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Staff Profiles

Staff Profiles

Dr John Holton

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

  • Email: john.holton@ncl.ac.uk
  • Telephone: +44 (0)191 208 3132
  • Address: School of History, Classics and Archaeology
    Newcastle University
    Armstrong Building
    Queen Victoria Road
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU
    United Kingdom

    Office: Armstrong 2.21
Background

Biography

I have held a permanent lectureship in Newcastle since 2015, and became Senior Lecturer in 2022. I am originally from Bradford, West Yorkshire, though my family moved to Devon at an age when I was adaptable enough to lose my northern accent. I attended a state comprehensive school before going to Swansea University on a contextual offer, where I obtained BA (first class) and MA (distinction) in Ancient History. I was then awarded 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 am a first-generation university entrant from a working-class background, which is an important part of my identity as an academic and informs my deep commitment to education for students from diverse social, economic, and cultural backgrounds.

 

Current roles and responsibilities

I have a history of leadership and management in educational matters, as well as an extensive record of committee and group work as both leader and collaborator. I have wide experience in digital education, quality assurance, and benchmarking in particular. A snapshot of my current work includes the following positions: 

  • Director of Education, School of History, Classics and Archaeology
  • Member of School Executive Board, School of History, Classics and Archaeology
  • Chair of the School Employability Group, School of History, Classics and Archaeology
  • Academic Lead for Canvas and Chair of the Canvas Management Group, Newcastle University
  • Member of the Digital Education Sub-Committee, Newcastle University
  • Member of Faculty Education Committee, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
  • External examiner for ancient Greek history, Swansea University
  • Advisory Group Member for Subject Benchmark Statement (Classics & Ancient History), Quality Assurance Agency
  • Associate Member, Association for Learning Technology

 

Outreach and engagement

I put significant energy and time into widening access to the discipline of Classics and Ancient History, particularly among the state school sector in the UK. In the past few years I have collaborated with colleagues in Newcastle University but also externally (e.g. Classical Association and Classics for All), in the process delivering CPD for teachers and curriculum support for schools, teaching at summer schools for lifelong learners, and leading institutional widening participation initiatives.

I am very happy to deliver talks and provide expert guidance and support on a range of topics in ancient history, not least Alexander the Great (a recurrent topic in my external work), as well as employability/careers and Digital Education. Please feel free to get in touch.

 

Research expertise

On the discipline-specific front, my research centres around Hellenistic history and intellectual history, specifically empires, monarchy, ideology, and historiography. My most recent article (2021) focuses on Thomas Hobbes’ engagement with the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, but my major project is a two-volume history of the creation of early Hellenistic kingship under Alexander's Successors, which will be complete in 2022/23. 

On the pedagogy side, I have strong expertise in Digital Education, skills-based learning, employability, interdisciplinarity (including diversification of provision), and authentic modes of assessment and feedback. I am currently leading a school-level Digital Education project on assessment and feedback, which will see initial outputs in September 2022, and 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 also sit on the programme committees for the University’s Learning and Teaching Conference and the Association for Learning Technology's annual conference; in the HaSS faculty, I collaborate with colleagues on a student educational experience project on assessment and feedback.

Teaching

Feedback, Guidance, and Consultation hours, 2021/22 (teaching weeks only)

SEMESTER 1:

  • Mondays, 1.00-2.00 (Armstrong 2.21)
  • Tuesdays, 9.00-10.00 (Armstrong 2.21)
  • Thursdays, 10.00-11.00 (by Zoom - email for details)

SEMESTER 2:

  • Mondays, 1.00-2.00 (Armstrong 2.21)
  • Tuesdays, 12.00-1.00 (by Zoom - email for details)
  • Thursdays, 10.00-11.00 (by Zoom - email for details)

Teaching, 2021/22

As module leader

  • HCA1008 : Global Ancient Histories
  • CAH2006 : Hellenistic Empires from Alexander to Cleopatra

As contributor

  • CAH2208 : Issues in Ancient History
  • CAC8000 : Research Skills and Development [MA]
  • CAC8090 : Dissertation for MA Classics & Ancient History
Research

I am currently engaged in two lines of research in the field of Classics and Ancient History.

(i) I am currently completing a two monographs on Alexander's Successors and the creation of Hellenistic kingship, 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.

(ii) A secondary 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) - which will lay the ground for a future research project.

Postgraduate supervision

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. Recent supervisions include:

‘Royal Ideology and the Hunt: Cultural interaction between Europe and Asia in the reign of Alexander the Great’ (completion in 2019)

‘The Exiles of the Sullan Regime and the Elites of the Empire: Interaction, Discourse, Politics, and Integration in the 70s BC’ (completion due 2022)

'Olympian Shackles: An examination of the relationship between Greek Mythology, Identity and Material Culture in Hellenistic Greece' (completion due in 2023) 

Publications