Elizabeth Hume Minchin is an Australian classicist and former professor of classics at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...

(ANU). Until 2014 she was one of the two editors of ''

Antichthon ''Antichthon'' is the peer-reviewed academic journal of the Australasian Society for Classical Studies. The focus of the journal is ancient Greece and Rome, however, its scope is broadly defined so as to embrace the ancient Near East and the Medi ...

'', the journal of the

Australasian Society for Classical Studies The Australasian Society for Classical Studies (ASCS) is an international organisation which aims to promote the advancement of the study of ancient Greece and Rome, and their related fields. The organisation was established in 1966. The current sen ...

Biography

Born in Sydney, eldest child of Armand and Danella Gunner, she attended

St George Girls High School , motto_translation = God and Right , location = Victoria Street, Kogarah, St George region, Sydney, New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinates = , pushpin_map = ...

1957–1961. After finishing her BA and Dip Ed at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

, Minchin taught French, Latin, and Indonesian at

Narrabundah College Narrabundah College is a government college that teaches the last two years of secondary education in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). It was the first school in Australia to offer the International Baccalaureate (IB), starting the progr ...

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

from 1966 to 1972. She completed an MA (1983) and PhD (1989) in Classics at the ANU. Married since 1970, she has two sons. Minchin's research focuses on the

Homeric epics Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

oral poetry Oral poetry is a form of poetry that is composed and transmitted without the aid of writing. The complex relationships between written and spoken literature in some societies can make this definition hard to maintain. Background Oral poetry is ...

. Her main contribution is the application of

cognitive psychology Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of mental processes such as attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity, and reasoning. Cognitive psychology originated in the 1960s in a break from behaviorism, which ...

and

sociolinguistics Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any or all aspects of society, including cultural Norm (sociology), norms, expectations, and context (language use), context, on the way language is used, and society's effect on languag ...

to the narratological studies of the Homeric epics. Her studies have encouraged classical scholars to recognise the continued relevance of linguistic studies for Homeric epic. She has published extensively. Her book ''Homer and the Resources of Memory'' (OUP, 2001) draws on several forms of narratology and cognitive science, such as the

script theory Script theory is a psychological theory which posits that human behaviour largely falls into patterns called "scripts" because they function analogously to the way a written script does, by providing a program for action. Silvan Tomkins created s ...

developed in the 1970s by

Roger Schank Roger Carl Schank (born 1946) is an American artificial intelligence theorist, cognitive psychologist, learning scientist, educational reformer, and entrepreneur. Beginning in the late 1960s, he pioneered conceptual dependency theory (within the ...

and

Robert Abelson Robert Paul Abelson (September 12, 1928 – July 13, 2005) was a Yale University psychologist and Political science, political scientist with special interests in statistics and logic. Biography He was born in New York City and attended the Bronx H ...

. The book was recognised as 'a ground-breaking exploration of some of the ways the social sciences can help us better understand the mind of the poet who produced the ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey''.' Her book ''Homeric Voices: Discourse, Memory, Gender'' (OUP, 2007) provides a compositional study of substantial speeches and exchanges of speech in Homeric songs. The book confirmed her as 'a pioneer in interdisciplinary research in the field.' She was among the recipients of the 2007 Carrick Award for Australian University Teaching in the category "Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning". In 2010 she was elected a Fellow of the

Australian Academy of the Humanities The Australian Academy of the Humanities was established by Royal Charter in 1969 to advance scholarship and public interest in the humanities in Australia. It operates as an independent not-for-profit organisation partly funded by the Australia ...

and in 2014 she was elected Honorary Secretary of the Academy. In 2013 she was appointed a Senior Fellow of the UK-based

Higher Education Academy Advance HE (formerly the Higher Education Academy) is a British charity and professional membership scheme promoting excellence in higher education. It advocates evidence-based teaching methods and awards fellowships as professional recogniti ...

(HEA). She has been a visiting scholar at Cambridge University (Clare Hall), Oxford University (Corpus Christi College), Brown University and Konstanz University. She was a member of the ARC-funded ANU-University of Melbourne 2010 Gallipoli Project. From 2004 to 2014 she was a member of the Board of Fellows of

University House, Australian National University University House at the Australian National University (ANU) is the oldest residential college in ANU. It opened in 1954 for the faculty, staff, and postgraduate students of ANU. Currently, there are 60 doctoral students residing in its dormito ...

as one of the Vice Chancellor's nominees. She was elected to the Board in 2015. She has been active in the Friends of the ANU Classics Museum as President and in other executive positions. She has been active in The Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens as President of the Canberra (ANU) Friends and in other executive positions. ANU appointed her an Emeritus Professor in 2015 and awarded her "2016 Alumnus of the Year – Research or Academia". At the December 2018 graduation ceremony she received the 2018 Chancellor's Award for Distinguished Contribution to ANU. In 2015 she became a member of the board of directors of Luminescence Chamber Singers, a Canberra-based group of young choristers who perform as a virtuosic vocal octet. Elizabeth Minchin and Heather Jackson co-edited 'Text and the Material World: Essays in Honour of Graeme Clarke' (Uppsala: Astrom Editions, 2017).

References

External links

Dr Elizabeth Minchin
College of Arts and Social Sciences,

{{DEFAULTSORT:Minchin, Elizabeth Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Australian classical scholars Women classical scholars Hellenists Homeric scholars University of Sydney alumni Australian National University alumni Australian National University faculty Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities

Biography

See also

References

External links