Maria Wyke

Maria Wyke (born 1957) is professor of Latin at University College, London. She is a specialist in Latin love poetry and the interpretation of the roles of men and women in the ancient world. She has also written widely on the role of the figure of Julius Caesar in Western culture.

Early life

Maria Wyke was born in London in 1957^[1] to a Mexican mother and an Australian father. She was educated at Catholic schools and studied classics at Somerville College, Oxford University (1976-1980). She subsequently completed her Ph.D. at Kings College, University of Cambridge.^[2]

Career

Wyke began her academic career at Manchester University from where she joined Queen's College, Oxford University and went on to the University of North London and Newnham College. She joined University College, London, in September 2005 as professor of Latin. Her research relates to Latin love poetry and the interpretation of the roles of men and women in the ancient world. She is co-director of the Centre for Research in the Dynamics of Civilisation (CREDOC) and deputy Director of UCL's Centre for Humanities Interdisciplinary Research Programmes (CHIRP).^[2]

Wyke has written on the role of the figure of Julius Caesar in Western culture, editing a collection of essays on the subject that was published by Blackwell in 2006 (Julius Caesar in Western Culture), authoring Caesar: A Life in Western Culture (Granta, 2007; University of Chicago, 2008) and more recently writing Caesar in the USA which was published by University of California Press in 2012.^[3]

Personal life

Wyke is married and has a daughter.^[4]

Selected publications

• An Illusion of the Night: Women in Ancient Societies, Macmillan, 1994. (Editor with Leonie Archer and Susan Fischler)
• Projecting the Past: Ancient Rome, Cinema and History, Routledge, 1997.
• Gender and the Body in the Ancient Mediterranean, Blackwell, 1998. (Editor)
• Parchments of Gender: Deciphering the Bodies of Antiquity, Oxford University Press, 1998. (Editor)
• The Uses and Abuses of Antiquity, Peter Lang, 1999. (Editor with Michael Biddiss)
• The Roman Mistress: Ancient and Modern Representations, Oxford University Press, 2002.
• Roman Bodies: From Antiquity to the Eighteenth Century, British School at Rome, 2005. (Editor with Andrew Hopkins)
• Julius Caesar in Western Culture, Blackwell, 2006. (Editor)
• Caesar: A Life in Western Culture, Granta, 2007; University of Chicago, 2008.
• Perceptions of Horace: A Roman Poet and His Readers, 2009. (Edited with Luke Houghton)
• Caesar in the USA, University of California Press, 2012.
• Antiquity in Silent Cinema, Cambridge University Press, 2013. (Edited with Pantelis Michelakis)

References

External links

• Maria Wyke talking on "Caesar in the USA and Antiquity in Silent Cinema".
• Maria Wyke talking on "Desirability and domination: Greek sculpture and the modern male body".
• Maria Wyke talking about "The Education of a Latinist".