Dr Lisa Doyle
Research Ireland Postdoctoral Fellow
Having completed a BA at TCD and an MSc at the University of Edinburgh, I returned to Trinity to undertake my doctorate as part of a funded project analysing the scholia (premodern commentary notes) on Apollonius of Rhodes’ Hellenistic epic, the Argonautica. The resulting thesis is a critical study of the responses of ancient scholars and critics to this poem. It considers their surviving comments as a body of knowledge from which we can learn much about how the Argonautica was received in antiquity.
I received my PhD in 2024 and subsequently took up the position of Teaching Fellow in Ancient Greek Literature at the University of Birmingham (2024-5). I am delighted be back at the Department of Classics here at Trinity for a Taighde Éireann –Research Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship under the mentorship of Dr. Martine Cuypers. The aim of the project is to write a book developed from my thesis; it will be the first extended analysis of the Argonautica scholia in modern scholarship.
My main research output has been directly related to my interests of ancient Greek scholarship and scholia, fragmentary literature, and the intellectual culture of the Hellenistic period. I have also written on the late antique orator Libanius, and I am currently editing with two colleagues (Alastair Daly and Jeremy Lam) a volume on Argonautic literature arising from a workshop hosted here in TCD in June 2023. Additionally, I have organised and participated in numerous public engagement and interdisciplinary activities through my residency in the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute (2020-2023) and my involvement with the Classical Association of Ireland (2021- present). Please feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss any of the topics mentioned above.
Selected Publications
- ‘Sophist, Emperor and sophrosyne: Moderation in Libanius’ Julianic Orations’, Mnemosyne 76, 820-36 (2023).
- ‘Etymologies in the Margins: Etymological Practices in the Scholia on Apollonius’ Argonautica’, in A. Zucker, C. Le Feuvre and M. Chriti (eds), Ancient and Medieval Greek Etymology II, De Gruyter, 257-78 (2025).
- Policy recommendations for the enhancement of community engagement in higher education: national and system-level policy recommendations for Ireland, L. McIlrath, S. Bowman and G. Lima, Zagreb: Institute for the Development of Education (2023, Contributor).