Sarah Cullinan Herring


Photo of Sarah Cullinan Herring
  • Assistant Professor
  • Departmental Impact and Belonging Representative

Contact Info

Wescoe, Rm 1037

Biography

Sarah grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Her interest in Classics was sparked by a brilliant high school teacher, Mr John Reilly, who offered pupils the wonderful opportunity to learn Latin from the age of 11. Sarah later went on to study Classics at Oxford University. From 2020-2024 she was Hody Fellow in Classics at Wadham College, Oxford, where she was also College Dean. Prior to this she was a lecturer in Ancient Greek literature at Balliol and Trinity Colleges and Head of Classics at Winchester College. When not working, Sarah enjoys hiking mountains with her husband Patrick, practicing Yoga & Pilates and cooking new recipes. Her new ambition since coming to live in Lawrence is to hike some Colorado 14ers.

Education

Ph.D. in Classics, University of Oxford, 2013
M.St. in Classics, University of Oxford, 2008
B.A. in Classics, University of Oxford, 2007
Honors

Research

Sarah’s research is focussed on Greek literature: she has published articles on Epic, Lyric and Hellenistic poetry and has a monograph forthcoming with Oxford University Press entitled "The Power of Performance: Embedded Songs in Greek Poetry." She has several articles forthcoming on the anti-erotics of aging in Greek comic texts, gender identities in Christopher Logue’s translations of the Iliad and modern poetic receptions of Virgil’s Creusa. Her second book project focuses on epigenetic trauma in Greek and Roman tragedy.

Research interests:

  • Metapoetics
  • Gender & sexuality
  • Embodiment
  • Identity construction
  • Classical reception studies

Selected Publications

The Power of Performance: Embedded Song in Greek Poetry (forthcoming) OUP.

‘An anti-erotics of aging and bio-prosthesis in Lucian and Aristophanes’ (forthcoming in Embodied Invective (Brill) eds. Andreas Serafim and Dennis Pausch).

‘Breastmilk, Blood and Semen: Gender Fluid-ity in Aeschylus’ Oresteia’ Rosetta Journal Special Issue ‘From the Breast’ (2024).

‘Embedded Song and Poetic Authority in Pindar and Bacchylides’ in Authorship and Greek Song: Authority, Authenticity and Performance, Brill (2017).

‘Proemic Convention and Character Construction in Early Greek Epic’ Harvard Studies in Classical Philology (2013). [co-authored with Prof. Adrian Kelly]

‘Eros through the Looking-Glass’ Ramus vol. 40.2 (2011).

Selected Presentations

“Performing gender identities in Greek Tragedy”. Classical Association Conference, Warwick University, UK. March 2024.

Shes or Hes’?: Performing Gender Ambiguity in Logue’s Homer’. Conference on Christopher Logue and the Classics, Oxford, UK. February 2024.

‘Gender, Power and Performance: Medea’s Magical Songs in Apollonius’ Argonautica’. Annual meeting of the SCS,Chicago. January 2024.

‘The disembodied voices of Creusa’. Conference on the Afterlives of Virgil’s Women, Durham University, UK. December 2023

‘Sexual Slurs and Bodily Substitutes in Greek comic texts’. Celtic Conference in Classics, Coimbra, Portugal. July 2023