Mary Beard (classicist)

Mary Beard, an only child, was born on 1 January 1955{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/aug/24/classics |title=Up Pompeii with the roguish don |first=Robert |last=McCrum |newspaper=The Guardian |date=24 August 2008 |access-date=29 July 2015}} in Much Wenlock, Shropshire. Her mother, Joyce Emily Beard, was a headmistress and an enthusiastic reader. Her father, Roy Whitbread Beard,{{cite web|title=BEARD, Prof (Winifred) Mary |url-access=subscription |work=Debrett's People of Today |year=2008 |url=http://www.credoreference.com/entry/7696274 |access-date=16 July 2008}} worked as an architect in Shrewsbury. She recalled him as "a raffish public-schoolboy type and a complete wastrel, but very engaging".

Beard was educated at Shrewsbury High School, a girls' school then funded as a direct grant grammar school.{{cite news|last1=Laity|first1=Interview by Paul|title=A life in writing: Mary Beard, Britain's best-known classicist|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/nov/10/featuresreviews.guardianreview19|access-date=13 October 2020|work=The Guardian|date=10 November 2007}} She was taught poetry by Frank McEachran,{{cite web|last1=McCrum|first1=Robert|title=Interview with Mary Beard, the classical world's most provocative figure|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/aug/24/classics|website=The Observer|access-date=4 December 2017|date=23 August 2008}} who was teaching then at the nearby Shrewsbury School, and was the inspiration for schoolmaster Hector in Alan Bennett's play The History Boys.{{cite web|title=James Klugmann, a complex communist|url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/geoff-andrews/james-klugmann-complex-communist|website=openDemocracy|access-date=4 December 2017|language=en}} During the summer she would join archaeological excavations, though the motivation was, in part, just the prospect of earning some pocket-money.

At 18 she sat the then-compulsory entrance exam and interview for Cambridge University, to win a place at Newnham College, a single-sex college. She had considered King's, but rejected it when she learned the college did not offer scholarships to women.

In Beard's first year she found some men in the university still held very dismissive attitudes regarding the academic potential of women, which only strengthened her determination to succeed.{{cite news|last1=Patterson|first1=Christina|title=Mary Beard interview: 'I hadn't realised that there were people like that'|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/mary-beard-interview-i-hadnt-realised-that-there-were-people-like-that-8534771.html|access-date=3 December 2017|newspaper=The Independent|date=15 March 2015}} She also developed feminist views that remained "hugely important" in her later life, although she later described "modern orthodox feminism" as partly cant. One of her tutors was Joyce Reynolds. Beard has since said that "Newnham could do better in making itself a place where critical issues can be generated" and has also described her views on feminism, saying "I actually can't understand what it would be to be a woman without being a feminist."{{cite web |first=Ashley |last=Chhibber |url=http://www.tcs.cam.ac.uk/interviews/0028855-interview-mary-beard.html |title=Interview: Mary Beard |date=3 May 2013 |work=The Cambridge Student |access-date=29 January 2017}} Beard has cited Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch, Kate Millett's Sexual Politics, and Robert Munsch's The Paper Bag Princess as influential on the development of her personal feminism.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/dec/16/book-that-made-me-a-feminist|title=The book that made me a feminist|date=16 December 2017|work=The Guardian|access-date=6 January 2018|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}

Beard graduated from Cambridge with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree. As was traditional, her BA was later promoted to a Master of Arts (MA Cantab) degree.{{cite web |url=http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/students/studentregistry/current/newstud/graduation/ma.html |title=The Cambridge MA |work=University of Cambridge |date=26 January 2012 |access-date=19 November 2012}}{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/8318460/Oxbridge-students-MA-degrees-under-threat.html |location=London, UK |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |first=Nick |last=Collins |title=Oxbridge students' MA 'degrees' under threat |date=12 February 2011}} She remained at Cambridge for her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree, completing it in 1982 with a doctoral thesis titled The State Religion in the Late Roman Republic: A Study Based on the Works of Cicero.{{Cite web|url=https://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21429590240003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&lang=en_US&search_scope=SCOP_CAM_ALL&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=cam_lib_coll&query=any,contains,mary%20beard&sortby=rank&offset=0|title=The state religion in the Late Roman Republic: a study based on the works of Cicero|website=idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk|language=en|access-date=2 November 2018}}

Between 1979 and 1983, Beard lectured in classics at King's College, London; she returned to Cambridge in 1984 as a Fellow of Newnham College and the only female lecturer in the classics faculty. The book Rome in the Late Republic, which she co-wrote with Cambridge historian Michael Crawford, was published the following year.{{cite book |title=Rome in the Late Republic:Problems and Interpretations |last1=Beard| first1= Mary|last2=Crawford | first2=Michael | publisher = Gerald Duckworth | location=London | date=1985}}

