Ancient Office Hours

Dr. Michael Fontaine, a professor of Classics at Cornell University, joins Lexie to discuss how professors can be great mentors and friends, appreciating wine from ancient to modern times, exploring humour techniques from Cicero to modern roasting culture, and the transcendence of humour across time and cultures. So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trireme Transit for this week’s exciting odyssey...

Liam D. Jensen, a historical archivist who specializes in historical paper collections and creator of the Lego Classicists Family, joins Lexie in this very special episode in honour of International Lego Classicism Day 2022, which is celebrated every year on February 20th! They discuss his path to becoming a historical archivist, why he chose LEGO as his medium for engaging with the Classical worl...

Dr. Perrine Poiron, an Egyptologist/historian and former historical consultant on Assassin’s Creed Origins, joins Lexie to discuss why she chose to focus on the cat goddess Bastet, why we should learn more modern languages when studying antiquity, tips & tricks for archaeogaming with younger kids, her experience consulting on Assassin’s Creed Origins . So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trir...

Dr. Anastasia Giannakidou, a professor of linguistics at the University of Chicago, joins Lexie to discuss how the movie “Arrival” is really quite accurate in its portrayal of linguistic theory, the benefits of bilingualism, which language between Modern and Ancient Greek is more important to learn now, and how to keep dying languages alive. So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trireme Transit for...

Canadian game developer Mel MacCoubrey, (former narrative director on Assassin’s Creed Odyssey) joins Lexie to chat about her unique path into video game development, historical accuracy and her favourite parts about working on Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and whether there’s a growing space for historians and humanities majors to work in entertainment. So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trireme Tr...

Dr. Emily Austin, an assistant professor of Classics at the University of Chicago, joins Lexie to take a deep dive into which Homeric poem translations are the best, examine emotions in Homer, discuss whether Vergil’s Aeneid is really just bad Homer fanfic, and debate what silly scene from the Iliad or Odyssey she would like to see adapted to the screen. So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trirem...

World renowned Egyptologist Dr. Kara Cooney, a professor of Egyptian Art & Architecture at UCLA, joins Lexie to talk about the future of Egyptology, how to get involved in the field without earning a PhD, required writing & languages as a form of gatekeeping, and dealing with pressure to love your work even if it makes you miserable. So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trireme Transit for...

Feed swap! This is episode 4 of Afterlives with Kara Cooney and part 2 of their "Demystifying Academia" series. The next feed drop on December 29 will feature part III, though for anyone eager to listen to it, you can find it on their official podcast feed. Ancient Office Hours will continue to post new, regular podcast episodes every two weeks, but will also be adding more bonus content during ou...

Writer, broadcaster, and comedian Natalie Haynes joins Lexie to discuss learning how to mix stand-up comedy with Classics into a unique path, why academic writing is often bad, boring, and made to be inaccessible to a wider audience, and learning rules in order to break them. So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trireme Transit for this week’s exciting odyssey! Don't forget to follow us on Tw...

Dr. Kathleen Lynch, a professor of Classical Archaeology at The University of Cincinnati, joins Lexie to chat about building and maintaining good relationships in and outside the field of Classics, methods of finding a good dissertation topic, Harry Potter as the ideal Greek mythological hero, and how archaeogaming transforms STEM into STEAM. So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trireme Transit fo...

Feed swap! This is episode 3 of Afterlives with Kara Cooney and part 1 of their "Demystifying Academia" series. The next feed drop on December 15 will feature part II, though for anyone eager to listen to it, you can find it on their official podcast feed. Ancient Office Hours will continue to post new, regular podcast episodes every two weeks, but will also be adding more bonus content during our...

Dr. Jeffrey Stevens, an Ancient History professor at The University of Missouri, joins Lexie to discuss his unconventional path into ancient history, his experience being a historical consultant for Spartacus, and how to educate people who misappropriate or misunderstand ancient Roman symbols. So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trireme Transit for this week’s exciting odyssey! Don't forget...

