Holly Axford

Graduate Student

ha2694@columbia.edu

Interests

• • Greek historiography (esp. Thucydides and Herodotus)
  • Greek tragedy and comedy
  • Athenian imperialism and its literary representations
  • Narratology
  • Rhetoric
  • Classical receptions

Holly joined the Classics department as a Ph.D. student in 2023. She received an MA in Classical Studies (First Class Honours) and an MLitt in Classics (Distinction; received departmental prize awarded annually to the highest-performing student) from the University of St. Andrews. Her MLitt thesis explored the reception of rape narratives from Ovid’s Metamorphoses in contemporary women’s myth retelling, arguing for the potentially subversive contribution of these myths in the hands of feminist writers to cultural discourse surrounding sexual violence and its representation in media.

Her current research interests lie primarily in the literature and culture of the fifth-century BCE, with a particular focus on historiography. She is preparing to write a dissertation, drawing on narratological approaches, on narrative anachronies and the depiction of the distant past in Thucydides’ History. Her MPhil paper, ‘Once upon a time in Plataea: remembering the textual past in Thucydides’ Plataean and Theban speeches’ examined the selective remembrance of the 431 BCE attempted Theban takeover of Plataea.

Holly is very happy to correspond about any of her research interests, Columbia Classics, or navigating academia as a first-generation student. You can reach her at ha2694@columbia.edu.