Rate My Professor Alastair Blanshard

Professor Alastair Blanshard is the Paul Eliadis Chair of Classics and Ancient History in the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry within the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Queensland. He also serves as Deputy Head of the School, Director of the RD Milns Antiquities Museum, and Director of Western Civilisation. Blanshard completed his Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Arts (Honours) at the University of Queensland, followed by a Master of Arts there in 1996 and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Cambridge in 1999. His career trajectory includes a teaching position at Merton College, Oxford, a fellowship at Harvard University's Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington D.C., and subsequent appointments at the University of Reading and the University of Sydney. In 2014, he returned to the University of Queensland as the inaugural holder of the Paul Eliadis Chair, established through a donation by UQ alumnus Dr. Paul Eliadis.

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.