עברית

Prof. Lisa Maurice

Telephone
(054)7395399
Email
lisa.maurice@biu.ac.il
Personal Website
Research Categories
CV

Lisa Maurice born and grew up in London, UK, and graduated from Cambridge University with
an Honours degree in Classics in 1989. After a stint in informal education as a youth and
community worker and another as elementary school teacher, she moved to Israel with her
husband and their first child, who was six weeks old at the time. After spending the next few
years teaching English, she started studying for a PhD in classics at Bar Ilan University following
the birth of her second child. She has remained at Bar-Ilan to this day, where she is associate professor, and has taught a wide range of courses over the past two decades.

Her research focuses on the reception of the classical world in modern popular culture. She is
the author of The Teacher in Ancient Rome (Lexington, 2013), and of Screening Divinity
(Edinburgh University Press, June 2019), as well as the editor of three volumes in the Brill
Metaforms series on the reception of the ancient world in popular culture: The Reception of
Ancient Greece and Rome in Children's Literature: Heroes and Eagles (Brill, 2015), Rewriting the Ancient World: Greeks, Romans, Jews and Christians in Modern Popular Fiction (Brill, 2017), The
Reception of Ancient Virtues and Vices in Modern Popular Culture (Brill, 2017). She has also
written many articles and lectured widely on Roman comedy and on classical reception. 

Since 2016 she has been a member of the European Research Council funded project Our
Mythical Childhood... The Reception of Classical Antiquity in Children’s and Young Adults’
Culture in Response to Regional and Global Challenges, directed by Katarzyna Marciniak. Within
the project she is primarily responsible for Our Mythical Education, which examines the
reception of classical myth in formal education worldwide. As part of this remit she has edited
a forthcoming book on the subject, as well as creating a database of educational mythological
materials. In addition she is working with Susan Deacy on projects involving classics and
autism, a collaboration that has resulted in the establishment of an organization, ACCLAIM
(Autistic Connecting with CLAssically Inspired Myth), to further this endeavour. Together with
Ayelet Peer, she has also set up projects working with autistic youth in Israel.

Research

Research

Although her research field was originally more historical in nature, with her work on Roman education and the book The Teacher in Ancient Rome (Lexington, 2013), Professor Maurice’s research has for the past decade focused on the reception of the classical world. She was particularly drawn to this specialization in recognition of its ongoing relevance in the modern world. Her research focuses on three main areas, modern popular culture, children’s culture and Classics and the Judeo-Christian World

Modern popular culture

Professor Maurice is the author of Screening Divinity (Edinburgh University Press, June 2019), as well as the editor of three volumes in the Brill Metaforms series on the reception of the ancient world in popular culture: The Reception of Ancient Greece and Rome in Children's Literature: Heroes and Eagles (Brill, 2015), Rewriting the Ancient World: Greeks, Romans, Jews and Christians in Modern Popular Fiction (Brill, 2017), The Reception of Ancient Virtues and Vices in Modern Popular Culture (Brill, 2017). She is currently finishing a monograph entitled Televising Ancient Rome in the 21st Century (forthcoming, Liverpool University Press) and working on another book, Screening Ancient Israel, to be published by Edinburgh University Press. Together with Dr Ayelet Peer and Mr Neil Bar she is also editing, A Companion to the Classical Receptions of Cleopatra VII, to be published by Brill.


Children’s Culture 

From 2016 -2021 Professor Maurice was a member of the European Research Council funded project Our Mythical Childhood... The Reception of Classical Antiquity in Children’s and Young Adults’ Culture in Response to Regional and Global Challenges (http://omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl/). This project, led by Professor Katarzyna Marciniak of the University of Warsaw, included Professor Susan Deacy (Roehampton), Professor Elizabeth Hale (University of New England, Australia), Dr Daniel Nkemleke (University of Cameroon) and Professor Maurice. In this project, she was primarily responsible for Our Mythical Education (Warsaw University Press, 2021) which examined the reception of classical myth in formal education worldwide. In addition, she worked on developing a survey database containing 1500 hundred entries that examined items of children’s culture on an international scale, and was responsible for another, separate but connected, database of educational mythological materials.

Within the project, Professor Maurice also worked with Professor Susan Deacy on projects involving classics and autism. This collaboration resulted in the establishment of an organization, ACCLAIM (Autistic Connecting with CLAssically Inspired Myth), to further this endeavour, as well as a programme conducted with Dr Ayelet Peer, for a class of autistic youth at a school in Tel Aviv, using classical mythology to help the children cope with complex emotions.

Professor Maurice is currently involved in a three-year research project funded by the ISF exploring the reception of ancient Rome in British children’s culture, 1945 to present day.

