Phiroze Vasunia

  • University College London
  • Department of Greek & Latin
  • Professor of Greek

Phiroze Vasunia is Professor of Greek at University College London.  His work has examined classical literature in a variety of cultural, historical, and intellectual frameworks.  He has written on a range of texts and periods, from antiquity to the modern era, but classical literature, and especially Greek literature, has anchored his work.  Professor Vasunia’s interests lie in cross-cultural contact, and his writings have explored the encounter between Greece and civilizations such as ancient Egypt, Persia, and India.  His publications include The Gift of the Nile: Hellenizing Egypt from Aeschylus to Alexander; The Oxford Handbook of Hellenic Studies (co-edited); and a translation for Penguin Classics of Daphnis and Chloe, by Longus.  From an early stage, Phiroze Vasunia has also been fascinated by questions of colonialism and the particular relationship between (post)classicism and empire.  His monograph, The Classics and Colonial India, is an extension of this research interest, as is a book in progress on postcolonialism and antiquity.