Skip to main content

Staff Profiles

Dr John Holton

Director of Education (HCA), Senior Lecturer in Ancient History

  • Address: School of History, Classics and Archaeology
    Newcastle University
    Armstrong Building
    Queen Victoria Road
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU
    United Kingdom

    Armstrong 1.34
Background

Biography

I am originally from Bradford, West Yorkshire, though my family moved to Devon when I was young and adaptable enough to lose my northern accent. I attended a state comprehensive school before going to Swansea University, where I obtained BA (first class) and MA (distinction) in Ancient History. This was my first formal exposure to the ancient world, as I did not have access to classical subjects at school. After my UG and MA, I took up the inaugural A.G. Leventis scholarship in Hellenic Studies for my PhD in Classics at the University of Edinburgh, where I wrote a thesis on early Hellenistic kingship under Prof. Andrew Erskine. I have held a permanent lectureship in Newcastle since 2015, and became Senior Lecturer in 2022.


I am a first-generation university entrant from a working-class background, which is an important part of my identity and informs my deep commitment to making university education work for everybody; in my experience, it also gives me fresh insight and perspective into longstanding challenges in the discipline and wider sector.

 

Recent roles and responsibilities


Internal work

I have a strong history of leadership and management, with both strategic and operational oversight, plus an extensive record of committee and group work as both leader and collaborator.


I am currently in the last leg of a five-year term as Director of Education for the School of History, Classics and Archaeology (HCA), where I oversee an education portfolio with approximately 1,000 students. This has been a multi-faceted and challenging brief, from which I have learned a lot about effective leadership and strategic planning. Over five years, I have led significant enhancements to curricula and working practices across the multidisciplinary unit, delivered high-quality outputs from complex collaborative projects, and improved our major metrics and KPIs for both undergraduate and postgraduate provision. I have worked closely with colleagues and stakeholders across the school, faculty, university, and beyond in all of this, and have been able to influence good practice across different disciplines. I am looking forward to taking what I have learned from this role and applying it to new challenges in the future.


I am also undertaking a three-year term as Newcastle University's Academic Lead for Digital Assessment, where I chair the cross-unit Digital Assessment Group, support digital education across the institution, help drive and influence policy, and contribute to delivering the university's Education for Life strategy. Key responsibilities have been helping to lead on an institution-wide digital assessment review, planning the future of digital exams, and supporting effective practice in digital assessment across the university. This role involves a significant level of ongoing work with internal and external stakeholders.


My longer record of service and contribution to the school, faculty, and university includes the following roles.


  • REF preparation group, Classics and Ancient History sub-panel, HCA
  • Academic Lead for Canvas and Chair of the Canvas Management Group, Newcastle University
  • Professional Standards Framework (PSF) Mentor, Newcastle University
  • Member of School Executive Board, HCA
  • Chair of the School Education Committee, HCA
  • Chair of the School Employability Group, HCA
  • Member of the Digital Education Sub-Committee, Newcastle University
  • Member of Faculty Education Committee, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
  • Degree Programme Director, Classics and Ancient History, HCA
  • Admissions Tutor and Selector, Classics and Ancient History, HCA


External work

Outside of the university, I am a member of Council and a Trustee for the Classical Association, the primary subject association for Classics and Ancient History in the UK, where I co-chair its Teaching Board (the CATB). Alongside acting as an officer for the organisation, in this role I help organise national efforts to support schools and teachers to deliver classical curricula, provide teacher CPD, engage in public policy work (including qualifications review and reform, and advocacy in parliament), and develop new partnerships. I feel very privileged to be able to use my skills and experience to influence in a national educational context; I'm delighted to be working to help shape a sustainable future for classics education in the UK and embed the importance of the discipline – which is a truly interdisciplinary Humanities field – in wider society.


I was part of the advisory group writing the new Subject Benchmark Statement for Classics and Ancient History (2022), for the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), collaborating with colleagues across the UK and helping to develop a vision for higher education in my discipline that evolves with the time and meets future demands.


Since 2023, I have been a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, in recognition of my body of work supporting and influencing educational practice within my institution and nationally. I am currently working towards the next step, Principal Fellowship.


I am a Governor of Emmanuel College, Gateshead, where I serve on the Local Governing Body and hold a particular brief focusing on Sixth Form Curriculum and Student Experience.


I am also a Research Associate of the Waterloo Institute for Hellenistic Studies (Canada), and a member of a number of external international research networks, including the Antigonid Network led by the University of Exeter and the University of Southampton.

 

Research and scholarship expertise

My subject-based research focuses on (ancient) political and intellectual history, specifically empires, monarchy, ideology, and historiography. My major recent project is two sole-authored volumes on kingship in the Hellenistic period and Alexander the Great's Successors, which will be published in 2025. These will (I hope) make a significant contribution to the field of Hellenistic history but also more widely in royal studies and research into autocratic political institutions.