Classics and the Judeo-Christian World

In 2016, Professor Maurice received a grant from the rector of Bar Ilan University to set up a collaborative research group. This group aimed to examine the joint Classical and Judeo-Christian foundations of Western civilization, and their reception. The rationale behind this group’s inception was that both strands have contributed to western societies in areas as diverse as art, philosophy, politics and architecture; and in many cases, the two strands intertwine and play off against each other. Nevertheless, very little sustained research had to date incorporated experts from a wide range of different fields (including Jewish studies, Christianity, Classical studies, European literature, history and art, politics, philosophy etc.), despite the fact that such collaboration would undoubtedly lead to greater understanding. The intention of this research group was to provide enlightenment in a way that individual researchers, in their own closed specialisations, could not. Within this research group, a conference was held on the joint Classical and Judeo-Christian foundations of Western civilization, explored by means of an examination of male and female creation archetypes in creation myths. From this conference, there resulted a book, edited with Tovi Bibring, entitled Prometheus, Pandora, Adam and Eve: Male and Female Archetypes in Creation Myths and their Reception in Western Civilisation (Bloomsbury 2022). 

 

Courses

By Hercules! Classical Heroes and their Reception from the Bronze Age to the Internet: Hercules and others 46-5060-01
By Hercules! Classical Heroes and their Reception from the Bronze Age to the Internet: The Trojan War and its Aftermath 46-5061-01
Ancient Drama and its Reception 46-4600-01

Publications

Books (as author)

  1. Screening Divinity: Gods, Demi-Gods and Humans (in press) (Edinburgh University Press, June 2019).
  2. Magister: The Life and Status of the Teacher in Ancient Rome (Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2013).

Books (as editor)

  1. Prometheus, Pandora, Adam and Eve: Male and Female Archetypes in Creation Myths and their Reception in Western Civilisation (Proposal under consideration by Bloomsbury Press) (co-edited with Tovi Bibring) (approx. 250 pages).
  2. Our Mythical Education: The Reception of Classical Myth Worldwide in Schools, 1900-2019 (Forthcoming, University of Warsaw Press, 2020) (approx. 300 pages).
  3.   Rewriting the Ancient World: Greeks, Romans, Christians and Jews in Modern Popular Fiction (Metaforms: Studies in the Reception of Classical Antiquity) ((Leiden: Brill, 2017).
  4. The Reception of Ancient Virtues and Vices in Modern Popular Culture: Beauty, Bravery, Blood and Glory (Metaforms: Studies in the Reception of Classical Antiquity) (Leiden: Brill, 2017) (co-edited with Eran Almagor).
  5. Eagles and Heroes: The Reception of Ancient Greece and Rome in Children’s Literature (Metaforms: Studies in the Reception of Classical Antiquity) (Leiden: Brill, 2015)

  Chapters in Books

  1. “Reading the Greco-Roman world from Right to Left:  The portrayal of Greeks and Romans in Jewish Children’s fiction”, forthcoming in Katarzyna Marciniak, Our Mythical History (Warsaw: University of Warsaw Press, 2021) (37 pages).
  2. “Delineating the Divine in Troy: Fall of a City”, forthcoming in Monica Cyrino and Antony Augoustakis,  Screening Love and War in Troy: Fall of a City (London: Bloomsbury, 2020) (20 pages)
  3. “Disney’s Hercules in Context: Mouse-Morality for Mini-Heroes”, forthcoming in Alastair Blanshard and Emma Stafford, The Modern Hercules (Leiden: Brill, 2020) (25 pages)  
  4. “Percy Jackson and Israeli Fanfiction: A Case Study”, forthcoming in Katarzyna Marciniak (ed.), Our Mythical Hope (Warsaw: University of Warsaw Press, 2020) (24 pages).
  5. “Cupid and Psyche for Children”, in Regine May and Stephen Harrison, Cupid and Psyche : The Reception of Apuleius’ Love Story since 1600 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2019) 289-301.
  6. “The House of Atreus as a Reflection of Contemporary Evil: Performance Reception and The Oresteia”, in Eran Almagor and Lisa Maurice, Beauty, Bravery, Blood and Glory: Ancient Virtues and Vices in Modern Popular Culture (Brill: Metaforms: Studies in the Reception of Classical Antiquity 2017) 37-59.
  7. “From I, Claudius to Private Eyes:  Rome and the Detective in Popular Fiction”, in Lisa Maurice, Rewriting the Ancient World: Greece and Rome in Modern Popular Fiction (Brill: Metaforms: Studies in the Reception of Classical Antiquity, 2017) 19-48.
  8. “‘I'd break the slate and scream for joy if I did Latin like a boy!’: Classical Studies in British Girls’ and Boys’ Fiction of the Twentieth Century”, in Owen Hodkinson and Helen Lovatt, Classical Reception and Children’s Literature: Greece, Rome and Childhood Transformation (London: I.B. Tauris, 2017) 191-213.
  9. “Greece and Rome on the Comic Screen”, in Arthur J. Pomeroy, A Companion to Ancient Greece and Rome on Screen (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2016) 209-232.
  10. “Building a New Ancient Rome in STARZ Spartacus”, in Antony Agoustakis and Monica Cyrino, STARZ Spartacus: Reimagining an Icon on Screen (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016) 111-130.
  11.  “The Reception of Classical Mythology in Israeli Children's Fiction”, in Katarzyna Marciniak, Our Mythical Childhood (Brill: Metaforms: Studies in the Reception of Classical Antiquity 2016) 309-332.
  12.  “Swords, Sandals and Prayer-Shawls: Depicting Jews and Romans on the Silver Screen”, in David Schaps and Uri Yiftach, When the First Western Empire Met the Near East. Graeca Tergestina, Storia e Civiltà, (Edizioni Università di Trieste, 2016) 295-324.
  13. “From Chiron to Firenze: the Centaur in Classical Mythology and Children’s Literature”, in Lisa Maurice, Eagles and Heroes: The Reception of Ancient Greece and Rome in Children’s Literature, (Brill: Metaforms: Studies in the Reception of Classical Antiquity 2015) 139-168.
  14.  “Jews and Judaism in Rome”, in Monica Cyrino, Rome, Season Two: Trial and Triumph (Edinburgh University Press, 2015) 88-104.
  15.  “Contaminatio and Adaptation:  the Modern Reception of Ancient Drama as an aid to understanding Roman Comedy”, in Anastasia Bakogianni (ed.), Dialogues with the Past (2): Reception Theory and Practice, Proceedings of the Reception of Ancient Greek and Roman Drama Conference, BICS Supplement series (London: ICS, 2013) 445-465.
  16. “Plautus’ Rebellious Sons: the Whole Story?” in: Thomas Baier (ed.) Generationenkonflikte auf der Bühne (Tübingen 2007) 147-160.
  17. “Deception and Metatheatricality in the Poenulus”, Studien zu Plautus' Poenulus, ed. Thomas Baier (ScriptOralia 2004) 267-291.