John Sturrock, classics editor of The Times Literary Supplement, approached her for a review and brought her into literary journalism.{{cite news|last1=Beard|first1=Mary|title=Remembering John Sturrock – TheTLS|url=https://www.the-tls.co.uk/remembering-john-sturrock/|access-date=4 December 2017|work=TheTLS|date=16 August 2017}} Beard took over his role in 1992 at the request of Ferdinand Mount.{{cite news|last1=McCrum|first1=Robert|title=Interview with Mary Beard, the classical world's most provocative figure|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/aug/24/classics|access-date=4 December 2017|work=The Observer|date=23 August 2008}}

Shortly after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, Beard was one of several authors invited to contribute articles on the topic to the London Review of Books. She opined that many people, once "the shock had faded", thought "the United States had it coming", and that "[w]orld bullies, even if their heart is in the right place, will in the end pay the price".{{cite journal |last=Beard |first=Mary |date=4 October 2001 |title=11 September attacks |url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v23/n19/mult01_.html |url-status=dead |journal=London Review of Books |volume=23 |pages=20–25 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120904093619/http://www.lrb.co.uk/v23/n19/nine-eleven-writers/11-september |archive-date=4 September 2012 |access-date=16 July 2008 |number=19}} In a November 2007 interview, she stated the hostility these comments provoked had still not subsided, though she believed it had become a standard viewpoint that terrorism was associated with American foreign policy. By this point she was described by Paul Laity of The Guardian as "Britain's best-known classicist".

In 2004, Beard, through internal promotion, became Professor of Classics at Cambridge.{{cite journal |url=http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/reporter/2004-05/weekly/5992/12.html |title=Appointments, reappointments, and grants of title |date=2 March 2005 |journal=Cambridge University Reporter |number=5992 |volume=CXXXV.20}}

In 2007–2008, Beard gave the Sigmund H. Danziger Jr. Memorial Lecture in the Humanities at the University of Chicago.{{cite web | url=https://classics.uchicago.edu/calendar/sigmund-h-danziger-jr-distinguished-lecture-series | title=Sigmund H. Danziger Jr. Memorial Lecture Series | website=University of Chicago | access-date=5 June 2018 | archive-date=1 October 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201001182524/https://classics.uchicago.edu/calendar/sigmund-h-danziger-jr-distinguished-lecture-series | url-status=dead }} She was elected Visiting Sather Professor of Classical Literature for 2008–2009 at the University of California, Berkeley, at which she delivered a series of lectures on "Roman Laughter".{{cite web |title=The Sather Professor |work=University of California, Berkeley Department of Classics |url=http://classics.berkeley.edu/people/sather.php |access-date=16 July 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120810180254/http://classics.berkeley.edu/people/sather.php |archive-date=10 August 2012 }}

In 2014, Beard delivered a lecture on the public voice of women at the British Museum as part of the London Review of Books winter lecture series. It was recorded and broadcast on BBC Four a month later under the title Oh Do Shut Up, Dear!.{{Cite web|title=Oh Do Shut Up Dear! Mary Beard on the Public Voice of Women|url=https://www.radiotimes.com/tv-programme/ctk9kv/oh-do-shut-up-dear-mary-beard-on-the-public-voice-of-women/|access-date=1 August 2021|website=Radio Times|language=en|archive-date=1 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210801193348/https://www.radiotimes.com/tv-programme/ctk9kv/oh-do-shut-up-dear-mary-beard-on-the-public-voice-of-women/|url-status=dead}} The lecture begins with the example of Telemachus, the son of Odysseus and Penelope, admonishing his mother to retreat to her chamber.{{cite news|last1=Wood|first1=Gaby|title=Oh Do Shut Up Dear!, BBC Four, review|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/tv-and-radio-reviews/10699207/Oh-Do-Shut-Up-Dear-BBC-Four-review.html|access-date=3 December 2017|date=16 March 2014}} (The title alludes to Prime Minister David Cameron telling a female MP to "Calm down, dear!", which earned widespread criticism as a "classic sexist put-down".{{cite news |last1=Elliott |first1=Cath |title=Cameron's 'Calm down, dear' is a classic sexist put-down {{!}} Cath Elliott |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/apr/27/cameron-calm-down-dear-sexist-put-down |access-date=20 April 2020 |work=The Guardian |date=27 April 2011}}{{cite news |title=PM 'calm down dear' jibe attacked |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13211577 |access-date=20 April 2020 |work=BBC News |date=27 April 2011}}{{cite news |title=Is 'calm down, dear' really so offensive? |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/is-calm-down-dear-really-so-offensive-2276389.html |access-date=20 April 2020 |work=The Independent |date=29 April 2011 |language=en}}) Three years later, Beard gave a second lecture for the same partners, entitled Women in Power: from Medusa to Merkel. It considered the extent to which the exclusion of women from power is culturally embedded, and how idioms from ancient Greece are still used to normalise gendered violence.{{cite web|title=Video: Women in Power|author=Beard, Mary|work=London Review of Books|url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/2017/03/08/mary-beard/video-women-in-power|date=3 March 2017}} She argues that "we don't have a model or a template for what a powerful woman looks like. We only have templates that make them men."{{cite news|title=Mary Beard: We are living in an age when men are proud to be ignorant|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/mary-beard-we-are-living-in-an-age-when-men-are-proud-to-be-ignorant-a3471061.html|access-date=3 December 2017|work=Evening Standard}}

