Katherine Harloe is

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

Classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

and Director of the

Institute of Classical Studies The Institute of Classical Studies is a research institution associated with the University of London and a member of the School of Advanced Study. The institute is a national and international research institute in the languages, literature, his ...

, School of Advanced Study, University of London. Previously she was Professor of Classics at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

. She is an expert on the history of classical scholarship, the reception of Greek and Roman antiquity, and the eighteenth-century German classicist and art historian

Johann Joachim Winckelmann Johann Joachim Winckelmann (; ; 9 December 17178 June 1768) was a German art historian and archaeologist. He was a pioneering Hellenist who first articulated the differences between Greek, Greco-Roman and Roman art. "The prophet and founding he ...

. She is the first black professor of Classics in the UK, and the first woman director of the ICS.

Education

Harloe was educated at a state school in Essex, and did not receive a classical education. She received tuition in Latin at the weekend during sixth form, and took her GCSE Latin alongside her A-Levels. She went on to read Literae Humaniores at

Magdalen College Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...

, Oxford. Harloe was awarded her PhD in Philosophy from the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

in 2004. Her doctoral thesis was entitled '' Franz Neumann, the Rule of Law and the Unfulfilled Promise of Classical Liberal Thought'', and was supervised by

Raymond Geuss Raymond Geuss, FBA (; born 1946) is a political philosopher and scholar of 19th and 20th century European philosophy. He is currently Emeritus Professor in the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Cambridge. Geuss is primarily known for three ...

Career

After completing her doctoral studies, Harloe held postdoctoral research fellowships at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

( St Anne's College) and the Institute of Greece, Rome and the Classical Tradition at the

University of Bristol , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

. She joined the University of Reading in 2007 and was made Professor in 2019. In October 2021, she took up the post of Director of the

. She is the first woman to hold the post. Harloe's principal areas of research include the reception of classical antiquity in Europe from 1750 to the present, eighteenth-century neoclassical aesthetics, the history of Homeric scholarship, and the scholarship of classical myth. Harloe is a world-leading expert on Winckelmann. She published the monograph ''Winckelmann and the invention of antiquity: History and aesthetics in the age of Altertumswissenschaften'' (

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

) in 2013. The work was described as 'learned, fascinating and well-written'. She received a Mid-Career Fellowship from the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...

to study Winckelmann's homoerotic love letters and their reception in the nineteenth century. She is a committee member of the International Winckelmann Committee and of the International Committee of the Winckelmann-Gesellschaft. Harloe has co-curated exhibitions on Winckelmann, including ‘From Italy to Britain: Winckelmann and the spread of neoclassical taste’ at St Andrew's Hall in Reading, which ran for three months in late 2017, and ‘Winckelmann and Curiosity in the 18th-Century Gentleman’s Library’ at Christ Church Upper Library in Oxford, which ran for five months in 2018. Both were curated with

Amy C. Smith Amy C. Smith is the current Curator of the Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology and Professor of Classical Archaeology at Reading University. She is known for her work on iconography, the history of collections, and digital museology. Career Smith ...

, while Allan Hiscutt also curated the ‘From Italy to Britain’ exhibition and

Cristina Neagu Cristina Georgiana Neagu (; born 26 August 1988) is a Romanian professional handballer who plays as a left back for CSM București (women's handball), CSM București and the Romania women's national handball team, Romanian national team. Often co ...

. In June 2021 she hosted the programme 'Detoxifying The Classics' on BBC Radio 4. Between 2021 and 2024, Harloe is principal investigator on the AHRC-funded research project 'Beyond Notability: Re-evaluating Women's Work in Archaeology, History and Heritage in Britain, 1870–1950', working alongside

Amara Thornton Amara Thornton is a historian of archaeology. Her work focuses on British archaeologists in the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She situates archaeology within its broader historical context, ...

and James Baker as co-investigators. Harloe is a co-editor of the ''International Journal of the Classical Tradition.'' She is a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the

Royal Historical Society The Royal Historical Society, founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the Histori ...

and a Fellow of the

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 ...

. She was a founding co-chair of the Women's Classical Committee (UK) 2015–17 and served on the group's Steering Committee.

Bibliography

* ed. with Neville Morley (2012) ''Thucydides and the modern world : reception, reinterpretation and influence from the Renaissance to the present''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. * (2013) ''Winckelmann and the Invention of Antiquity: History and Aesthetics in the Age of Altertumswissenschaft''. Classical Presences. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. * (2017) 'Sympathy, tragedy and the morality of sentiment in Lessing's Laocoon'. In: Lifschitz, A. and Squire, M. (eds.) ''Re-thinking Lessing's Laocoon: Classical Antiquity, the German Enlightenment and the 'Limits' of Painting and Poetry''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 157–176. * (2017) 'Kritische Zeitgenossen: Lessing, Heyne, Herder'. In: Disselkamp, M. and Testa, F. (eds.) ''Winckelmann-Handbuch: Leben-Werk-Wirkung''. J.B. Metzler, Stuttgart, pp. 258–267. * Evangelista, S. and Harloe, K. (2017) 'Pater's ‘Winckelmann’: aesthetic criticism and classical reception'. In: Martindale, C., Prettejohn, E. and Evangelista, S. (eds.) ''Pater the Classicist''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 63–80. * (2018) 'The siege of Troy'. In: Heuser, B. and Leoussi, A. (eds.) ''Famous Battles and How They Shaped the Modern World c.1200 BCE - 1302 CE: From Troy to Courtrai''. Pen & Sword, Barnsley. * Harloe, K., Neagu, C. and Smith, A. C., eds. (2018) ''Winckelmann and curiosity in the 18th-century gentleman's library''. Christ Church Library Exhibitions. Christ Church Publications, Oxford. * Harloe, K., Momigliano, N. and Farnoux, A., eds. (2018) ''Hellenomania''. Papers of the British School at Athens. Taylor and Francis, Abingdon. * Harloe, K. and Momigliano, N. (2018) 'Hellenomania: ancient and modern obsessions with the Greek past'. In: Harloe, K., Momigliano, N. and Farnoux, A. (eds.) ''Hellenomania''. British School at Athens - Modern Greek and Byzantine Studies. Routledge, Abingdon. * (2018) 'Winckelmania: Hellenomania between ideal and experience'. In: Harloe, K., Momigliano, N. and Farnoux, A. (eds.) ''Hellenomania''. British School at Athens - Modern Greek and Byzantine Studies. Taylor and Francis, Abingdon. * (2018) 'Hannah Arendt and the quarrel of ancient and modern: 'On humanity in dark times: thoughts on Lessing' and the politics of historiography'. ''Classical Philology'', 113 (1) pp. 20–38. * Harloe, K. and Russell, L. (2019) 'Life and (love) letters: looking in on Winckelmann's correspondence'. ''Publications of the English Goethe Society'', 88 (1) pp. 1–20. * (2019) 'Philosophers and kings: response to William Bridges'. ''History of Humanities'', 4 (1) pp. 41–45.

References

External links

Institute of Classical Studies staff pageUniversity of Reading faculty pageInterview with Elton BarkerGoogle Scholar ProfileAmazon Author Profile PageWinckelmann at the University of Reading
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harloe, Katherine Classics educators British classical scholars Academics of the University of Reading Fellows of the Royal Historical Society Fellows of the Higher Education Academy Living people Women classical scholars Alumni of the University of Cambridge Year of birth missing (living people)