Elizabeth Hume Minchin FAHA is an Australian classicist and former professor of classics at the Australian National University (ANU). Until 2014 she was one of the two editors of Antichthon , the journal of the Australasian Society for Classical Studies. [1]
Born in Sydney, eldest child of Armand and Danella Gunner, she attended St George Girls High School 1957–1961. After finishing her BA and Dip Ed at the University of Sydney, Minchin taught French, Latin, and Indonesian at Narrabundah College, Canberra from 1966 to 1972. She completed an MA (1983) and PhD (1989) in Classics at the ANU. Married since 1970, she has two sons.
Minchin's research focuses on the Homeric epics as oral poetry. Her main contribution is the application of cognitive psychology and sociolinguistics to the narratological studies of the Homeric epics. Her studies have encouraged classical scholars to recognise the continued relevance of linguistic studies for Homeric epic. She has published extensively. [2]
Her book Homer and the Resources of Memory (OUP, 2001) draws on several forms of narratology and cognitive science, such as the script theory developed in the 1970s by Roger Schank and Robert Abelson. [3] The book was recognised as 'a ground-breaking exploration of some of the ways the social sciences can help us better understand the mind of the poet who produced the Iliad and Odyssey.' [4]
Her book Homeric Voices: Discourse, Memory, Gender (OUP, 2007) provides a compositional study of substantial speeches and exchanges of speech in Homeric songs. [5] [6] [7] The book confirmed her as 'a pioneer in interdisciplinary research in the field.' [8]
She was among the recipients of the 2007 Carrick Award for Australian University Teaching in the category "Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning". [9]
In 2010 she was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities [10] and in 2014 she was elected Honorary Secretary of the Academy.
In 2013 she was appointed a Senior Fellow of the UK-based Higher Education Academy (HEA). [11]
She has been a visiting scholar at Cambridge University (Clare Hall), Oxford University (Corpus Christi College), Brown University and Konstanz University. She was a member of the ARC-funded ANU-University of Melbourne 2010 Gallipoli Project.
From 2004 to 2014 she was a member of the Board of Fellows of University House, Australian National University as one of the Vice Chancellor's nominees. [12] She was elected to the Board in 2015.
She has been active in the Friends of the ANU Classics Museum as President and in other executive positions. She has been active in The Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens as President of the Canberra (ANU) Friends and in other executive positions.
ANU appointed her an Emeritus Professor in 2015 and awarded her "2016 Alumnus of the Year – Research or Academia". At the December 2018 graduation ceremony she received the 2018 Chancellor's Award for Distinguished Contribution to ANU. [13]
In 2015 she became a member of the board of directors of Luminescence Chamber Singers, a Canberra-based group of young choristers who perform as a virtuosic vocal octet.
Elizabeth Minchin and Heather Jackson co-edited 'Text and the Material World: Essays in Honour of Graeme Clarke' (Uppsala: Astrom Editions, 2017).
Homer is the legendary author to whom the authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey is attributed. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential authors of all time. For example, in Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, Virgil refers to him as "Poet sovereign", king of all poets; in the preface to his translation of the Iliad, Alexander Pope acknowledges that Homer has always been considered the "greatest of poets".
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the Iliad, the poem is divided into 24 books. It follows the Greek hero Odysseus, king of Ithaca, and his journey home after the Trojan War. After the war, which lasted ten years, his journey lasted for ten additional years, during which time he encountered many perils and all his crew mates were killed. In his absence, Odysseus was assumed dead, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus had to contend with a group of unruly suitors who were competing for Penelope's hand in marriage.
Anna Wierzbicka[ˈanna vʲɛʐˈbʲitska] is a Polish linguist who is Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University, Canberra. Brought up in Poland, she graduated from Warsaw University and emigrated to Australia in 1972, where she has lived since. With over twenty published books, many of which have been translated into foreign languages, she is a prolific writer.
In Greek mythology, Andromache was the wife of Hector, daughter of Eetion, and sister to Podes. She was born and raised in the city of Cilician Thebe, over which her father ruled. The name means 'man battler' or 'fighter of men' or 'man fighter' or 'man's battle', from the Greek stem ἀνδρ- 'man' and μάχη 'battle'.