In 2019, Beard gave the sesquicentennial Public Lecture for the North American Society for Classical Studies, marking the 150-year anniversary of the organisation.{{Cite web|url=https://classicalstudies.org/annual-meeting/2019/150/sesquicentennial-public-lecture-mary-beard|title=Sesquicentennial Public Lecture: Mary Beard|date=8 February 2018|website=Society for Classical Studies|access-date=9 December 2018}} The topic of her presentation was What do we mean by Classics now? She delivered the Gifford Lectures in May 2019 at Edinburgh University, under the title The Ancient World and Us: From Fear and Loathing to Enlightenment and Ethics.{{Cite web|url=https://www.giffordlectures.org/lectures/ancient-world-and-us-fear-and-loathing-enlightenment-and-ethics|title=The Ancient World and Us: From Fear and Loathing to Enlightenment and Ethics|date=15 April 2019|website=The Gifford Lectures|language=en|access-date=20 May 2019|archive-date=2 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201202001445/https://www.giffordlectures.org/lectures/ancient-world-and-us-fear-and-loathing-enlightenment-and-ethics|url-status=dead}}

In 2020, Beard was appointed a trustee of the British Museum.{{Cite news|date=28 March 2020|title=Defiant British Museum appoints Mary Beard as trustee|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/mar/28/british-museum-defies-downing-street-and-appoints-mary-beard-as-trustee|access-date=5 December 2022|newspaper=The Guardian|language=en}} In 2023, Profile Books published Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World. Writing for Literary Review, Harry Sidebottom called it "her best book so far".{{Cite web |date=2024-01-24 |title=Harry Sidebottom - Demigod Behind a Desk? |url=https://literaryreview.co.uk/demigod-behind-a-desk |access-date=2024-01-24 |website=Literary Review |language=en}}

University of Chicago classicist Clifford Ando described Beard's scholarship as having two key aspects in its approach to sources. One is that she insists that ancient sources be understood as documentation of the attitudes, context and beliefs of their authors, not as reliable sources for the events they address. The other is that she argues that modern histories of Rome must be contextualised within the attitudes, world views and purposes of their authors.{{cite news |last1=Ando |first1=Clifford |title=The Rise and Rise of Rome |url=http://newramblerreview.com/book-reviews/classics/the-rise-and-rise-of-rome |access-date=24 May 2016 |work=The New Rambler |date=29 February 2016}}

In 1994 she made an early television appearance on an Open Media discussion for the BBC, Weird Thoughts,{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.eofftv.com/index.php?title=Weird_Thoughts_(1994)

|title=Weird Thoughts (1994) |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Film and Television |access-date=7 June 2017}} alongside Jenny Randles among others. This was characterised in an article in 2021 as follows:

{{blockquote|Weird Thoughts, where Tony Wilson chairs a panel of experts debating why the 1990s seem so very strange. There are a lot of familiar faces here – the late James Randi, Fortean Times founder Bob Rickard, esoteric scholar Lynn Picknett – but today the biggest name is the one hovering around the back of the gathering: a young Mary Beard. As a respectable academic, Professor Beard was presumably brought in to back up Randi, but her views are interestingly hard to define. She agrees with Picknett's suggestion that 'weird' should be reclassified as 'other', noting this is how the ancient world referred to overseas lands. This suggestion that UFOs should be bracketed with, say, Perth shows why Beard, particularly in this company, is a very modern thinker.[https://www.horrifiedmagazine.co.uk Weird ’90s – Weird Night], article in Horrified magazine, 17 May 2021, accessed 10 November 2021}}

In 2010, on BBC Two, Beard presented Pompeii: Life and Death in a Roman Town, submitting remains from the town to forensic tests, aiming to show a snapshot of the lives of the residents prior to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE.{{cite book |title=Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town |year=2008 |location=London, UK |publisher=Profile |isbn=978-1-86197-516-4}} (U.S. title: The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found, Harvard University Press) In 2011 she took part in a television series, Jamie's Dream School on Channel 4, in which she taught classics to teenagers with no experience of academic success. Beard is a regular contributor to the BBC Radio 4 series, A Point of View, delivering essays on a broad range of topics including Miss World{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b016x4tt |title=A Point of View, On Age and Beauty |work=BBC Radio 4 |date=13 November 2011 |access-date=29 July 2015}} and the Oxbridge interview.{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b017clxk|title=A Point of View, The Oxbridge Interview |work=BBC Radio 4 |date=27 November 2011 |access-date=29 January 2017}}

