Dr Daniel Anderson
In addition to my role at Merton, I am currently Visiting Fellow at the Visual Interactions in Early Writing Systems (VIEWS) project at the University of Cambridge (Michaelmas 2025). I am also Non-Stipendiary Research Fellow at the Institute of Classical Studies, School of Advanced Study, in London (2025-28). I was previously Research Associate in Classics (2018–19), then Permanent Research Fellow (2019–25) at the Centre for Arts, Memory and Communities at Coventry University. I hold a PhD in Classics from the University of Cambridge (2017), where I was College Scholar at St John’s College, and recipient of a Doctoral Award from SSHRC.
My current research project looks at modular structure in Ancient Greek poetry and aesthetics. The project has received initial support from the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust (2025-28). When applied to works of art or literature, modularity refers to objects whose parts are structured in such a way as to be reordered or exchanged in an anticipated future version, edition, copy, or rendition. The project investigates modular processes across the material evidence (above all papyri), in the practices of poets and artists, and in ancient aesthetic theories.
Previous research projects include organisation of the 69th Entretiens sur l'Antiquité classique on 'Spaces for Learning in Antiquity' together with the late Raffaella Cribiore, which took place in summer 2023.
I teach all aspects of Ancient Greek language and literature, from Homer to Lucian. My teaching covers both new and old Mods (Texts and Contexts), and Greats (Early Greek Hexameter Poetry, Greek Core). In terms of Greek language, I teach grammar, set texts, unseens, and prose composition.
‘Callimachus’ epigram theatre’, in J.J.H. Klooster et al. (eds.), Hellenistica Groningana 27: Crisis and Resilience in Hellenistic Poetry (Groningen, 2025) 15–32.
‘Early writing metaphors in performance’, Mnemosyne 78.2, Special edition: Orality and Literacy in the Ancient World: Textualization, ed. R. Zelnick-Abramovitz, M. Finkelberg, and D. Shalev (2025) 247–72.
‘Drama in the classroom; classrooms on stage’, in D. Anderson (ed.), Les espaces du savoir dans l’antiquité; Spaces for Learning in Antiquity (Vandœuvres, 2024) 25–68.
(with Raffaella Cribiore†) ‘Introduction: Spaces for learning in antiquity’, in D. Anderson (ed.), Les espaces du savoir dans l’antiquité; Spaces for Learning in Antiquity (Vandœuvres, 2024) 1–24.
(ed.) Entretiens sur l’Antiquité classique, Tome 69. Les espaces du savoir dans l’antiquité; Spaces for Learning in Antiquity (Vandœuvres, 2024)
‘Measuring up: the Greek analogies behind Vitruvius’ geometry of the body’, Ramus 52.2, Special edition: Homo bene figuratus: Beyond the Vitruvian Man, ed. M. Hanses, E. Giusti, and G. Laterza (2023) 121–35.
‘Semantic satiation for poetic effect’, Classical Quarterly 71.1 (2021) 34–51.
'An unnoticed pun in Hipponax fr. 3a W. = 2 D.', Philologus 165.1 (2021) 147–52.
‘Species of ambiguity in Semonides fr. 7’, Cambridge Classical Journal 64 (2018) 1–22.
‘Location and motif in Meleager’s coronis (A.P. 12.257)’, Materiali e discussioni per l’analisi dei testi classici 73 (2014) 9–23.
Forthcoming:
‘The so-called poetic sphragis and Hellenistic ἐπισφραγίζω’, in Xiu (ed.), Studies in Archaic and Classical Greek Song vol. 6, Mnemosyne Supplements, Brill, Leiden (2026/2027).
‘Hellenistic book cultures beyond Alexandria’, in J.J.H. Klooster et al. (eds.), Hellenistica Groningana 28: Hellenistic Poetry Beyond Alexandria, Peeters Publishers, Groningen (2026).
‘Self-naming in Hipponax’, in V. Cazzato and E. Prodi (eds.), The Limping Muse: Hipponax the Poet, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2026).
