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After a first degree in the University of Athens, I did my PhD in Cambridge under the supervision of Richard Hunter. I subsequently spent three years as a Junior Research Fellow at St John's College, Cambridge. In 1995 I was appointed to a lectureship in Classics at the University of Nottingham, where from I joined King's in 1999.

My research interests range very broadly in the field of Greek and Roman literature and culture and currently include: the performance dimension of Greek drama, with particular focus on the history and practice of acting in antiquity; Graeco-Roman pantomime dancing, with emphasis on its perception in antiquity, its multiple reflections in imperial literature and its post-Renaissance reception (with particular focus on the 18th century); aspects of the interface between élite and popular culture in antiquity, and comparative cultural studies pertaining to theatre and performance history. My publications include Initiating Dionysus: Ritual and Theatre in Aristophanes' Frogs (OUP 1999), Silent Eloquence: Lucian and Pantomime Dancing (Duckworth 2007) and numerous articles on aspects of ancient drama and pantomime dancing.

• Ismene Lada-Richards (2010) 'Dead but not Extinct: On Reinventing Pantomime Dancing in Eighteenth-Century England and France', in The Ancient Dancer in the Modern World Responses to Greek and Roman Dance pp. 19-38
  [Chapter]
• Ismene Lada-Richards (2009)  'Pots and Plays: Interactions between Tragedy and Greek Vase-painting of the Fourth Century B.C.' ARION-A JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES AND THE CLASSICS, 17 (2), pp. 99-166.
  [Book Review (Print)]
• Ismene Lada-Richards (2009) '“‘The Players Will Tell All’: The Dramatist, the Actors and the Art of Acting in Sophocles' Philoctetes', in Sophocles and the Greek Tragic Tradition pp. 48-68
  [Chapter]
• Ismene Lada-Richards (2008) '“Was Pantomime ‘Good to Think With’ in the Ancient World', in New Directions in Ancient Pantomime pp. 284-313
  [Chapter]
• Ismene Lada-Richards (2007) Silent Eloquence: Lucian and Pantomime Dancing Duckworth 
  [Authored Book in print]
• Ismene Lada-Richards (2006)  '‘Cum Femina Primum . . . ’: Venus, Vulcan and the Politicsof Male Mollitia in Aeneid 8' HELIOS, 33 (1), pp. 27-72.
  [Article in print Journal]
• Ismene Lada-Richards (2005) 'Greek Tragedy and Western Perceptions of Actors and Acting', in The Blackwell Companion to Greek Tragedy pp. 459-471
  [Chapter]
• Ismene Lada-Richards (2005)  '‘In the Mirror of the Dance’: A Lucianic Metaphor in its Performative and Ethical Contexts' MNEMOSYNE, 58 (3), pp. 335-357.
  [Article in print Journal]
• I Lada-Richards (2004)  'Authorial voice and theatrical self-definition in Terence and beyond: The 'Hecyra' prologues in ancient and modern contexts' GREECE AND ROME, 51 (1), pp. 55-82.
  [Article in print Journal]
• Ismene Lada-Richards (2004)  'Mythôn eikôn: Pantomime Dancing and the Figurative Arts in Imperial and Late Antiquity' Arion, 12 (2), pp. 111-140.
  [Article in print Journal]
• I Lada-Richards (2003)  '"A worthless feminine thing"? Lucian and the "optic intoxication" of pantomime dancing' HELIOS, 30 (1), pp. 21-75.
  [Article in print Journal]
• Ismene Lada-Richards (2003)  ''Mobile Statuary' : Refractions of Pantomime Dancing from Callistratus to Emma Hamilton and Andrew Ducrow' International Journal of the Classical Tradition, 10 (1), pp. 3-37.
  [Article in print Journal]
• Ismene Lada-Richards, E Theodorakopoulos (2003) ''Within the Compass of a Lye . . . : Signs of Anti-theatricality on the Greek Stage', in E Theodorakopoulos (ed.) Attitudes to Theatre from Plato to Milton pp. 21-56
  [Chapter]
• Ismene Lada-Richards (2002) 'Foul Monster or Good Saviour? Reflections on Ritual Monsters', in Monsters and Monstrosity in Greek and Roman Culture pp. 41-82
  [Chapter]
• Ismene Lada-Richards (2002) 'Reinscribing the Muse: Greek Drama and the Discourse of Inspired Creativity', in Cultivating the Muse: Struggles for Power and Inspiration in Classical Literature pp. 69-91
  [Chapter]
• Ismene Lada-Richards (2002) 'The Subjectivity of Greek Performance', in Greek and Roman Actors: Aspects of an Ancient Profession pp. 395-418                                                                       [Chapter]

Undergraduate

• 4AACCSC1 Myths of Greece and Rome
• 4AACFY15 Entertainment Cultures in Greece and Rome
• 6AACGT06 Greek Texts VI (Drama): Various Texts     
• 6AACTL09 Performance Literature in Antiquity    

Postgraduate

• 7AACM320 Attacking the Theatre In the European Theatrical Tradition (focusing on Graeco-Roman Antiquity, England & France)     
• 7AACM321 Defending the Theatre in the European Theatrical Tradition (focusing on Graeco-Roman Antiquity, England & France)   

I would be delighted to supervise students proposing to work on any of the following:

• pantomime dancing
• dance traditions of the ancient world
• ancient theatrical culture
• fifth-century drama (especially from the angle of performance)
• early reception of tragedy in literature and/or art
• drama and ritual (especially from an anthropological perspective)
• Dionysus
• initiation rituals (especially as reflected in literature)
• topics under the banner of reception (the quirkier the better . . . ), especially topics on the cultural history of the European stage

On the administrative front, I am a second-year tutor and the Department's Undergraduate Admissions Tutor.