For BBC Two in 2012 she wrote and presented the three part television series, Meet the Romans with Mary Beard, which concerns how ordinary people lived in Rome, "the world's first global metropolis". The critic A. A. Gill reviewed the programme, writing mainly about her appearance, judging her "too ugly for television".John-Paul Ford Rojas [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/celebritynews/9223149/Mary-Beard-hits-back-at-AA-Gill-after-he-brands-her-too-ugly-for-television.html "Mary Beard hits back at AA Gill after he brands her 'too ugly for television'"], Daily Telegraph;, 24 April 2012 Beard admitted that his attack felt like a punch,{{cite news|title=Mary Beard: AA Gill's attack on my looks felt like a punch|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9561274/Mary-Beard-AA-Gills-attack-on-my-looks-felt-like-a-punch.html|access-date=3 December 2017|newspaper=Telegraph|date=24 September 2012}} but swiftly responded with a counter-attack on his intellectual abilities, accusing him of being part of "the blokeish culture that loves to decry clever women". This exchange became the focus of a debate about older women on the public stage, with Beard saying she looked an ordinary woman of her age{{cite news|last1=Williams|first1=Zoe|title=Mary Beard: 'The role of the academic is to make everything less simple'|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/23/mary-beard-the-role-of-the-academic-is-to-make-everything-less-simple|access-date=3 December 2017|work=The Guardian|date=23 April 2016}} and "there are kids who turn on these programmes and see there's another way of being a woman", without Botox and hair dye.{{cite news|last1=O’Donovan|first1=Gerard|title=Mary Beard takes on Caligula, the emperor with the worst reputation in history|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10199155/Mary-Beard-takes-on-Caligula-the-emperor-with-the-worst-reputation-in-history.html|access-date=3 December 2017|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=26 July 2013}} Charlotte Higgins assessed Beard as one of the rare academics who is both well respected by her peers and has a high profile in the media.{{cite news|last1=Thorpe|first1=Vanessa|title=Mary Beard: the classicist with the common touch {{!}} Observer profile|url=https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2012/apr/29/observer-profile-mary-beard|access-date=3 December 2017|work=The Guardian|date=28 April 2012}}

In 2013 she presented Caligula with Mary Beard on BBC Two, describing the making of myths around leaders and dictators.{{cite news|last1=O’Donovan|first1=Gerard|title=Mary Beard takes on Caligula, the emperor with the worst reputation in history|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10199155/Mary-Beard-takes-on-Caligula-the-emperor-with-the-worst-reputation-in-history.html|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|access-date=3 December 2017|date=26 July 2013}} Interviewers continued to ask about her self-presentation, and she reiterated that she had no intention of undergoing a make-over.{{cite news|title=Mary Beard: 'I will never have a makeover'|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10204252/Mary-Beard-I-will-never-have-a-makeover.html|access-date=3 December 2017|newspaper=Telegraph|date=26 July 2013}}

In 2015, Beard was again a panellist on BBC's Question Time from Bath.{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06s5rww |title=Question Time |work=BBC One |access-date=29 January 2017}} During the programme, she praised Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn for behaving with a "considerable degree of dignity" against claims he faces an overly hostile media. She said: "Quite a lot of what Corbyn says I agree with, and I rather like his different style of leadership. I like hearing argument not soundbites. If the Labour Party is going through a rough time, and I'm sure it is rough to be in there, it might actually all be to the good. He might be changing the party in a way that would make it easier for people like me to vote for."{{cite news |last=Demianyk|first=Graeme|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/12/10/question-time-mary-beard-jeremy-corbyn-media_n_8777604.html|title=BBC Question Time: Cambridge Scholar Mary Beard Thinks Jeremy Corbyn Has Acted With 'Dignity' Against Hostile Media|work=The Huffington Post|date=10 December 2015|access-date=1 May 2018}}

2016 saw Beard present Pompeii: New Secrets Revealed with Mary Beard on BBC One in March.{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b072nxtm |title=Pompeii: New Secrets Revealed with Mary Beard |work=BBC One |date=3 March 2016 |access-date=3 March 2016}} While May 2016, brought about a four-part series shown on BBC Two, titled Mary Beard's Ultimate Rome: Empire Without Limit.{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0797yqk|title=Mary Beard's Ultimate Rome: Empire Without Limit |work=BBC Two |access-date=29 January 2017}}

Beard's standalone documentary Julius Caesar Revealed was shown on BBC One in 2018.{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09s0mxj |title=Julius Caesar Revealed |work=BBC One |date=6 March 2018 |access-date=6 March 2018}} In March, she wrote and presented "How Do We Look?" and "The Eye of Faith", two of the nine episodes in Civilisations, a reboot of the 1969 series by Kenneth Clark.{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05xxp5j |title=Civilisations |work=BBC Two |date=6 March 2018 |access-date=6 March 2018}}

In 2019, Beard appeared in an episode of The Grand Tour, having dinner with host James May, in his effort to get his car photographed by paparazzi.{{Cite web|title=Classicist Mary Beard makes unlikely cameo in The Grand Tour series three|last=Bley Griffiths|first=Eleanor|url=https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/entertainment/reality-tv/the-grand-tour-series-3-amazon-mary-beard-cameo/|access-date=1 August 2021|date=2 October 2018|website=Radio Times|language=en}}

