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Staff Profiles

Professor Jakob Wisse

Professor of Latin Language & Literature

  • Email: jakob.wisse@ncl.ac.uk
  • Telephone: 0191 2087974
  • Address: School of History, Classics and Archaeology
    Newcastle University
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU

    Office Armstrong 1.40D
    Office hours Semester 2, 2023-24 Mondays 1-1.30, Fridays 11-12
Background

Introduction

Jakob Wisse received his doctorate in Classics in 1994 at the University of Amsterdam; he also holds the equivalent of a Research Master's in Mathematics (with Physics) from the same University. He has worked at Newcastle University from 1999. He was appointed to a professorship in 2009, and elected to The Academy of Europe (Academia Europaea) in 2014.

His book publications centre on ancient rhetoric, in particular Cicero and his "magnum opus", De oratore. Further research interests include intellectual life (esp. in the Roman republican period); Greek and Roman historiography; literary theory; and Greek and Latin language. He is currently collaborating with his Newcastle colleague Federico Santangelo in writing a commentary on Sallust's War with Jugurtha for the Cambridge Green & Yellow series. After that, he is planning to edit the Oxford Classical Text of De oratore.
Research

Research

My current research focuses on two areas:

  • Ciceronian, and more generally, Roman republican rhetoric, and its cultural and intellectual setting.
  • Ancient, and esp. Roman, historiography.

Research plans include further work in these two areas. My current book project is a commentary on Sallust's War with Jugurtha, written with my Newcastle Ancient History colleague Federico Santangelo. The next one is an edition of Cicero's De oratore in the Oxford Classical Texts series.

Postgraduate Supervision


In any area of his research or teaching expertise, especially:

- ancient rhetoric

- Cicero: rhetoric, philosophy, politics

- ancient historiography


Teaching

Undergraduate Teaching

My teaching interests include Latin poetry, Greek tragedy and Latin & Greek language from beginners' level onwards; and of course also topics covered in my research, in particular ancient rhetoric (esp. Cicero) and Greek and Roman historiography. 

Undergraduate teaching in 2023/2024

First Semester:

  • CLA1011: Intermediate Latin Language and Literature I
  • CAC2050/3050: History, Literature and Truth: The Case of the Ancient Historians
  • CAC2001: Researching the Classics (with Dr Chiara Blanco and Dr Nick Freer)

 Second semester:

  • CLA1012:Intermediate Latin Language and Literature II
Publications