Giulia Maltagliati

Giulia Maltagliati serves as a College Associate Professor in Classics and Fellow at Downing College, University of Cambridge, where she also holds the position of Director of Studies for Prelims and Part IA in Classics. Additionally, she is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Oratory and Rhetoric, Royal Holloway, University of London.

Her academic background includes an MA from the University of Pisa and a PhD from Royal Holloway, University of London. She is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA).

Dr. Maltagliati specializes in Greek prose, with a particular focus on Attic oratory, rhetorical theory, and ancient medical texts. Her research interrogates the role of rhetoric at the junction between knowledge and ignorance, positioning rhetoric not as a mere accessory but as a fundamental medium for articulating knowledge and its limits. Current projects include her monograph The Rhetoric of Exemplarity in Attic Oratory: Time, Knowledge, and Persuasion and the co-edited volume Not Knowing in Antiquity: Discourses of Ignorance in the Greco-Roman World, which is the first study of its kind on ignorance in antiquity.

Her recent scholarly output (2020-2023) demonstrates a consistent engagement with the interplay of rhetoric, knowledge, and historical examples in ancient texts. Articles span topics from transparency in medical and forensic texts to the emotional dimensions of historical exemplarity in deliberative oratory, reflecting a broad interdisciplinary approach that bridges Classics, Rhetoric, and the History of Science.

She has been recognized with the George Grote Prize in Ancient History from the Institute of Classical Studies (London) for her doctoral research.

In her teaching role, Dr. Maltagliati supervises undergraduate students in Greek and Latin language and literature, and delivers lectures on Greek literature (including Gorgias’ Encomium of Helen) and history (such as "Constructing Sex and Gender") for the Cambridge Faculty of Classics. She also contributes as an invited lecturer to the Royal Holloway MRes programme in Ancient Rhetoric.

As an Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Oratory and Rhetoric, Royal Holloway, she is actively involved in research networks focused on ancient rhetoric.