In 2020, Beard became the host of the newly developed topical arts series Lockdown Culture, which was later renamed Inside Culture and is broadcast on BBC Two.{{Cite web|title=Inside Culture With Mary Beard| url=http://bbc.com/mediacentre/mediapacks/bbcartsautumn/ideas/|access-date=1 August 2021|website=bbc.com|language=en}}{{Cite web|title=Inside Culture Season 1|url=https://www.radiotimes.com/tv-programme/mpr8fd/inside-culture-season-1/|date=8 September 2020|access-date=1 August 2021|website=Radio Times|language=en|archive-date=1 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210801195622/https://www.radiotimes.com/tv-programme/mpr8fd/inside-culture-season-1/|url-status=dead}}{{cite news|title=Mary Beard to tackle post-lockdown life in new series of Inside Culture|language=en-GB|work=belfasttelegraph|url=https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/film-tv/news/mary-beard-to-tackle-post-lockdown-life-in-new-series-of-inside-culture-40388507.html|access-date=1 August 2021|issn=0307-1235}} She also released The Shock of the Nude - a two-part TV documentary tackling controversies surrounding the naked body in the arts, from ancient classics to the visual cultures of today.{{cite web | url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11167868/ | title=Mary Beard's Shock of the Nude | website=IMDb }}

In April 2013 she was named as Royal Academy of Arts Professor of Ancient Literature.{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/mary-beard-named-as-royal-academy-of-arts-professor-of-ancient-literature-8567757.html |title=Mary Beard named as Royal Academy of Arts professor of ancient literature |first=Nick |last=Clark |newspaper=The Independent |date=10 April 2013}} Beard was awarded an honorary degree from Oxford University in June 2018.{{Cite web|url=http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2018-03-22-honorary-degree-recipients-2018-announced|title=Honorary degree recipients for 2018 announced {{!}} University of Oxford|website=Ox.ac.uk|date=22 March 2018 |language=en|access-date=20 May 2019}} She also received an honorary degree from Yale University in May 2019.{{Cite web|date=21 May 2019|title=Yale awards honorary degrees to 11 individuals for their achievements|url=https://news.yale.edu/2019/05/21/yale-awards-honorary-degrees-11-individuals-their-achievements|access-date=1 August 2021|website=YaleNews|language=en}}

In 2018, an unofficial Lego figure of Beard was created by a fan.{{cite news|date=27 January 2018|title=Lego model of Cambridge classicist Prof Mary Beard created|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-42816995|access-date=2 December 2020}}

Beard is known for being active on X (formerly Twitter), which she sees as part of her public role as an academic.{{cite news|last1=Patterson|first1=Christina|title=Mary Beard interview: 'I hadn't realised that there were people like|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/mary-beard-interview-i-hadnt-realised-that-there-were-people-like-that-8534771.html|access-date=3 December 2017|work=The Independent|date=15 March 2013}} Beard received considerable online abuse after she appeared on BBC's Question Time from Lincolnshire in January 2013 and cast doubt on the negative rhetoric about immigrant workers living in the county.{{cite news |last=Dowell |first=Ben |title=Mary Beard suffers 'truly vile' online abuse after Question Time |date=21 January 2013 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/jan/21/mary-beard-suffers-twitter-abuse |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=7 August 2013}}{{cite news |url=http://www.bostonstandard.co.uk/news/cambridge-professor-under-fire-for-boston-immigration-comments-on-bbc-question-time-1-4706302 |title=Cambridge professor under fire for Boston immigration comments on BBC Question Time |newspaper=Boston Standard |date=21 January 2013 |access-date=24 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140111022435/http://www.bostonstandard.co.uk/news/cambridge-professor-under-fire-for-boston-immigration-comments-on-bbc-question-time-1-4706302 |archive-date=11 January 2014 |url-status=dead }} She asserted her right to express unpopular opinions and to present herself in public in a way she deemed authentic.{{cite news |title=In Britain, an Authority on the Past Stares Down a Nasty Modern Storm |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/16/world/europe/mary-beard-classics-professor-battles-internet-attacks.html |access-date=16 February 2013 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=15 February 2013 |first=Lark |last=Turner|quote=I've chosen to be this way because that's how I feel comfortable with myself," Beard said. "That's how I am. It's about joining up the dots between how you look and how you feel inside, and I think that's what I've done, and I think people do it differently.}} On 4 August 2013, she received a bomb threat on Twitter, hours after the UK head of Twitter had apologised to women who had experienced abuse on the service. Beard said she did not think she was in physical danger, but considered it harassment and wanted to "make sure" that another case had been logged by the police.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/23565145 |title=Bomb threat tweet sent to classicist Mary Beard |date=4 August 2013 |work=BBC News |access-date=29 January 2017}} She has been praised for exposing "social media at its most revolting and misogynistic".