Happy Halloween! Dr. Radcliffe Edmonds, a professor of Classics at Bryn Mawr College, and expert on Greek imaginings of death, afterlife, and on the discourse of magic in the ancient world joins Lexie for this spooktacular bonus episode! This discussion about the representation of the Underworld in Rick Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus book series and why death & the afterlife are considered taboo...

Dr. Young Richard Kim, a Classics and History professor at UIC, joins Lexie to talk about the dignity of work, the intersection of personal religion and the academic study of ancient religion, being Asian in Classics, and drops some hot takes on how to change the way we teach US/ancient world history in high schools. So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trireme Transit for this week’s exciting ody...

Today we're posting something new in your feed. The Ozymandias Project LLC team is excited to participate in some upcoming collaborations with other podcasts and brilliant creators that will be rolled out over the next few months. Ancient Office Hours will continue to post new, regular podcast episodes every two weeks, but now will be adding some bonus content during our usual 'off' weeks to share...

Megan Lewis, an Assyriologist and founder of public outreach project Digital Hammurabi, joins Lexie to discuss what an Assyriologist studies, why leaving a PhD program shouldn’t be seen as a failure, her work co-creating Digital Hammurabi with her husband Dr. Josh Bowen, and what academics can do if they don’t want to be in academia. So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trireme Transit for this we...

Dr. Andrew Reinhard, an archaeologist and the Director of Publications at the American Numismatic Society, joins Lexie to discuss his path from book collecting to publishing, productively channelling his (academic) rage, how he became a pioneer in archaeogaming, the ethical & funding challenges of working with gaming companies, and why STEM needs art. So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trire...

Dr. Alan Macniven, a senior lecturer and head of the Scandinavian Studies department at the University of Edinburgh, joins Lexie to discuss whether learning Old Norse is a requirement to study the Vikings, the importance of place names in Scotland & Ireland, and why Vikings have a bad reputation as raiding barbarians when everyone else did it too. So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trireme T...

Michaela Jill Murphy, (aka Jessie Flower, the voice of Toph Beifong on Avatar the Last Airbender), chats with Lexie about growing up without cable TV, how Yale’s library values manuscripts over humans, comparing theater in the US/UK, and the story behind creating Bandit Basics. So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trireme Transit for this week’s exciting odyssey! Don't forget to follow us on...

Dr. Stephen Sansom, a Classics postdoc at Cornell University, joins Lexie to discuss whether post baccalaureates are helpful to getting into grad school, talk about how studying poetry can make you cool, and explore how the field of "Classics" might benefit from a name change. So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trireme Transit for this week’s exciting odyssey! Don't forget to follow us on T...

Derek, (host of The Hellenistic Age podcast) joins Lexie to talk about different styles of podcasting about the ancient world, look at ancient studies from a STEM background, and solve the ”tv series” problem of bringing ancient complex material to life in popular culture. So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trireme Transit for this week’s exciting odyssey! Don't forget to follow us on Twitt...

World renowned Egyptologist Dr. Kara Cooney, a professor of Egyptian Art & Architecture at UCLA, joins Lexie to contemplate the lack of access to Egyptology programs, talk about Kara's research on coffin re-use, explore using the ancient world to help us understand the modern world, and discuss Cleopatra & the aggrandizement of the failures of powerful women in the past and present. So tuc...

The Ozymandias Project podcast has a new name! We are now The Ozymandias Project: Ancient Office Hours! New name, same mission. We decided to rename our podcast Ancient Office Hours to better convey the type of conversations we want to facilitate. While we have always had clear goals, it came to our attention that some confusion remained about the tone of our show. We hope our new title will furth...

Writer Betty Robertson, (a former narrative designer on Assassin's Creed games Odyssey & Valhalla) joins Lexie to discuss overcoming creative blocks, trying to balance the history and folklore elements when writing for Odyssey & Valhalla, and whether being involved in the making of video games, in any capacity, could be considered a STEM field. So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trireme...

Dr. Joe Manning, a Classics and History professor at Yale University, joins Lexie to explore why Classics and Egyptology need each other, how breaking down boundaries between sciences and humanities could could lead to science funding for ancient fields, and why a numismatist should be the protagonist of a film. So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trireme Transit for this week’s exciting odyssey!...