معرفی
Dr Katherine McDonald is an Associate Professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at Durham University. Her research focuses on ancient languages of Italy (Oscan, Etruscan, etc.), epigraphy, and historical sociolinguistics, with special attention to multilingualism, migration, and gender linguistics. She holds a PhD from Pembroke College, Cambridge, and previously worked at the University of Cambridge and University of Exeter before joining Durham in 2021.
Her current Leverhulme-funded project investigates enslaved people as language learners in the Roman Empire. Key research areas include language contact dynamics, sociolinguistic identity formation, and the intersection of literacy with social structures. She has published extensively on ancient orthography, women’s epigraphic visibility, and language resistance to Romanization.
- Major Awards:
- 2024 Philip Leverhulme Prize
- 2018 AHRC Early Career Leadership Fellowship
- 2015 Rome Award (British School at Rome)
- Supervision: Actively mentors graduate students in ancient linguistics, epigraphy, and language history.
Her work integrates archaeological, epigraphic, and textual evidence to reconstruct linguistic practices in pre-Roman societies. Collaborative projects include studies of mobile craftsmen’s language use and the sociolinguistics of marginalized groups in antiquity.