In 2017, Beard became the target of considerable online abuse after she made the case that Roman Britain was more ethnically diverse than is often assumed. The source of the controversy was a BBC educational video depicting a senior Roman soldier as a black man, which Beard defended as entirely possible after the video received backlash.{{cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/06/mary-beard-misogynistic-race-row-bbc-cartoon-us-academic-claimed/| title=Mary Beard in 'misogynistic' race row over black Romans in BBC cartoon| author=Luke Heighton| publisher=Daily Telegraph| date=6 August 2017| access-date=28 April 2020}} There followed, according to Beard, "a torrent of aggressive insults, on everything from my historical competence and elitist ivory tower viewpoint to my age, shape and gender [batty old broad, obese, etc etc]."{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/aug/06/mary-beard-twitter-abuse-roman-britain-ethnic-diversity| title=Mary Beard abused on Twitter over Roman Britain's ethnic diversity| author=Sarah Boseley| work=The Guardian| date=6 August 2017| access-date=28 April 2020}}

In 2018, in response to a report in The Times of Oxfam employees engaging in sexual exploitation in disaster zones, Beard tweeted "Of course one can't condone the (alleged) behaviour of Oxfam staff in Haiti and elsewhere. But I do wonder how hard it must be to sustain 'civilised' values in a disaster zone. And overall I still respect those who go in and help out, where most of us would not tread."{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/business-money/technology/article/charity-scandal-mary-beard-attacked-for-colonial-tweet-c087nsw2h|title=Oxfam sex scandal: Mary Beard attacked for 'colonial' tweet|last=Bannerman|first=Lucy|date=19 February 2018|work=The Times|access-date=22 June 2018|language=en|issn=0140-0460}} This led to widespread criticism, in which Mary Beard was accused of racism.{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/feb/19/mary-beard-oxfam-tweet-genteel-racism|title=The fallout from Mary Beard's Oxfam tweet shines a light on genteel racism {{!}} Chitra Ramaswamy|last=Ramaswamy|first=Chitra|date=19 February 2018|website=The Guardian|language=en|access-date=22 June 2018}} In response, Beard posted a picture of herself crying, explaining that she had been subjected to a "torrent of abuse" and that "I find it hard to imagine that anyone out there could possibly think that I am wanting to turn a blind eye to the abuse of women and children".{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/mary-beard-tweet-oxfam-aid-workers-sex-scandal-backlash-feminists-cambridge-priyamvada-gopal-latest-a8216306.html |title=Mary Beard posts tearful picture of herself after defence of Oxfam aid workers provokes backlash |first=Roisin |last=O'Connor |date=18 February 2018 |work=The Independent |access-date=20 December 2021}}

File:Mary Beard filming in Rome.jpg, 2012]]

Beard married Robin Cormack, a classicist and art historian, in 1985. Their daughter Zoe is an anthropologist and historian based at the Centre for African Studies at the University of Oxford.{{Cite web|title=Dr Zoe Cormack|url=https://www.africanstudies.ox.ac.uk/people/dr-zoe-cormack|access-date=1 August 2021|website=Africanstudies.ox.ac.uk|language=en|archive-date=20 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211120171506/https://www.africanstudies.ox.ac.uk/people/dr-zoe-cormack|url-status=dead}} Their son Raphael Cormack is an author, editor and translator specialising in Arabic Cultural History and Literature.{{Cite web|title=Raphael Cormack {{!}} University of Edinburgh - Academia.edu|url=https://edinburgh.academia.edu/RaphaelCormack|access-date=1 August 2021|website=edinburgh.academia.edu}}{{Cite news|title=Interview with Raphael Cormack, author of "Midnight in Cairo": From dust to glory – the divas of Egypt's roaring 20s - Qantara.de|url=https://en.qantara.de/content/interview-with-raphael-cormack-author-of-midnight-in-cairo-from-dust-to-glory-the-divas-of|access-date=1 August 2021|website=Qantara.de - Dialogue with the Islamic World|date=21 April 2021 |language=en}}

In 2000, Beard revealed in an essay for the London Review of Books reviewing a book on rape that she too had been raped, in 1978.{{cite news|url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/v22/n16/mary-beard/diary|title=Diary|last=Beard|first=Mary|date=24 August 2000|work=London Review of Books|access-date=25 April 2019|pages=34–35|issn=0260-9592}}{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/sep/08/gender.uk|title=The story of my rape|last=Beard|first=Mary|date=8 September 2000|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=25 April 2019|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}

Her blog, A Don's Life, gets about 40,000 hits a day, according to The Independent (2013).{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/mary-beard-interview-i-hadnt-realised-that-there-were-people-like-that-8534771.html|title=Mary Beard interview: 'I hadn't realised that there were people like|newspaper=The Independent|access-date=9 June 2018|date=15 March 2013}}

Beard was set to retire in 2022 and started a scholarship as a "retirement present" worth £80,000 in order to support two disadvantaged students' classical studies at Cambridge.{{cite news|date=13 May 2021|title=Mary Beard's retirement present to fund students|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/education-57102489|access-date=14 May 2021}}{{Cite news|date=14 May 2021|title=Mary Beard to fund classics students from under-represented groups|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/may/14/mary-beard-to-fund-classics-students-from-under-represented-groups|access-date=14 May 2021|newspaper=The Guardian|language=en}}

