Professor Martindale’s research interests are interdisciplinary and wide ranging. He is an internationally renowned expert on a number of Latin poets, including Virgil and Ovid, and is probably the world's leading authority on theories of reception in relation to the classics – that is, the way that works from classical antiquity have been interpreted or 'received' by those who came later.

He has written extensively on Shakespeare and Milton’s engagement with antiquity. His book Redeeming the Text, on reception theory and the classics, helped to set the agenda for what has become the fastest-growing area of the discipline.

Together with Professor David Hopkins of the University’s Department of English, he has been asked by Oxford University Press to be overall editor of a five-volume Oxford History of Classical Reception in English Literature, one of the largest projects in literary reception ever undertaken.

He was awarded a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship to write a monograph, Latin Poetry and the Judgement of Taste, arguing for the importance of beauty and the aesthetic in our response to the arts.

He was a founder and director of the Bristol Institute for Research in the Humanities and Arts, which was established in 2004 to support, promote and disseminate research undertaken in the Faculty of Arts.

Professor Martindale said: ‘It will be a great honour to work as Dean alongside so many distinguished scholars in the Faculty of Arts. I look forward to the challenge.’

Professor Eric Thomas, Vice-Chancellor, said: ‘Charles is held in very high esteem for his research and his teaching. I have no doubt that he will be successful in building on the outstanding accomplishments of Bob Fowler.’