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Daniel Orrells

Professor Daniel Orrells

Professor of Classics

  • Head of Cultures, Faculty of Arts & Humanities
  • Chair-Director, Global Cultures Institute

Research interests

  • Classics

Biography

I studied Classics at undergraduate and postgraduate levels at the University of Cambridge. I taught at the University of Warwick for eleven years, including two years as a Humboldt Fellow at the Humboldt University in Berlin. I joined King’s College London in 2015.

Research Interests

My research focuses on the history of the interpretation of classical literature. More specifically, I examine the literary, scholarly and cultural receptions of Greek and Latin literature from the Renaissance to the beginning of the twentieth century. My research specialisms can be grouped under the following headings:

  • Classical literature and literary/critical theory
  • Modern European literature and classical antiquity
  • History of gender and sexuality and the ancient world
  • Classics and Postcolonial literature and theory
  • Classics and Aesthetics

I have supervised a range of MA and PhD students on classical literature and classical reception studies. I would be very happy to hear from potential students interested in Greek literature and literary/critical theory and the reception of Greek and Roman literature and modern intellectual and literary history.

Expertise and public engagement

I have given public lectures at museums and schools.

Selected publications

Antiquity in Print. Visualising Ancient Greece in the Eighteenth Century (Bloomsbury, 2024).

Freud's Antiquity: Object, Idea, Desire, co-edited with Richard Armstrong and Miriam Leonard (Freud Museum, 2023).

Richard Marsh, Popular Fiction and Literary Culture, 1890-1915: Rereading the Fin de Siècle, co-edited with Victoria Margree and Minna Vuohelainen (Manchester University Press, 2018)

The Mudimbe Reader, co-edited with Pierre-Philippe Fraiture (University of Virginia Press, 2016)

Sex: Antiquity and Its Legacy (Oxford University Press USA, 2015)

African Athena: New Agendas, co-edited with Gurminder K. Bhambra and Tessa Roynon (Oxford University Press, 2011)

Classical Culture and Modern Masculinity (Oxford University Press, 2011)

    Research

    Q@K banner
    Queer@King's

    Centre for research and teaching in gender and sexuality studies and a hub for collaborative work with queer activists, artists, and communities.

    presentPasts
    presentPasts

    Across the Faculty of Arts & Humanities, King’s academics study cultural interactions across time and the transhistorical traditions that often frame, foster, and shape them.

    LGBTQ+ policymaking
    LGBTQ+ policymaking in the UK

    Establishing an interdisciplinary network of academic, policymaking, and civil society stakeholders to address the policy needs of the UK’s LGBTQ+ population.

    Project status: Ongoing

    News

    Climate change causing shift in geopolitics – Amitav Ghosh

    Author Amitav Ghosh, presenting the Global Cultures Institute annual lecture at King’s, explored how climate change is upending traditional global power...

    Amitav Ghosh at lectern gci annual lecture (richard eaton)

    New Department of Interdisciplinary Humanities launches at King's

    The Department will house King’s flagship MA in Global Cultures, BA in Liberal Arts and new professional education modules.

    korean dance 780x440

    King's academics to advise House of Lords on LGBTQ+ policy

    The Global Cultures Institute’s Queer@King's research centre to lead on new initiative with the House of Lords to address the policy needs of LGBTQ+...

    Palace of Westminster and Westminster Bridge

    Classics Professor Daniel Orrells co-curates major Freud exhibition

    A new major exhibition at Freud Museum London and accompanying digital archive bring rarely seen antiquities from Freud’s extensive collection into dialogue...

    Freud's Antiquities Web Resize

    Events

    27Apr

    Discovering our Digital Futures and exploring our Global Cultures

    King's is pleased to launch the new Digital Futures Institute and Global Cultures Institute.

    Please note: this event has passed.

      Research

      Q@K banner
      Queer@King's

      Centre for research and teaching in gender and sexuality studies and a hub for collaborative work with queer activists, artists, and communities.

      presentPasts
      presentPasts

      Across the Faculty of Arts & Humanities, King’s academics study cultural interactions across time and the transhistorical traditions that often frame, foster, and shape them.

      LGBTQ+ policymaking
      LGBTQ+ policymaking in the UK

      Establishing an interdisciplinary network of academic, policymaking, and civil society stakeholders to address the policy needs of the UK’s LGBTQ+ population.

      Project status: Ongoing

      News

      Climate change causing shift in geopolitics – Amitav Ghosh

      Author Amitav Ghosh, presenting the Global Cultures Institute annual lecture at King’s, explored how climate change is upending traditional global power...

      Amitav Ghosh at lectern gci annual lecture (richard eaton)

      New Department of Interdisciplinary Humanities launches at King's

      The Department will house King’s flagship MA in Global Cultures, BA in Liberal Arts and new professional education modules.

      korean dance 780x440

      King's academics to advise House of Lords on LGBTQ+ policy

      The Global Cultures Institute’s Queer@King's research centre to lead on new initiative with the House of Lords to address the policy needs of LGBTQ+...

      Palace of Westminster and Westminster Bridge

      Classics Professor Daniel Orrells co-curates major Freud exhibition

      A new major exhibition at Freud Museum London and accompanying digital archive bring rarely seen antiquities from Freud’s extensive collection into dialogue...

      Freud's Antiquities Web Resize

      Events

      27Apr

      Discovering our Digital Futures and exploring our Global Cultures

      King's is pleased to launch the new Digital Futures Institute and Global Cultures Institute.

      Please note: this event has passed.