              Journal Articles

  1. “Manipulating Myth in a Changing World: A Half-Century of Hercules in Children’s Literature”, Journal of Historical Fictions 2.2 (December 2019) 81-101.
  2. “Robert Icke and the Gesher Theatre’s Oresteia, 2018–19”, Didaskalia 15.12 (2019) https://www.didaskalia.net/issues/15/12/.
  3. “Saviours, Six-Packs and Sensitivity: The Hero of Greek Mythology on the Contemporary Screen”, Classicum 44.2 (2019) 18-28.
  4. “Why no arms and the man? Virgil’s Aeneid in Modern Popular Culture”, in Scripta Classica Israelica 37 (2018) 111-127.
  5. “Storm in a Teacup: Roman Comedy in Twenty-First Century Israel”, Didaskalia  8 (2011)  112–128 (http://www.didaskalia.net/issues/8/18/). 
  6. “Oceans 12 as Plautine Comedy”, Syllecta Classica 20 (2009) 135-170.
  7. “‘Seeing is believing’: The Miles Gloriosus as an Exercise in Self-Conscious Illusion” Mnemosyne 60 (2007) 407-426. 
  8. “Epidicus mihi fuit magister : Structure and Metatheatricality in Plautus' Epidicus”, Scholia 15 (2006) 35-52. 
  9. “A Calculated Comedy of Errors: the Structure of Plautus’ Menaechmi”, Syllecta Classica 16 (2005) 31-59. 
  10.  “Amici et sodales: An examination of a double motif in Plautus”, Mnemosyne   56 (2003) 164-193.  

Book Reviews                                   

  1. Review of: Thomas E. Jenkins, Antiquity Now (Cambridge University Press, 2015) in SCI 35 (2016) 156-8.
  2. Review of: Fiona Hobden and Amanda Wrigley, Ancient Greece on British Television (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2018) in BMCR (forthcoming).
  3. Review of: Judith Evans Grubbs and Tim Parkin, The Oxford Handbook of Childhood and Education in the Ancient World (Oxford, 2013) in Classical Journal (4.6.2015).
  4. Review of: Maguire, Laurie, Helen of Troy: From Homer to Hollywood (Blackwell 2010), in International Journal of the Classical Tradition 18.3 (2011) 464-468.
  5. Review of: J. Henderson, Plautus, Asinaria, The One about the Asses (Wisconsin 2006), in Scholia 16 (2007) 31.
  6. Review of: Eduard Fraenkel (trr. Tomas Drevikovsky and Frances Muecke), Plautine Elements in Plautus (Plautinisches im Plautus) (Oxford 2007), in Scholia 16 (2007) 43.
  7. Review of: H.I. Flower (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic (Cambridge 2004), Scripta Classica Israelica 25 (2006) 164-5.

 

Media

https://classicsconfidential.co.uk/2013/05/04/romans-and-jews-in-popular-culture-with-lisa-maurice/

 

http://www.omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl/

 

https://mauril68.wixsite.com/voxofisrael

Last Updated Date : 12/11/2024