On these topics I also regularly review articles and proposals for a number of publishers internationally, including the key journals Journal of Hellenic Studies, Historia, Journal of the History of Ideas, Intellectual History Review, and Royal Studies Journal.


On the pedagogy side, I have strong interests in digital education, skills-based learning, employability, interdisciplinarity (including diversification of provision), and assessment and feedback. I recently led projects in major areas of student experience and teaching and learning, including redeveloping UG and PGT marking criteria in the School, designing a new HCA Canvas community interface, and developing models of continuous and formative assessments. I designed and introduced Newcastle's innovative Global Ancient Histories module (now compulsory for V110 Ancient History, and widely available for enrolment in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences). I have also sat on the programme committees for the University’s Learning and Teaching Conference and the Association for Learning Technology's annual conference. You can also see a couple of my recent write-ups of my practice in the university's Case Studies of Effective Practice:

Teaching

Feedback, Guidance, and Consultation hours, 2024/25


  • Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, 11.00-12.00, Armstrong 1.36 (teaching weeks only)


Teaching experience, 2015-present


As module leader


  • HCA1008: Global Ancient Histories
  • CAH2006: Hellenistic Empires from Alexander to Cleopatra
  • CAH3010: The Life and Afterlife of Alexander the Great
  • CAG1011/1012: Intermediate Greek Language and Literature 1 & 2
  • CAC8000: Research Skills and Development
  • CAC8110: Ancient Cultures in Context
  • CAC8011: The Writing of History
  • CAH8020: Masterclass in Ancient History
  • CAC8106/8107: Independent Research Project 1 & 2
  • CAC8090: Dissertation for MA Classics and Ancient History
  • HCA8000: Independent Study with Language (ancient or modern)


As contributing lecturer:


  • CAC1015: How Should I Live? An Introduction to Ancient Philosophy
  • CAC3000/CAH3000: Dissertation (Classical Studies & Ancient History)
  • CAG2002: Special Study in Greek
  • CAH1012: West Meets East: Greek History and Society, 776-200 BC
  • CAH2009: Portfolio in Ancient History I: Commentaries
  • CAH2020: Greek and Roman Religions
  • CAH2208: Issues in Ancient History
  • CLA2002: Special Study in Latin
  • SEL1023: Transformations
  • SHS1000: HCA Academic Mentoring Stage 1
  • HIS3020: Reading History
Research

Alexander’s Successors and the Creation of Hellenistic Kingship coverRoyal Traditions and the Consolidation of Power by Alexander’s Successors cover



Current activity


Historical research


  1. Two monographs on Alexander's Successors and the creation of Hellenistic kingship are in production for 2025 publication, which examine the ideological development of kingship in the tumultuous period after Alexander the Great's death. Poetry, inscriptions, and coins feature heavily in the evidence base for this project, studying which has created a whole series of ramifications to be explored in future research.
  2. I am collaborating with Micaela Langellotti on a new research project on the role of sacrifice in the construction of political relationships. We are hosting a conference at Newcastle University in 24/25, then scoping a longer research project.
  3. I am currently researching and writing a chapter about class conflict and regime change in connection with the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the prolonged civil strife among the Macedonian armies in Babylon that followed.
  4. I am currently researching and writing a chapter about framework of dynastic power in Ptolemaic Egypt with specific reference to the last Ptolemaic queen Cleopatra (VII) and her reception.
  5. A further focus of my research is on the intellectual world of Diodorus Siculus, a Greek historian writing a world-history in the first century BC. Areas of particular interest are Diodorus' early modern reception, his literary and generic backgrounds, and his place in modern European historiography. One article has appeared in 2021 - ‘Thomas Hobbes, Diodorus Siculus, and Early Humanity’ (Hobbes Studies 34.2, 172-200) - and more will come in the near future.


Pedagogy and scholarship


  1. I am currently writing an article based on my recently completed project of re-developing marking criteria in an interdisciplinary unit with approximately 1,000 students.
  2. I am currently writing an article reflecting on my experience of introducing, and then leading for three years (2020-2023), the innovative ancient history module HCA1008: Global Ancient Histories. This is supported by a grant from the Education Committee of the Council of UK Classical Departments (CUCD).


Postgraduate supervision and examination


I welcome potential PhD students wishing to work on any of the above areas, but also in the field of Hellenistic culture and history more broadly. I have examined research degrees within the UK and internationally. My recent PhD supervisions include:


  1. ‘Royal Ideology and the Hunt: Cultural interaction between Europe and Asia in the reign of Alexander the Great’ (completion in 2019)
  2. ‘The Exiles of the Sullan Regime and the Elites of the Empire: Interaction, Discourse, Politics, and Integration in the 70s BC’ (completion in 2022)
  3. 'Olympian Shackles: An examination of the relationship between Greek Mythology, Identity and Material Culture in Hellenistic Greece' (completion due in 2024) 
Publications