Staff Profiles

My primary research interests are the construction of time in ancient literature, literature and religion, and ancient (especially Latin) epic poetry. I wrote my PhD on Storytelling in Flavian Epic (published as Erzählen und Gesang im flavischen Epos with de Gruyter in 2014). In 2020, I have published a monograph entitled Time in Ancient Stories of Origin (Oxford University Press, 2020), based on my 'Habilitation' at the University of Rostock, in which I examine the construction of time in select aetiological narratives in Archaic and Hellenistic Greece, in Augustan Rome as well as in early Christian literature. Currently, I am working on a project on festivals in Latin literature as well as a German translation of Statius' Thebaid for de Gruyter's Tusculum series.

I am keen to hear from prospective research students with an interest in stories of origin, time in literature, literature and religion or Latin epic.

Academic Employment and Research Fellowships:

02-07/2024: Research Fellowship at Berliner Antike-Kolleg

09/2020-08/2021: Research Fellowship at the Einstein Center Chronoi, Berlin

12/2017- : Lecturer (since August 2022 Senior Lecturer) in Classics, Newcastle University

04/2015-03/2016: Feodor-Lynen Research Scholar, University of Virginia (funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation)

09/2011-11/2017: Assistant Professor ('Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin'), University of Rostock

Qualifications:

2011-18: Habilitation, Rostock

2006-11: PhD in Classics, Heidelberg

2005-06: MPhil in Classics, Cambridge

2004-05: Visiting Student in Classics, Cambridge

2001-04: Undergraduate Studies (Classics) in Göttingen and Heidelberg

Conferences organised:

“Statius and the Politics of a Poetic Oeuvre”, workshop at Newcastle University, 10^th March 2023

“Statius – author of a coherent œuvre?” (with PD Dr Gregor Bitto), 8–10 July 2022, Eichstätt

“Things Have Changed: Divine Interventions in Human Bodies and Landscapes” (with Dr Inger Kuin), 17–18 September 2021, online, via Gatherly

Interdisciplinary Chronoi Workshop “The Temporality of Festivals”, 8 July 2021, via Zoom

“Celebrating the Divine – Roman Festivals in Art, Religion, and Literature” (with Prof John F Miller), 30–31 August 2019, University of Virginia

“Ἀρχή and origo: The Power of Origins” (with Dr Athanassios Vergados), 2–4 May 2019, Newcastle University

“Time and Eternity. The Conception of Time in Archaic Greek Literature” (with Prof Jenny Strauss Clay and Dr Athanassios Vergados), 22–24 September 2017, University of Virginia

“The Fate of Rome’s fatum”, 1 October 2016, University of Virginia,

“Telling Origins. The Structures of Aetiological Narrative” (with Prof Dr C Reitz), 16–17 July 2012, University of Rostock

I will be on research leave in Semester 2 of 2022/23 and Semester 1 of 2023/24.

• Articles

  • Walter A. Festivals in Statius' Thebaid: 'Uncelebrating' Vergil. Vergilius 2022, 68, 57-76.
  • Walter A. Alexander Graham Bell, Hermes und die Gestaltung von Zeit in den Darstellungen großer Erfinder. ClassicoContemporaneo 2014, 0, 56-77.

• Authored Books

  • Walter A. Time in Ancient Stories of Origin. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.
  • Walter A. Erzählen und Gesang im flavischen Epos. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2014.

