Research project
Rhetoric, drama and their critics: celebrating the work of Malcolm Heath
- Start date: 21 May 2026
- End date: 21 May 2030
- Primary investigator: Professor Emma Stafford
Description
The project aims to celebrate the contribution to Classics of Malcolm Heath, Professor of Greek Language and Literature Leeds 1988-2022. An outstanding scholar, he was author of 8 monographs, the best-selling Penguin Classics translation of Aristotle’s Poetics, and more than 70 articles ranging across numerous areas of research, in all of which his work has been highly influential. Our title ‘Rhetoric, drama and their critics’ is an attempt to capture the extraordinary breadth of Prof. Heath’s interests, ranging chronologically and generically from Homeric epic poetry via tragedy, comedy and Aristotelian philosophy to the rhetorical theory of late antiquity. The symposium in May 2026 will provide the basis for an edited volume as a Festschrift in Prof. Heath’s memory.
Rhetoric, drama and their critics: a symposium in memory of Malcolm Heath, late emeritus Professor of Greek Language and Literature at Leeds
Thursday 21 to Friday 22 May 2026
This two-day conference will be held on the University of Leeds' main campus, in the Michael Sadler Building where Leeds Classics is situated. The provisional programme is as follows; a final version will be posted shortly before the event, but please contact the conference organisers if you have any queries.
Provisional programme
Thursday 21 May
10.00–11.00: Registration (coffee and tea available)
11.00–11.15: Welcome
11.15–13.00: Session 1: Tragedy in dialogue
Daria Molinari – Seeing the tragic in the Iliad: Homer, tragedy and ancient criticism
Edmund Stewart – The rhetoric of self-defence in Greek tragedy
Michael Lloyd – Rhetoric and relevance in Euripides’ agon scenes
13.00–14.00: Lunch
14.00–15.45 Session 2: Emotions and audiences (14.00–15.45)
Tim McConnell – Being a good audience to poets and politicians
Michele Cova – Tasting other people’s misfortune – the element of ἐπιχαιρεκακία in Aristophanes
Douglas Cairns – Sympathy and identification in ancient Greek poetics
15.45–16.15: Tea
16.15–18.00: Session 3: Roman responses
Andreas Gavrielatos – Platonic poetics in Stoic contexts
George Woudhuysen – The date of Sulpicius Victor revisited
Regine May – Title to be confirmed
18.00: Drinks
19.30: Dinner
Friday 22 May
09.00-10.45: Session 4: Aristotle
Edith Hall – Aristotle’s theatres of the mind
Dana Munteanu – Tragedies and the polis in Aristotle’s Rhetoric
Pierre Destrée – Aristotle on the function of metaphor in poetry
10.45–11.15: Coffee
10.45–11.15: Session 5: Not the Second Sophistic
Judith Mossman – Attic(ist) rhetoric: parody in Lucian’s Sigma versus Tau
Sebastian Zellner – (Cassius?) Longinus and the third century CE – an inverted approach
Elizabeth Conner (Mattingly) – The social relevance of rhetoric in Late Antiquity: the letters of Aeneas and Procopius of Gaza
13.00–14.00: Lunch
13.00–15.10: Session 6: Byzantium and after
Chiara Telesca – The rhetoric of transition: the Metabáseis between classical oratory and Byzantine scholarly practice
Sara Rubinelli – The afterlife of Aristotle’s Rhetoric: from classical theory to human care
15.10–15.30: Concluding remarks
Conference practicalities and booking
The registration fee includes coffees/teas and lunch for each day, and a reception on Day 1; rates for either the whole event or individual days are available. On Day 1 an optional dinner in a central Leeds restaurant will be arranged, which will be charged on the day. Overnight accommodation is not provided, but a variety of hotels and other types of accommodation are available in the vicinity.
Every effort has been made to keep conference costs down. However, we do have a small budget to assist with the costs of postgraduate students/early career researchers: please contact the conference organisers to enquire about this.
Please follow this link to book your place [*coming soon*] and for suggested accommodation options.
Contact: MFHSymposium@leeds.ac.uk
We would like to acknowledge the support of the Hellenic Society and the Institute of Classical Studies, as well as the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies.
Publications and outputs
Rhetoric, drama and their critics: a symposium in memory of Malcolm Heath, late emeritus Professor of Greek Language and Literature at Leeds. (Thursday 21st to Friday 22nd May 2026)