Peter Heslin

Professor Peter Heslin is a Professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at Durham University and Co-Director (Digital Humanities) at the Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. His research spans classical Latin poetry, Roman material culture, and digital humanities, with a focus on applying machine learning and Bayesian methods to literary history. He developed Diogenes, an open-source tool for working with Greek and Latin texts, and its browser-based counterpart DiogenesWeb, enhancing accessibility to ancient languages.

His scholarly contributions include three major monographs: The Transvestite Achilles (2005), The Museum of Augustus (2015), and Propertius, Greek Myth, and Virgil (2018). These works explore topics such as Statius’ unfinished epic, the interplay between Pompeiian wall paintings and Augustan poetry, and Propertius’ use of Greek myth in polemics against Virgil.

Professor Heslin has held prestigious visiting fellowships, including the Class of 1932 Visiting Fellow at Princeton University and Joan Palevsky Visiting Professor at UCLA. His research interests in digital humanities emphasize computational methods for ancient texts, while his traditional scholarship engages deeply with Augustan poetry, Roman painting, and intertextuality.

He supervises PhD students in digital humanities and classical poetry, and is actively involved in public engagement through school talks on Roman mythology and Latin poetry. His work bridges ancient studies with modern technological innovation, fostering accessible and interdisciplinary approaches to classical scholarship.