Andrew Wallace-Hadrill

Andrew Frederic Wallace-Hadrill, OBE, FBA, FSA (born 29 July 1951) is a British ancient historian and academic. He is Professor of Roman Studies and Director of Research in the Faculty of Classics at the University of Cambridge. He was Director of the British School at Rome between 1995 and 2009, and Master of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge from August 2009 to July 2013.

Early life

Wallace-Hadrill was born on 29 July 1951 in Oxford, England, the son of mediaeval historian John Michael Wallace-Hadrill. He was educated at the independent Rugby School.^[1] He studied at University of Oxford, where he read for a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Classics at Corpus Christi College. This was later promoted to a Master of Arts (MA Oxon). He went on to attain a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree at St John's College, University of Oxford.^[2]

Academic career

Wallace-Hadrill's first academic position was Fellow of Magdalene College, University of Cambridge between 1976 and 1983. He was also the Director of Studies in Classics of the College during that time. He then lectured at the University of Leicester from 1983 till 1987. In 1987, he became Professor of Classics at the University of Reading until 2009.^[2] Wallace-Hadrill was Director of the British School at Rome between 1995 and 2009. He was elected the 25th Master of Sidney Sussex College at the University of Cambridge, taking up office in August 2009 on the expiry by statute of Professor Dame Sandra Dawson's tenure.^[3] In June 2012, it was announced that he would be standing down from the position of Master to concentrate his efforts on the Herculaneum Conservation Project. He will continue at Cambridge as Director of Research of the Faculty of Classics from 1 October 2012.^[4]

In 2004, in an interview on the Australian television programme 60 Minutes, Wallace-Hadrill aired his opinion about the neglect of the archaeological site of Pompeii. He was described as an "angry archaeologist" when he argued that the conservation issues that need to be acted upon urgently at Pompeii are being neglected and that the site is suffering from a "second death". Regarding the deterioration of Pompeii, he contends, "Man is wreaking a damage far greater than Vesuvius. The moment of Pompeii's destruction was also the moment of its preservation. The public needs to understand that unless constant efforts are taken to arrest the decay, the site will, within decades crumble to nothing."^[5]

Publications

• Suetonius: the scholar and his Caesars (Duckworth, 1983).
• ed. with John Rich City and Country in the Ancient World (New York, 1991).
• Augustan Rome (1993)
• Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum (Princeton, 1994).
• Suetonius (Duckworth, 1995).
• ed. with Ray Laurence Domestic Space in the Roman World: Pompeii and Beyond (1997)
• Rome's Cultural Revolution (Cambridge, 2008)
• Herculaneum: Past and Future (Frances Lincoln, 2011).

Honours and awards

• In 2014, Wallace-Hadrill was awarded an Honorary D.Litt. degree by the University of Reading^[6]
• Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) in 2010.^[7]
• In the New Year Honours 2004 Wallace-Hadrill was appointed as Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire For services to UK-Italian cultural relations.^[8]
• Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (FSA) on 30 April 1998.^[9]
• Archaeological Institute of America's James R. Wiseman Award in 1995 for his book: Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum (1994).

External links

• Debrett's People of Today
• "Herculaneum Uncovered – A conversation with Andrew Wallace-Hadrill", Ideas Roadshow, 2013

References