on the seventh-century BC poet Archilochus.
Professor Swift also works with contemporary theatre-makers and other
creative practitioners, exploring how fragmentary ancient texts can inspire new
creative work. She is an active advocate for making Classics accessible to
wider audiences and has contributed to the development of the Classical
Civilisation A level curriculum, as well as working across radio, podcasts,
theatre and literary festivals.
