Professor Esther Eidinow, Professor of Ancient History in the Department of Classics and Ancient History, joins prestigious company with current Fellows including the classicist Dame Mary Beard and historian Sir Simon Schama.
Professor Eidinow’s research focuses on ancient Greek culture, especially religion, magic and myth, with particular interest in interdisciplinary approaches to historical analysis.
Her publications include Oracles, Curses, and Risk among the Ancient Greeks (Oxford, 2013), Envy, Poison, and Death: Women on Trial in Classical Athens (Oxford, 2016), and Cognitive Approaches to Ancient Religious Experience (Cambridge, 2022), and she is series editor of Ancient Religion and Cognition (Cambridge) and Ancient Environments (Bloomsbury).
Professor Eidinow was also the Principal Investigator of the Virtual Reality Oracle project (vroracle.co.uk). The VR experience draws on ancient evidence to imagine a visit to the oracle of Zeus at Dodona, c. 465 BCE, where users choose one of three pathways to meet other pilgrims to Dodona and hear their stories, before posing a question to the priestesses of Zeus.
Professor Eidinow said: “I am very thrilled indeed to receive this honour. A huge thank you to everyone who has supported my work over the years, especially and most recently at Bristol.”
In 2024, a total of 52 UK Fellows, 30 International Fellows and 4 Honorary Fellows have been elected to the British Academy Fellowship and a full list of all new Fellows can be found on the British Academy website: The British Academy welcomes 86 new Fellows in 2024 | The British Academy.
Founded in 1902, the British Academy is the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences. The Academy is also a funder of both national and international research, as well as a forum for debate and public engagement.
Welcoming the Fellows, Professor Julia Black, President of the British Academy, said: “We are delighted to welcome this year’s cohort of Fellows, and I offer my warmest congratulations to each and every one. From the Academy’s earliest days, our Fellows are the lifeblood of the organisation, representing the very best of our disciplines – and we could not do all that we do without their expertise, time and energy. I very much look forward to working closely with our new Fellows – the breadth and depth of their expertise adds so much to the Academy.”