Staff profile
| Affiliation | Telephone |
|---|---|
| Teaching Fellow in the Department of Classics and Ancient History |
Biography
My research specialises in the appropriation of Rome and Greece for political, national, ontological and gender-sexual discourses, the staging of ancient tragedy as performative and artistic experimentation, and philological study of ancient tragedy and epic. In my work, I am continuously fascinated by the ways in which Greece and Rome have influenced how we understand personal and collective identities, as well as the narrative and thematic issues at the heart of ancient literature and the evolution of the discipline of Classics. My interdisciplinary and comparative research has been recognised with a Best Thesis Prize (2019) by the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland and a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship (at the University of Reading, 2020-2023).
My work on the socio-political and cultural uses and impact of Graeco-Roman antiquity begins began with my doctoral thesis on the 1933 staging of Seneca’s Medea in Spain, which resulted in my book Seneca’s Medea and Republican Spain (Tamesis, 2022). This book focuses on the reception of Roman tragedy and culture during the Second Spanish Republic, encompassing themes such as nationalism, popularisation of culture, fascism and liberalism, feminism, secularism and theatrical aesthetics, therefore providing a panoramic analysis of one of the most important stagings of ancient tragedy in Spain and Europe. My work on receptions of Graeco-Roman antiquity in Spain has continued with articles, chapters, talks and documentaries.
My work on the social, political and aesthetic reception of Graeco-Roman tragedy continued with Queer Tragedy, funded and supported by the British Academy through a 3-year Postdoctoral Fellowship. Queer Tragedy is an international performance history (1969-2019) of LGBTQI+ stage versions of Graeco-Roman tragedy, investigating how queer people explore, exhibit and vindicate queer desire, politics and identity through ancient tragedy, at different stages in history and geographical locations. Queer Tragedy has shown its fruits in conferences, talks, articles and chapters (including a queer reading of Rhesus in Telò and Olsen’s Queer Euripides (2022)), as well as podcasts and documentaries. The project also hosted an international conference on queer receptions of tragedy, Tragedy Queered, in July 2023, with the support of the British Academy, the Institute of Classical Studies and the University of Reading. I continue to work on Queer Tragedy, whose evolution can be accessed on its website.
Publications
Seneca’s Medea and Republican Spain: Performing the Nation. Baldwin, O. (2022). Woodbridge: Tamesis.
‘Rhesus: Tragic Wilderness in Queer Time’ Baldwin, O. (2022). In: Telò and Olsen (eds.) Queer Euripides: Re-readings in Greek tragedy. London: Bloomsbury. pp. 33-42
‘Caudillo de España: Viriathus, Trajan, Franco’. Baldwin, O. (2021). In: Grzelak-Krzymianowska, A. and Woźniak, M. J. Rzym a Półwysep Iberyjski: inspiracje i powiązania na przestrzeni dziejów/ Roma y la Península Ibérica: inspiraciones y vinculaciones a través de los siglos. [Rome and the Iberian Peninsula: inspirations and links through the centuries] Łódź: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego. pp. 313-339.
‘Ritmo báquico: lo dionisíaco en la Medea de Séneca. Mérida, 18 de Junio 1933’. [‘Bacchic rhythm: the Dionysian in Seneca’s Medea. Mérida, 18th of June 1933’] Baldwin, O. (2021). In De la Villa Polo et al. FORVM CLASSICORVM: Perspectivas y avances sobre el Mundo Clásico. Vol. II. Madrid: Guillermo Escolar Editor. pp. 1205-1212
‘Seneca: A Spaniard in essence’. Baldwin, O. (2020) In: International Journal of the Classical Tradition. Vol. 28, Iss. 3. pp. 335-352
‘Medea is a Good Boy: Performing, staging and subverting mythical gender’. Baldwin, O. (2020) In: Classical Receptions Journal. Vol. 12, Iss. 4. Pp. 486–501.
‘¿Qué hay de heroico en todo eso?: La Ilíada de La Joven Compañía’ [‘What is heroic about all this?: La Joven Compañía’s Iliad’]. Baldwin, O. (2018). In: TYCHO 6. pp. 7-20.
‘The theatre of conquest: the Spanish Empire, Medea and the New World’. Baldwin, O. (2018). In: Medea in World Artistic Culture. I. Darchia, L. Gordeziani and L. Gordeziani (eds.). Tbilisi: Logos, pp. 37-51.