Prof. Lisa Maurice

Professor Lisa Maurice’s research is in the field of 'classical reception', which examines how the ancient world is received across time and across cultures, offering an understanding of the role that the ancient world still plays in our society today, thousands of years later.  Classical reception creates a microcosm for looking at broader cultural issues.  By examining, for example, how depictions of gender, race, religion, etc. have changed in the presentation of the ancient world over the past century, much can be learned about the changing values ​​underlying the works. 

Within Classical Reception generally, Professor Maurice focuses on modern popular culture.  She has published widely on the reception of Greece and Rome on film, television and children’s culture, and is the author of Televising Ancient Rome in the Twenty-First  Century (Liverpool University Press, forthcoming 2025) and Screening Divinity (Edinburgh University Press, 2019).  In addition to publishing many chapters and articles on the subject, she is also the editor of a number of books: Gender, Creation Myths and their Reception in Western Civilization Prometheus, Pandora, Adam and Eve (co-edited with Tovi Bibring) (Bloomsbury, 2022), Rewriting the Ancient World: Greeks, Romans, Jews and Christians in Modern Popular Fiction (Brill, 2017) and The Reception of Ancient Virtues and Vices in Modern Popular Culture (co-edited with Eran Almagor) (Brill, 2017).  

Professor Maurice is particularly interested in the reception of the classical past in children’s culture.  She is the editor of The Reception of Ancient Greece and Rome in Children's Literature: Heroes and Eagles (Brill, 2015), and was a member of the ERC-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://www.omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl/), where she worked in an international team with the participation of researchers from England, Australia, Poland and Cameroon.  Within the framework of this grant, she published the edited volume, Our Mythical Education (University of Warsaw, 2021) (http://omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl/our-mythical-education), and also, together with Dr Ayelet Peer, developed a programme for children on the autism spectrum using classical mythology to help them deal with complex emotions.   With the Ancient Rome in British Children’s Culture Project, Professor Maurice takes her research into children’s culture further.  She is presently writing a monograph presenting the findings of the project.