Emma Stafford

Stafford read classics at New Hall, University of Cambridge (1987–90) and began her PhD at University College London in 1991. Following appointments at Royal Holloway, Birkbeck, the University of Leicester, and the University of Wales, Lampeter, Stafford moved to the University of Leeds in 2000 and became a Senior Lecturer in 2005.

Stafford was appointed Professor of Greek Culture in 2020, becoming the first female professor of Classics at the University of Leeds.{{Cite web|title=Congratulations to Dr Emma Stafford who has been promoted to Professor of Greek Culture|url=https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/languages/news/article/1507/congratulations-to-dr-emma-stafford-who-has-been-promoted-to-professor-of-greek-culture|last=University of Leeds, School of Languages, Cultures and Societies| date=6 March 2020|website=ahc.leeds.ac.uk|language=en|access-date=2020-05-20}}

Stafford's work focuses on Greek cultural history and she specialises in myth, allegory, personification, religion, and the reception of Greek culture.{{Cite web|title=Emma Stafford|url=https://theconversation.com/profiles/emma-stafford-132613|website=The Conversation|date=23 July 2014 |language=en|access-date=2020-05-20}} She has worked extensively on the myth and reception of Hercules, including numerous publications through research at the University of Leeds, much of which, like Herculean Labours: enriching the public understanding of our classical mythological heritage (2005-2012) has a public engagement dimension.{{Cite web|title=Herculean Labours: enriching the public understanding of our classical mythological heritage| publisher=REF 2014 impact case studies |url=https://impact.ref.ac.uk/casestudies/CaseStudy.aspx?Id=6389|website=impact.ref.ac.uk|language=en|access-date=2020-05-20}}

Building on previous work on Hercules, Stafford now leads the AHRC funded Hercules: a Hero for all Ages project, which aims to chart the significance of the reception of Hercules from the late antique period to modern times.{{Cite web|title=Hercules Project : Website for Emma Stafford's Hercules Project at the University of Leeds|url=https://herculesproject.leeds.ac.uk/|website=herculesproject.leeds.ac.uk|access-date=2020-05-20}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A3=ind1612&L=ART-VISUAL&E=quoted-printable&P=19359215&B=--_000_VI1PR0301MB2013F33569FF5CF14E6753B1EB930VI1PR0301MB2013_&T=text/html;%20charset=iso-8859-1&pending=|website=www.jiscmail.ac.uk| title=International Conference, University of Leeds 7-9th July 2017: Celebrating Hercules in the modern world|access-date=2020-05-20}} As part of her work, Stafford has spoken widely on the subject including public lectures at Leeds City Museum.{{Cite web|title=Classical Greek hero celebrated at Leeds City Museum|url=https://news.leeds.gov.uk/news/classical-greek-hero-celebrated-at-leeds-city-museum|website=Leeds City Council News|date=15 January 2015|language=english|access-date=2020-05-20}}

The Hercules Project has extensive public outreach activities, including a new musical drama, Herakles, composed by Tim Benjamin which premiered in Todmorden Town Hall in April 2017.{{Cite web|title=Herakles (2016)|url=http://timbenjamin.com/music/herakles/|website=Tim Benjamin: Composer|language=en|access-date=2020-05-20}}{{Cite web|title=Musical Drama : Hercules Project|url=https://herculesproject.leeds.ac.uk/musical-drama/|website=herculesproject.leeds.ac.uk|access-date=2020-05-20}}{{Cite web|title=Herakles - A New Oratorio|url=https://todmordenchoral.org/page.php?pageid=12|website=todmordenchoral.org|access-date=2020-05-20}}{{Cite web|last=Stafford | first=Emma | title="I shall sing of Herakles": writing a Hercules oratorio for the twenty-first century|url=https://classicalstudies.org/annual-meeting/150/abstract/%E2%80%9Ci-shall-sing-herakles%E2%80%9D-writing-hercules-oratorio-twenty-first-century|website=Society for Classical Studies|access-date=2020-05-20}} Abstract of paper for 150th Annual Meeting of the Society for Classical Studies, 2019 Stafford also coordinated The Labours of Herakles touring exhibition, displayed at Leeds City Museum and the Museum of Classical Archaeology, Cambridge, featuring the work of Marian Maguire.{{Cite web|title=Herakles – a hero for all ages|url=https://www.cam.ac.uk/news/herakles-a-hero-for-all-ages|date=2015-04-16|website=University of Cambridge|language=en|access-date=2020-05-20}}{{Cite web|title=2008 - The Labours of Herakles|url=https://www.marianmaguire.com/2008---the-labours-of-herakles.html|website=Marian Maguire|language=en|access-date=2020-05-20}}

• ed. with Alastair Blanshard, The Modern Hercules: Images of the Hero from the Nineteenth to the Early Twenty-First Century (Metaforms: Studies in the Reception of Classical Antiquity 21, Brill, 2020). {{ISBN|978-90-04-44006-7}}.
• ed. with Valerie Mainz, The Exemplary Hercules: from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment and Beyond (Metaforms: Studies in the Reception of Classical Antiquity 20, Brill, 2020){{Cite book|url=https://brill.com/view/title/58206|title=The Exemplary Hercules from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment and Beyond|date=2020-09-24|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-43541-4|language=en}}
• ed. with Arlene Allan and Eva Anagnostou-Laoutides E, Herakles Inside and Outside the Church From the First Apologists to the End of the Quattrocento (Metaforms: Studies in the Reception of Classical Antiquity 18, Brill, 2020)
• Herakles, Gods and Heroes in the Ancient World (Routledge, 2012){{Cite web|title=Emma Stafford's Herakles (review)|url=https://www.karwansaraypublishers.com/awblog/emma-staffords-herakles-review/|date=22 September 2014|website=Karwansaray Publishers Blog|language=en|access-date=2020-05-20}}{{cite journal |last1=Koning |first1=Hugo |title=Herakles. Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World |journal=Bryn Mawr Classical Review |date=September 2012 |issue=52 |url=https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2012/2012.09.52/ |accessdate=2020-05-20}}
• ed. with Herrin JE, Personification in the Greek World: from Antiquity to Byzantium, Centre for Hellenic Studies King's College London Publications 7 (Ashgate, 2005)
• Ancient Greece: life, myth and art (Duncan Baird, 2004)
• Worshipping Virtues: personification and the divine in ancient Greece (Classical Press of Wales and Duckworth, 2000){{Cite journal|title=Worshipping Virtues: Personification and the Divine in Ancient Greece| journal= Bryn Mawr Classical Review|last=Smith | first=Amy | date=August 2001 | issue=20|url=https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2001/2001.08.20/|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-20}}

{{reflist}}

• [https://classicstalks.wordpress.com/2011/12/04/other-talks-3/ Lecture on The Afterlife of a Hero] for the New Classical Research Day, 21 October 2011.
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FRN1L7-IVs Thematic collecting interview] about an ancient Greek vase in Manchester Museum's collection depicting Herakles and the centaurs.

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Category:British classical scholars

Category:Academics of the University of Leeds

Category:Women classical scholars

Category:Heracles

Category:Alumni of New Hall, Cambridge

Category:Alumni of University College London

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:Living people