Irene Salvo

Curriculum

•   IS_Curriculum 2024_ITA   (pdf, it, 228 KB, 16/05/24)

I am an ancient historian interested in the socio-cultural history of the ancient Greek-speaking world. My core research focuses on religion and magic. I intend to investigate in which ways rituals were embodied and emotional experiences of the divine. I study epigraphic evidence from various regions, mostly from the Eastern Mediterranean. In my sources, I look for ancient constructions of: emotion, mind, cognition and knowledge, body, illness and healing, gender, queerness, power relations, purity and impurity, violence, trauma, justice and revenge.

I am Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cognitive Historiography (Equinox) and Series Editor for Women in Ancient Cultures (Liverpool University Press).

I am scientific member of the German Research Council (DFG) Network 'Reinheit und Unreinheit in der griechischen und römischen Antike', led by Bernadette Descharmes (Braunschweig), as well as of the British Academy Network 'Women in the Ancient Greek Epigraphic Record', led by Katherine Backler (Oxford).

I also serve the field as a member of the British Epigraphy Society's steering committee and as an Associate Editor for Current Epigraphy.

Alongside my work as a historian, I am passionate about innovative pedagogical strategies and an expert in Contemplative Pedagogy. In 2020, at the University of Exeter, I established the Mindful Classics project, which is now live on Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly known as Twitter). In 2022/23, I ideated the project 'A Regenerating Odyssey: Ancient Stories Re-imagined in Virtual Reality for Today’s Mental Health', funded by a Royal Society of Arts Catalyst Award: in collaboration with IJAD Dance Company, we delivered workshops open to the public in London and online. The overall aim of my work in this area is to combine ancient Greek, Roman, and oriental philosophies (Stoicism, Yoga, Buddhism, and Qigong meditation) together with Western mindfulness to tackle academic stress, low self-esteem in students, and lack of compassion in competitive environments.

My pronouns are she/her/hers. Although I have lived in northern cities for some time now, I am deeply rooted in the Mediterranean Sea and islands, especially Sicily.

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