Rate My Professor Alastair Blanshard

An internationally recognised leader in classical reception studies, Blanshard investigates the enduring influence of the Greco-Roman world on modernity, with particular emphasis on social and cultural history, sexuality, gender, and representations in film and popular culture. His research delves into ancient discourses on the erotic and same-sex love and their impact on 19th-century sexology, male body image, and figures such as Hercules. Notable publications include Sex: Vice and Love from Antiquity to Modernity (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), Classics on Screen: Ancient Greece and Rome on Film (with Kim Shahabudin, Bristol Classical Press, 2011), Hercules: A Heroic Life, Classical World: All That Matters (Hodder & Stoughton, 2015), and Postclassicisms (with The Postclassicisms Collective, University of Chicago Press, 2020). He has authored or co-authored over 20 book chapters, including recent contributions on queer entanglements in Lucian's Erotes (2024), the queer male body in mid-century muscle photography (2024), and authorship in Lysias' funeral oration (2024), as well as journal articles such as 'What does queer do?' (2025). Blanshard was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 2016. He holds editorial roles as series editor for Cambridge University Press's 'Classics after Antiquity' monograph series, member of the editorial board for the Classical Receptions Journal, and subject-area editor for 'Classical Reception' in the Oxford Classical Dictionary. He supervises PhD and MPhil students on topics ranging from ancient ethics to receptions of historical figures.