Beard has been a Labour Party member and describes herself as having a socialist disposition, being a committed feminist and an anti-racist.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/mary-beard-keeps-history-on-the-move|title=Mary Beard Keeps History on the Move|date=16 May 2021|newspaper=The New Yorker|access-date=7 December 2021}}{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-40094671|title = Election blind dates: Peter Stringfellow and Mary Beard|work = BBC News|date = June 2017}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/professor-mary-beard-talks-about-her-new-history-of-ancient-rome-book-a6706337.html|title=Professor Mary Beard talks about her new history of ancient Rome book|date=23 October 2015|newspaper=The Independent|access-date=7 December 2021}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.stylist.co.uk/people/mary-beard-historian-broadcaster-bbc-history-news-my-feminist-icon/243648|title=My feminist icon: Mary Beard reveals who inspires her|first=Mary|last=Beard|date=22 December 2018|website=Stylist.co.uk|access-date=7 December 2021}}{{Cite magazine|url=https://time.com/5385434/mary-beard-interview-civilisations/|title=Classicist Mary Beard on Feminism, Online Trolls and What Ancient Rome Can Tell Us About Trump|magazine=Time|date=4 September 2018 |access-date=7 December 2021}}

In August 2014, Beard was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/aug/07/celebrities-open-letter-scotland-independence-full-text |title=Celebrities' open letter to Scotland – full text and list of signatories |newspaper=The Guardian |date=7 August 2014 |access-date=29 January 2017}} She was a member of the Labour Party until Tony Blair became leader.{{Cite web|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/professor-mary-beard-talks-about-her-new-history-ancient-rome-book-a6706337.html|title = Professor Mary Beard talks about her new history of ancient Rome book|newspaper=The Independent|date = 30 November 2015}} In July 2015, Beard endorsed Jeremy Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election. She said: "If I were a member of the Labour Party, I would vote for Corbyn. He actually seems to have some ideological commitment, which could get the Labour Party to think about what it actually stands for."{{cite news |last=Wilkinson|first=Michael|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/11765551/Mary-Beard-joins-Jeremy-Corbyns-celebrity-backers-in-Labour-leadership-race.html|title=Mary Beard joins Jeremy Corbyn's celebrity backers in Labour leadership race|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=27 July 2015|access-date=15 July 2017}} For the 12 December 2019 general election, she was a proposer for the successful Cambridge Labour candidate Daniel Zeichner.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cambridgeindependent.co.uk/news/general-election-2019-who-is-standing-in-cambridge-south-cambridgeshire-and-south-east-cambridgeshire-9090260/|title=General Election 2019: Who is standing in Cambridge, South Cambridgeshire and South East Cambridgeshire?|last=Brackley|first=Paul|date=14 November 2019|website=Cambridge Independent|language=en|access-date=15 November 2019}}

• Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (FSA) in 2005{{cite web |url=http://www.sal.org.uk/history/listoffellows/?letter=B |title=List of Fellows (B) |work=Society of Antiquaries of London |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120624063338/http://www.sal.org.uk/history/listoffellows/?letter=B |archive-date=24 June 2012}}
• Wolfson History Prize (2009) for Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town{{cite web|url=https://www.wolfsonhistoryprize.org.uk/past-winners/2009-winners/|title=The 2009 Wolfson History Prize Winners|website=The Wolfson History Prize|access-date=17 June 2022}}
• Corresponding Member of the Archaeological Institute of America in 2009{{Cite web|url=https://www.archaeological.org/about/corresponding|title=Corresponding Members - Archaeological Institute of America|website=Archaeological.org|language=en|access-date=10 November 2018}}
• Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) in 2010{{cite web|title=Professor Mary Beard|url=https://www.britac.ac.uk/users/professor-mary-beard|website=British Academy|access-date=5 March 2018}}
• Member of the American Philosophical Society in 2012{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Mary+Beard&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=19 March 2021|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}
• Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for "services to classical scholarship"{{London Gazette |issue=60367 |date=29 December 2012 |page=9 |supp=y}}
• National Book Critics Circle Award (Criticism) shortlist for Confronting the Classics (2013){{cite web |url=http://bookcritics.org/blog/archive/announcing-the-national-book-critics-awards-finalists |title=Announcing the National Book Critics Awards Finalists for Publishing Year 2013 |work=National Book Critics Circle |date=14 January 2014 |access-date=29 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140115014055/http://bookcritics.org/blog/archive/announcing-the-national-book-critics-awards-finalists |archive-date=15 January 2014 |url-status=dead }}
• Bodley Medal (2016){{cite news |title=Mary Beard joins list of famous names including Stephen Hawking and Hilary Mantel to receive Bodleian Libraries medal |url=http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/14294028.Mary_Beard_joins_list_of_famous_names_to_receive_Bodleian_Libraries_medal |access-date=24 February 2016 |newspaper=Oxford Mail |date=22 February 2016}}
• Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences (2016){{cite web |url=http://www.fpa.es/en/princess-of-asturias-awards/laureates/2016-mary-beard.html?especifica=0&idCategoria=0&anio=2016&especifica=0 |title=List of Laureates: Mary Beard |work=Princess of Asturias Awards |publisher=Fundación Princesa de Asturias |access-date=29 January 2017}}
• Honorary degree from the University of St Andrews in 2013{{Cite web |url=https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/graduation/previous-graduation/honorary-graduates/ |title=Honorary graduates | University of St Andrews |access-date=25 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160707015920/http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/graduation/previous-graduation/honorary-graduates/ |archive-date=7 July 2016 |url-status=dead }}
• Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Kent in 2016{{Cite web |title=Honorary graduate archive |url=https://www.kent.ac.uk/congregations/honorary-graduates/archive |access-date=2023-02-08 |website=Congregations - University of Kent |date=29 April 2022 |language=en-GB}}
• Honorary degree from the Charles III University of Madrid in 2017{{cite web |url=https://www.uc3m.es/ss/Satellite/UC3MInstitucional/en/Detalle/Comunicacion_C/1371236330578/1371215537949/Researcher_and_populizer_Mary_Beard,_UC3M_Honorary_Doctor |title= Mary Beard : UC3M |date=4 September 2017 |website= UC3M |access-date=14 October 2017 |quote=Mary Beard [...] will be invested as Honorary Doctor of Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) for her important academic and professional merits...}}
• Honorary degree from Radboud University in 2018{{Cite web|url=https://www.ru.nl/english/news-agenda/news/vm/2018/february/honorary-doctorates-radboud-university-2018/|title=Honorary Doctorates for Daniel Dennett, Mary Beard, Stephen Pacala and Jeroen Brouwers|website=Radboud University|access-date=7 December 2021|archive-date=15 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210815171553/https://www.ru.nl/english/news-agenda/news/vm/2018/february/honorary-doctorates-radboud-university-2018/|url-status=dead}}
• Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2018 Birthday Honours for "services to the study of classical civilisations"{{London Gazette |issue= 62310 |date= 9 June 2018 |page= B7 |supp= y }}
• Doctor Honoris Causa in University of Santiago de Compostela, 2022

