I am interested in how we learn about the world with and through texts, and particularly enjoy topics and concepts in ancient didactic poetry that intersect with modern philosophy and physics. I am currently PI on two NERC-led UKRI grants looking at present and future landscape decisions and agricultural ethics, Co-I on a large NERC grant looking at memory in trees and climate change, and a Co-I within the Land Use for Net Zero (LUNZ) Hub, which is co-funded by UKRI, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (on behalf of England and Wales), the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and the Scottish Government. I enjoy the pluralistic aspects of Classics, and often work with other disciplines and non-academic partners.

My research centres around Latin hexameter poetry (in particular the authors Virgil, Lucan, and Lucretius), and texts such as Seneca's Natural Questions, especially where they initiate a discourse with 'science', geography, and philosophy. In recent times I have worked mainly on didactic poetry and its reception, especially Virgil's Georgics, and environmental ethics.

Originally from Blackpool, I did my BA, MA and Ph.D. all at the University of Manchester. I then worked briefly as a Teaching Fellow at the University of Leeds (2008-9), and as the Postgate Teaching Fellow at the University of Liverpool (2009-10). At Liverpool, a significant part of my job was also focussed on outreach and widening participation. I was a Fellow at St. John's College, Oxford (2010-16), where I was the organising tutor for Classics and Joint Schools. I started at the University of Exeter in 2016.

I enjoy research supervision a great deal and am always happy to talk to potential candidates on supervision related to any aspects of my research. In particular, I am interested in:

- Greek and Latin poetry and prose, especially hexameter poetry (didactic, epic) and scientific/technical literature

- Creative, critical, and reflective approaches to Classics

- Environmentally informed topics and theoretical approaches

- Philosophical topics, including e.g. time, reality, consciousness, death, the afterlife

- Cognitive humanities

- Interdisciplinary work cutting across science/humanities

- Traditional (and non-traditional) philological commentaries

- Classical Reception in the long 18th century