You know you’re cycling in Glasgow when…

Last night I went to a cycle-powered cinema at The Bike Station in Glasgow thanks to their Better Way to Work scheme. Oh my. It was great. Watching a screen run while I cycled was something else (but getting off to give someone else a go was good too). We were powering a series of …

The Huhne Vase

If you haven’t started watching Grayson Perry: Who Are You? yet, then you should do so immediately. Trust me, it is worth sitting through those endless 4OD adverts for because GP is so darn clever. The way he picks people apart, gets under their skin, and makes them talk is art in itself. And the …

The Telemachus Generation

In Italy, ancient characters are being brought back into the contemporary discourse. Here I look at how and why. This week, Classical Civilisation students at the University of Glasgow have been reading the Odyssey, looking particularly at so-called ‘recognition scenes’. After Odysseus’ twenty year absence, he returns in disguise and meets many people he used …

MOOCing around

This week I started my first ever MOOC – that is, a Massive Open Online Course, provided free of charge by Newcastle University via Future Learn. It’s about Hadrian’s Wall and covers the period from the Roman conquest right through to the ‘Dark Ages’ and beyond. The course will last for six weeks in total, …

Delivery, Delivery, Delivery

A few days ago, Professor Tom Devine described George Galloway’s statements about Scottish independence as ‘talking rhetoric’. But in last night’s debate on independence between Alistair Darling (for Better Together) and the Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, it wasn’t just talk but the way they talked that really won (or lost) the day. From the …

Laugh like a Roman

Mary Beard’s wonderful new book, Laughter in Ancient Rome, takes the reader through laughter theory (not as funny as it sounds) to case studies of jokes and laughter in the ancient world. It is a great book that I carried round with me for a week or two including the odd National Trust garden, and …

Small Change(s)

So Small Change Big Games, a project based around the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, is finishing tomorrow. There won’t be a Closing Ceremony or any fireworks, but I thought it was still worth reflecting on what we’ve done (with lots of help) in the last couple of months. A few numbers, we joined Twitter in …

Rhetorical gladiators.

Working on the Small Change Big Games project has made me very aware of references to Roman games, wherever they might appear. I hadn’t expected to find a reference in the Rhetorica ad Herennium (‘Rhetoric for Herennius’), though, as it is a work that gives advice about public speaking. Still, I was wrong! The anonymous …

Classics on your arm

Yesterday a man from Rentokil came into the office to put bait down for our mice – affectionately named Wheelock and Mastronade after our Latin and ancient Greek textbooks. While he was working, he asked what it was we did down here, and I said Classics. “What’s Classics then?” I explained that Classics can be …

Apps for Good

“I learned a bit more about computers… that’s it really, just computering” – so said John, a student from Wick High School way up on the northern tip of Scotland, about Apps for Good. Apps for Good is a thirty hour programme designed for students in Key Stage 3 (in England and Wales) or S2-3 (in Scotland) …