Jane Lucy Lightfoot (born 1969) is a British

classical scholar Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

. She is Professor of

Greek Literature Greek literature () dates back from the ancient Greek literature, beginning in 800 BC, to the modern Greek literature of today. Ancient Greek literature was written in an Ancient Greek dialect, literature ranges from the oldest surviving wri ...

at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

and a fellow of

New College, Oxford New College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by Bishop William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as New College's feeder school, New College was one of the first col ...

Early life and education

Lightfoot was born on 25 October 1969 in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, England. She was educated at The Belvedere School, an all-girls

private school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

. She then studied Classics at

St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its foun ...

, graduating with a first class

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

(BA) degree in 1992: as per tradition, her BA was promoted to a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

(MA Oxon) degree in 1994. She stayed at Oxford to study for a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

(DPhil) degree, and was a Jubilee Scholar at

St Hugh's College, Oxford St Hugh's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It is located on a site on St Margaret's Road, to the north of the city centre. It was founded in 1886 by Elizabeth Wordsworth as a ...

, for the 1993/94 academic year and a Prize Fellow at

All Souls College, Oxford All Souls College (official name: The College of All Souls of the Faithful Departed, of Oxford) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full me ...

, from 1994. She completed her doctorate in 1995 with a

thesis A thesis (: theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: D ...

titled "Parthenius" (concerning the ancient Greek poet,

Parthenius of Nicaea Parthenius of Nicaea () or Myrlea () in Bithynia was a Greeks, Greek Philologist, grammarian and poet. According to the ''Suda'', he was the son of Heraclides and Eudora, or according to Hermippus of Berytus, his mother's name was Tetha. He was take ...

), for which she won the Conington Prize.

Academic career

Lightfoot was awarded a Prize Fellowship at

, in 1994, while she was a doctoral student at the University of Oxford, which she held until 2000. Then, from 2000 to 2003, she was a

post-doctoral A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary academ ...

fellow at All Souls. She has been a

fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

and

tutor Tutoring is private academic help, usually provided by an expert teacher; someone with deep knowledge or defined expertise in a particular subject or set of subjects. A tutor, formally also called an academic tutor, is a person who provides assis ...

in classics at

, since 2003. In 2014, she was awarded a

Title of Distinction The University of Oxford introduced Titles of Distinction for senior academics in the 1990s. These are not established chairs, which are posts funded by endowment for academics with a distinguished career in British and European universities. Howeve ...

by the University of Oxford as "Professor of Greek Literature". Her research interests include most aspects of Greek literature, with her publications focusing primarily on

Hellenistic In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

and imperial literature. Her specialism is in the exploration of underrepresented classical texts, including

mythography Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

ethnography Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

, oracular literature, poetry and prose, and

late antique Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodization has since been wide ...

astrological Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions of celesti ...

poetry. Her current project is an edition of the medical author Aretaeus of Cappadocia.

Honours

Lightfoot was elected a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...

(FBA) in 2018, the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences. She is an Honorary Fellow of

Selected publications

* ''Parthenius of Nicaea'' (Oxford, 1999) * ''Lucian'', On the Syrian Goddess (Oxford, 2003) * ''The Sibylline Oracles'' (Oxford, 2007) * ''A Hellenistic Collection'' (Cambridge, MA, 2009) * ''Dionysius Periegetes'', Description of the Known World: ''With Introduction, Translation, and Commentary'' (Oxford, 2014) * ''Pseudo-Manetho'', Apotelesmatica, ''Books Two, Three, and Six: Edited with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary'' (Oxford, 2020) * ''Pseudo-Manetho'', Apotelesmatica, ''Books Four, One, and Five: Edited with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary'' (Oxford, 2023)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lightfoot, Jane Living people British women classical scholars Alumni of the University of Oxford Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of New College, Oxford People educated at The Belvedere Academy Classical scholars of the University of Oxford 1969 births