By Preet K, Year 12 Classics Rep

This year, the GDST Classics Conference was held at South Hampstead High School and the Sixth Form Classicists had the exciting opportunity to attend on Wednesday 24th January.

Accompanied by Miss Bradshaw, the day started with a lovely opening talk on why so many Classicists enjoy studying Ancient Languages. The rest of the day was then filled with a number of talks on a variety of topics, ranging from ‘Gender Bias in Greek Drama’ to ‘The Purpose of Cicero’s Tusculanae Disputationes.’ Our very own Miss Bradshaw gave an interesting talk on ‘Herodotus and Causation in his works’! For me, the highlight of the day had to be the ‘Paraclausithyron Trope in Ancient Rome’ talk which focused on Ovid’s love elegies. Along with an engaging speaker, Mr Thicknesse, I was fascinated to find that this situation of a lover at the door in Ancient poetry can actually be found in many classic, modern movies; some of the examples we looked at included ‘Pretty Woman’ and ‘Love Actually’! The conference even included a speaker from Oxford University – Professor Katherine Clarke gave an enriching and outstandingly extensive talk about travelling in the Ancient World or ‘To boldly go.’

All in all, I found that the day allowed me to get a taste of Classics outside the curriculum, and introduced me to different topics that I could find interesting to research outside my lessons at school.