Professor Simon Swain FBA
- Fellow type
- UK Fellow
- Year elected
- 2015
- Subjects
- Classics
Summary
Simon began his academic career in the carbohydrate-rich environment of All Souls, where he researched his longstanding interest in the Greek culture of the Roman empire. A Warwick Research Fellowship enabled him to link antiquity with the extraordinary world of the Islamicate middle ages, focussing on Galen alongside less well known authors like Polemon and Bryson. He currently co-leads the Streamlining Galen project on the ‘small texts’ that made canonical medicine digestible and teachable and is also finishing a book on the speeches of the courtier, philosopher, and adviser Themistius for the emperor Valens. He enjoys working collaboratively and has had the good fortune to be able to support many early career colleagues through his projects.
Simon spent many of his earlier years building up Warwick’s new department of Classics and then ran its Faculty of Arts. At university executive level he has been responsible for Warwick’s Arts and Social Sciences and its international strategy, and currently leads on national and regional engagement.
He chaired the British Academy's Research and Higher Education Policy Committee, which oversees our core research funding activity and strategy, from 2020-2024.
Current post
Professor of Classics, University of Warwick; Vice President (Engagement), University of Warwick;
Past appointments
University of Warwick Pro-Vice Chancellor
2014 - 2019
University of Warwick Chair Faculty of Arts
2011 - 2014
University of Warwick Head of Classics
2010 - 2011
University of Warwick Head of Classics
2000 - 2007
University of Warwick Warwick Research Fellow
1995 - 2000
All Souls College, Oxford All Souls Postdoctoral Fellow
1990 - 1995
Other Fellows of the British Academy
Professor Gavin Flood FBA
Hindu religious literature in the Middle Ages (post-Gupta period); comparative religion, with particular reference to Hinduism and Christianity; philosophical phenomenology and hermeneutics
Dr James McMullen FBA
Oriental and African Studies East Asia Japan History of a specific country Japan
Professor Dr Irene De Jong FBA
Ancient Greek narrative, especially epic and historiography; the application of modern literary theory, especially narratology, on ancient texts; Greek literary history