Frank Cameron JacksonFBA is an Australian analytic philosopher and Emeritus Professor in the School of Philosophy at Australian National University (ANU) where he had spent most of the latter part of his career. His primary research interests include epistemology, metaphysics, meta-ethics and the philosophy of mind. In the latter field he is best known for the "Mary's room" knowledge argument, a thought experiment that is one of the most discussed challenges to physicalism.
Brij Vilash Lal was an Indo-Fijian historian who wrote about the Pacific region and the Indian indenture system. A harsh critic of the Bainimarama government, which originated in the military coup of 2006 and retained power in the 2014 elections, he lived in exile in Australia.
Homeric scholarship is the study of any Homeric topic, especially the two large surviving epics, the Iliad and Odyssey. It is currently part of the academic discipline of classical studies. The subject is one of the oldest in scholarship. For the purpose of the present article, Homeric scholarship is divided into three main phases: antiquity; the 18th and 19th centuries; and the 20th century and later.
The Australian Academy of the Humanities was established by Royal Charter in 1969 to advance scholarship and public interest in the humanities in Australia. It operates as an independent not-for-profit organisation partly funded by the Australian government.
The Strategic and Defence Studies Centre (SDSC) is a university-based institute that is situated in the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University. It is Australia's oldest-established centre for the study of strategic, defence and wider security issues and a leading regional think tank on these topics. The centre was established in 1966 by Professor T.B. Millar, then a senior fellow at the ANU's Department of International Relations, in order to "advance the study of Australian, regional, and global strategic and defence issues". The current head of SDSC is Brendan Taylor. Previous Heads include Emeritus Professor Paul Dibb and Professor Hugh White, who both also served as the Deputy Secretary for Strategy and Intelligence of the Department of Defence.
Elizabeth Vandiver is an American classical scholar. She is the Clement Biddle Penrose Professor of Latin and Classics at Whitman College, having previously taught at the University of Maryland, College Park. She received the prestigious Excellence in Teaching Award from the American Philological Association in 1998. She garnered awards for her teaching from Northwestern University and the University of Georgia. In May 2013, she was awarded Whitman College's "G. Thomas Edwards Award for Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship," the highest award that Whitman College gives to a faculty member.
Elizabeth Anne Webby is a literary critic, editor and scholar in the field of literature. Emeritus Professor Webby retired from the Chair of Australian Literature at the University of Sydney in 2007. She edited The Cambridge Companion to Australian Literature and was editor of Southerly from 1988 to 1999.
Josephine Mary Flood, is an English-born Australian archaeologist, mountaineer, and author.
Barbara Graziosi is an Italian classicist and academic. She is Professor of Classics at Princeton University. Her interests lie in ancient Greek literature, and the way in which readers make it their own. She has written extensively on the subject of Homeric literature, in particular the Iliad, and more generally on the transition of the Twelve Olympians from antiquity to the Renaissance. Her most recent research was a project entitled 'Living Poets: A New Approach to Ancient Poetry, which was funded by the European Research Council.
Joy Damousi, is an Australian historian and Professor and Director of the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences at Australian Catholic University. She was Professor of History in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne for most of her career, and retains a fractional appointment. She was the President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities from 2017 to 2020.
Kim Rubenstein is an Australian legal scholar, lawyer and political candidate. She is a professor at the University of Canberra.
Ann Curthoys, is an Australian historian and academic.
Ann Veronica Helen Moyal AM FRSN FAHA was an Australian historian known for her work in the history of science. She held academic positions at the Australian National University (ANU), New South Wales Institute of Technology, and Griffith University, and later worked as an independent scholar.
Linda Helen Connor is an Australian anthropologist. She is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the University of Sydney.
Desley Deacon is an Australian sociologist, historian and biographer. She has been professor emeritus at the Australian National University since 2009.
Louise EdwardsFHKAH is an Australian sinologist. Her work has focused on women and gender issues in China and Asia. As of 2022, she is Emeritus Professor of Chinese History at the University of New South Wales and an Honorary Professor at both the Australia-China Research Institute and the University of Hong Kong.