Staff profile

Biography

I grew up in Chelmsford, Essex, and studied at Pembroke College, Cambridge. I worked at Cambridge and Exeter before joining the Classics department in Durham in 2021.

My research interests include the languages of ancient Italy, migration and mobility, personal names, and epigraphy. I work mostly on historical sociolinguistics and ancient languages in their social context; I am particularly interested in multilingualism, language contact and gender linguistics.

• 2018: AHRC Early Career Leadership Fellowship: Connectivity and competition: multilingualism in Ancient Italy 800-200 BC
• 2015: Rome Award, British School at Rome: A history of language contact in southern Italy, 800–31 BCE
• 2013: Gonville and Caius College: Junior Research Fellowship in Classics

Authored book

• McDonald, K. (2022). Italy Before Rome: A Sourcebook. Routledge
• McDonald, K. (2015). Oscan in Southern Italy and Sicily. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781316218457

Chapter in book

• McDonald, K. (2021). Language and psychology. In D. Wharton (Ed.), A Cultural History of Color in Antiquity. Bloomsbury
• McDonald, K. (2021). The dedications to Reitia and the epigraphic visibility of women in Este and the Veneto. In E. Dupraz, & M. J. Estarán Tolosa (Eds.), Des mot pour les dieus. Dédicaces cultuelles dans les langues indigènes de la Mediterranée occidentale. Peter Lang
• Clackson, J., & McDonald, K. (2020). The language of mobile craftsmen in the Western Mediterranean. In J. Clackson, P. James, K. McDonald, L. Tagliapietra, & N. Zair (Eds.), Migration, Mobility and Language Contact in and around the Ancient Mediterranean. Cambridge University Press
• McDonald, K., & Zair, N. (2017). Changing script in a threatened language: reactions to Romanisation at Bantia in the first century BC. In M. C. Jones, & D. Mooney (Eds.), Creating Orthographies for Endangered Languages (291-304). Cambridge University Press
• McDonald, K. (2016). Les langues de l’échange en Italie : artisans, monnaie et négociants dans la région osque méridionale. In A. Baroni, G. Bernard, B. Le Teuff, & C. Ruiz Darasse (Eds.), Échanger en Méditerranée: Acteurs, pratiques et normes dans les mondes anciens (127-142). Presses Universitaires de Rennes
• McDonald, K. (2015). Genres, continuity and adaptation in the epigraphy of South Oscan. In E. Dupraz, & W. Sowa (Eds.), Genres épigraphiques et langues d’attestation fragmentaire dans l’espace méditerranéen (357-374). Presses universitaires de Rouen et du Havre
• McDonald, K. (2012). Do personal names in South Oscan show influence from Greek?. In T. Meißner (Ed.), Personal Names in the Western Roman World (41-58). Curach Bhán

Edited book

• Clackson, J., James, P., McDonald, K., Tagliapietra, L., & Zair, N. (Eds.). (2020). Migration, Mobility and Language Contact in and around the Ancient Mediterranean. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108763943

Journal Article

• McDonald, K. (2019). Education and Literacy in Ancient Italy: Evidence from the Dedications to the Goddess Reitia. The Journal of Roman Studies, 109, 131-159. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0075435819000856
• McDonald, K. (2017). Fragmentary ancient languages as “bad data”. Sociolinguistica, 31(1), 31-48. https://doi.org/10.1515/soci-2017-0004
• McDonald, K., Tagliapietra, L., & Zair, N. (2015). New readings of the multilingual Petelia curse tablet. Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 195, 157-165
• McDonald, K. (2012). The Testament of Vibius Adiranus. The Journal of Roman Studies, 102, 40-55. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0075435812000044
• McDonald, K., & Zair, N. (2012). Oscan ϝουρουστ and the Roccagloriosa law tablet