• Book Chapters

  • Walter A. Death, Lament, and 'Elegiac Aetiology‘ in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In: J. Farrell, J. F. Miller, D. Nelis, A. Schiesaro, ed. Ovid, Death and Transfiguration. Leiden: Brill, 2023, pp.27-42.
  • Walter A. tempora mutantur – Metamorphic Imagery in Ovid’s Fasti. In: Clay,J S; Vergados,A, ed. Teaching Through Images. Imagery in Greek and Roman Didactic Poetry. Leiden: Brill, 2022, pp.257-271.
  • Walter A. Seasonality and the Calendar in Ovid's Exile Poetry. In: Raja R; Lichtenberger A, ed. The Archaeology of Seasonality. Turnhout: Brepols, 2021, pp.127-40.
  • Walter A. Solons Lebensalter-Elegie. In: Färber R; Gautschy R, ed. Zeit in den Kulturen des Altertums. Antike Chronologie im Spiegel der Quellen. Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 2020, pp.323-329.
  • Walter A. Genealogien am Beispiel des Kallimachos. In: Färber R; Gautschy R, ed. Zeit in den Kulturen des Altertums. Antike Chronologie im Spiegel der Quellen. Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 2020, pp.355-362.
  • Walter A. Die Tage des Monats in Hesiods Werken und Tagen und Vergils Georgica. In: Färber R; Gautschy R, ed. Zeit in den Kulturen des Altertums. Antike Chronologie im Spiegel der Quellen. Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 2020, pp.311-321.
  • Walter A. Carmentis and the Poet: Deification and Exile in Ovid’s Fasti. In: Clay JS; Walter A, ed. Special Issue of the Classical Journal in Honour of John F. Miller. CJ 115.3-4 (2020). Monmouth, IL: Classical Association of the Middle West and South, 2020, pp.382-396.
  • Walter A. Arats Phainomena. In: Färber R; Gautschy R, ed. Zeit in den Kulturen des Altertums. Antike Chronologie im Spiegel der Quellen. Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 2020, pp.363-375.
  • Walter A. Aetiology and Genealogy in Ancient Epic. In: Reitz C; Finkmann S, ed. Structures of Epic Poetry. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2020, pp.609-652.
  • Finkmann S, Reitz C, Walter A. Prophecies in Roman Epic. In: Reitz, C; Finkmann, S, ed. Structures of Epic Poetry. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2019, pp.615-684.
  • Walter A. iamque dies, nisi fallor, adest – Aeneas und der römische Kalender. In: Junghanß, A; Kaiser, B; Pausch, D, ed. Zeitmontagen. Formen und Funktionen gezielter Anachronismen in der Antike. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2019, pp.101-118.
  • Walter A. Regulus and the Inconsistencies of Fame in Silius Italicus' Punica. In: Finkman,S;Behrendt,A;Walter,A, ed. Antike Erzähl- und Deutungsmuster. Zwischen Exemplarität und Transformation. Berlin, Germany: de Gruyter, 2018.
  • Walter A. ‘What it felt like‘: Memory and the Sensations of War in Vergil’s Aeneid and Kevin Powers’ The Yellow Birds. In: Ambühl,A, ed. War of the Senses - The Senses in War. Interactions and tensions between representations of war in classical and modern culture = thersites 4. Mainz: Johannes Gutenberg-Universitaet Mainz; Institut fuer Altertumswissenschaften, Klassische Philologie, 2016, pp.275–312.
  • Walter A. Ovids alma Venus, die Mutter der Aitiologie. In: Reitz, C; Walter, A, ed. Von Ursachen sprechen. Eine aitiologische Spurensuche/Telling Origins. On the Lookout for Aetiology. Hildesheim, Germany: Olms, 2014, pp.431–59.
  • Walter A. Beginning at the end: Silius Italicus and the desolation of Thebes. In: Manuwald,G;Voigt,A, ed. Flavian Epic Interactions. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2013, pp.311–26.
  • Walter A. Der Mythos von Linus und Coroebus in Statius’ Thebais—ein aitiologischer Gegenentwurf zur Aeneis. In: Kramer,N;Reitz,C, ed. Tradition und Innovation. Mediale Strategien in der Zeit der Flavier. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2010, pp.63–91.

• Edited Books

  • Clay JS, Walter A, ed. Special Issue of the Classical Journal in Honour of John F. Miller. Monmouth, IL: Classical Association of the Middle West and South, 2020.
  • Finkman S, Behrendt A, Walter A, ed. Antike Erzähl- und Deutungsmuster. Zwischen Exemplarität und Transformation. Berlin, Germany: de Gruyter, 2018.
  • Reitz C, Walter A, ed. Von Ursachen sprechen. Eine aitiologische Spurensuche/Telling Origins. On the Lookout for Aetiology. Hildesheim, Germany: Olms, 2014.

• Reviews

  • Walter A. Latin literature. Greece and Rome 2023, 70(1), 115-124.
  • Walter A. Latin Literature. Greece & Rome 2022, 69(1), 139-148.
  • Walter A. Latin Literature. Greece & Rome 2022, 69(2), 310–319.
  • Walter A. Review of A. D. Morrison, Apollonius Rhodius, Herodotus and Historiography. Histos 2021, 15, xiv-xviii.
  • Walter A. Review R. Simms, Anticipation and Anachrony in Statius' Thebaid. CJ-Online 2020, 05.02.
  • Clay JS, Walter A. Introduction. Classical Journal 2020, 115(3-4), 257-260.
  • Walter A. Review: Virgil’s Ascanius. Imagining the Future in the Aeneid. By Anne Rogerson . Religious Studies Review 2018, 44(1), 107-107.
  • Walter A. Review K. Corrigan, Virgo to Virago. Medea in the Silver Age (Newcastle 2013). Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2016, 2016.02.18.
  • Walter A. Review A. Augoustakis, Ritual and Religion in Flavian Epic (Oxford 2013). Religious Studies Review 2015, 41(4), 192-192.
  • Walter A. Review T. Korneeva, Alter et ipse. Identità e duplicità nel sistema dei personaggi della Tebaide di Stazio (Pisa 2011). BMCR 2013, 2013.03.26.