• Rome in the Late Republic (with Michael Crawford, 1985); {{ISBN|0-7156-2928-X}}
• The Good Working Mother's Guide (1989); {{ISBN|0-7156-2278-1}}
• Pagan Priests: Religion and Power in the Ancient World (as editor with John North, 1990); {{ISBN|0-7156-2206-4}}
• Classics: A Very Short Introduction (with John Henderson, 1995); {{ISBN|0-19-285313-9}}
• Religions of Rome (with John North and Simon Price, 1998); {{ISBN|0-521-30401-6}} (vol. 1), {{ISBN|0-521-45015-2}} (vol. 2)
• The Invention of Jane Harrison (Harvard University Press, 2000); {{ISBN|0-674-00212-1}}
• Classical Art from Greece to Rome (with John Henderson, 2001); {{ISBN|0-19-284237-4}}
• The Parthenon (Harvard University Press, 2002); {{ISBN|1-86197-292-X}}
• The Colosseum (with Keith Hopkins, Harvard University Press, 2005); {{ISBN|1-86197-407-8}}
• The Roman Triumph (Harvard University Press, 2007); {{ISBN|0-674-02613-6}}
• Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town (2008); {{ISBN|1-86197-516-3}} (US title: The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found; Harvard University Press)
• It's a Don's Life (Profile Books, 2009); {{ISBN|978-1846682513}}
• All in a Don's Day (Profile Books, 2012); {{ISBN|978-1846685361}}
• Confronting the Classics: Traditions, Adventures and Innovations (Profile Books, 2013 / Liveright Publishing, 2013); {{ISBN|1-78125-048-0}}
• Laughter in Ancient Rome: On Joking, Tickling, and Cracking Up (University of California Press, 2014); {{ISBN|0-520-27716-3}}
• SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome (Profile Books, 2015 / Liveright Publishing, 2015); {{ISBN|9780871404237}}
• Women & Power: A Manifesto (Profile Books, 2017 / Liveright Publishing, 2017); {{ISBN|978-1788160605}}
• Civilisations: How Do We Look / The Eye of Faith (Profile Books, 2018 / Liveright Publishing, 2018, published in the U.S. as How Do We Look: The Body, the Divine, and the Question of Civilization; {{ISBN|978-1781259993}}
• Twelve Caesars: Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern (Princeton University Press, 2021) {{ISBN|978-0691222363}}
• Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World, Liveright (2023); {{ISBN| 978-0871404220}}

• Classical Tripos

{{Reflist}}

• {{IMDb name|2941232}}
• [http://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/directory/mary-beard Mary Beard profile], classics.cam.ac.uk
• [https://www.the-tls.co.uk/categories/regular-features/mary-beard-a-dons-life/ Mary Beard's blog], A Don's Life
• {{cite news |last=Beard |first=Mary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/sep/08/gender.uk |title=The story of my rape |work=The Guardian |date=8 September 2000}}
• {{cite news |last=Beard |first=Mary |url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/2014/02/14/mary-beard/the-public-voice-of-women |title=The Public Voice of Women |work=London Review of Books |date=14 February 2014}}
• [https://archive.today/20140328000335/http://www.debretts.com/people-of-today/profile/24310/(Winifred)-Mary-BEARD Debretts People of Today]
• [https://aeon.co/videos/to-understand-the-aversion-to-powerful-women-look-to-the-greeks-says-mary-beard To understand aversion to powerful women look to the Greeks] - Aeon, 1 October 2020
• {{C-SPAN|101574}}

{{Wolfson History Prize Winners}}

{{Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences}}

{{Authority control}}

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