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The Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics Series is central to the University's commitment to the teaching and spread of knowledge of Greek and Latin at a time when these languages are under increasing pressure in schools and HEIs. Hardie, Hunter and Oakley are General Editors of a series of Greek and Latin texts with commentaries aimed at a broad public readership, from the higher levels of school onwards. This series, now numbering 94 volumes in print, has, through its international adoption in schools and colleges, greatly broadened the range of texts which are accessible at all levels and changed the way these texts are read and studied. The series has huge brand recognition as `the Green and Yellows' (or `Green and Golds' in the USA) and has had considerable economic impact within the book market.
Public understanding of the classical world has been informed and enhanced through new editions of the prestigious and internationally acclaimed Oxford Classical Dictionary (OCD) and its spin-off publications. These key reference items, which have sold in high numbers and been translated into several languages, are available in specialist, university, college and public libraries worldwide, thereby benefitting a wide range of users, including the general public, students, school pupils, and fellow professionals.
This case study concerns the impact of a major translation and publishing project unique in its scale and ambition. The surviving ancient Greek commentaries on Aristotle were published in a series titled Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca (ed. Diels, 1882-1909). This made the texts available to readers of ancient Greek, but their length and technical nature meant that even classically trained scholars made rather sparing use of the commentaries. The Ancient Commentators Project was initiated in 1987 in order to translate these texts into English. The project has now succeeded beyond all original expectations. The 100th volume was published in December 2012, and nearly the entire corpus of late antique commentaries is now available in English.
By making the commentaries accessible to a vastly increased audience, the project has made a contribution to the preservation and presentation of our cultural heritage. This impact has been felt especially in the field of education: the availability of these primary sources has influenced deeply and widely the design and delivery of curricula of ancient and medieval philosophy at HEIs internationally.
Papyrological research since 1993 by Oxford scholars has led to important new discoveries that have promoted increased public understanding and discussion of ancient literature and history. Research on documentary papyri has led to greater awareness of daily life in Oxyrhynchus, a Graeco-Roman provincial capital in central Egypt. The publication and translation of a new poem by Sappho has led to its inclusion in new translations of Sappho and ancient Greek lyric by leading publishers. Major Digital Humanities projects, Oxyrhynchus Online and Ancient Lives, have made the Oxyrhynchus papyri available to the public through the use of a web interface. Mass participation facilitated by the project has received wide publicity for increasing the engagement of the public with the methods and materials of scientific research. The website has had a major pedagogical impact through its use in schools.
Research by the University of Reading's Department of Typography & Graphic Communication into the historical development of world scripts (predominantly South and Southeast Asian and Greek) and their adaptation to new technologies has had significant impact on global companies, including Adobe and Microsoft, supporting the use of non-Latin typefaces in their products as they enter new markets. The research has had additional impact on international type designers and manufacturers, Dalton Maag and Monotype, and on leading publishers such as Cambridge University Press and Brill.
Commercial uptake of the research brings global societal benefits, with millions of people seeing typefaces in print and on digital displays that represent their scripts with linguistic, historic and typographic integrity.
Classical Receptions at the OU raises awareness of how Greek and Roman texts, ideas and material culture have been interpreted, used and reworked, particularly in society today. Our research provides cultural and arts practitioners around the world — translators, poets and actors — with the tools to interpret ancient texts in modern contexts. Much of our research is presented in open-access assets — website, journals, seminars, workshops, conferences — thus providing resources both nationally and internationally. Working with the creative industries and beyond, we also help the wider public to gain a fuller understanding of the place of the classical within the contemporary world.
The Beazley Archive Online Database enables large and diverse audiences to access and understand ancient art through Oxford research. It allows users around the world to ask and answer their own research questions and to learn about ancient imagery. It is principally dedicated to the study of ancient Athenian figure-decorated pottery and ancient/neo-classical engraved gems. It makes available hundreds of thousands of pictures and information-fields which can be browsed and searched in a variety of ways, according to the level and requirements of the user. The Database is the foremost academic tool for the study of ancient Greek pottery, but its demonstrable impact extends far beyond academia, to an international audience of students, educators, museums, businesses, and private researchers.
Research at Newcastle has been instrumental in developing an internationally recognised research collection of ancient Greek and Etruscan artefacts. Research insights directly influenced how the Shefton Gallery was presented in the Great North Museum: Hancock (GNM), and in particular informed the labelling and interpretation of the objects. By adding meaning and context to the artefacts, the research thus enabled museum staff to: i) deliver public lectures on the research collection thereby resulting in loans to national and international museums; and ii) develop educational resources and events (including worksheets, workshops and object loan boxes) to support innovative teaching in schools and universities. The research has therefore informed the understanding of the Ancient Greek and Etruscan past of the hundreds of thousands of visitors who visit the GNM annually as well as thousands of school-age children and students.
University of Glasgow researchers have utilised cutting-edge 3D imaging techniques to enlarge miniature 4th century Greek theatre masks into life sized objects, transforming how these masks are displayed as museums artefacts and used in performance. Full-size reconstructions of the masks are now on permanent display in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow — seen by more than 1 million visitors annually — and exhibitions featuring the reconstructions have toured across the UK and Ireland. These masks are also now incorporated into the work of theatre groups in the UK and Italy, highlighting the influence of a lost European masked theatre practice on the foundation of modern drama.
The Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama (APGRD) project approaches the understanding of Greek and Roman tragedies and comedies through gathering evidence about their performance and traces their evolving significance through the way they have been received in performance practice. The APGRD has had significant impact on theatrical performance through its lively interaction with practitioners in the theatre and other performing arts, which has expanded the repertoire of classical drama, and through the commissioning of new work. This research has provided significant cultural and pedagogical benefits through being presented in various public forums (radio, lectures, exhibitions) and through the creation of a searchable open-access online database of more than 11,000 productions from the Renaissance to the present.