The Ozymandias Project
@theozymandiasp1
Connecting Modern Societies to Ancient Worlds. Ancient Office Hours Podcast & The Reading Party Podcast. Pnyx Digital Magazine. #history #Archaeogaming #podcasts #reception #digitalhumanities & more!
In this first “Odysseason” panel, a group of classics scholars discuss Christopher Nolan’s new “Odyssey” film as a modern reinterpretation rather than Homer, focusing on war trauma in Odysseus, parallels to Bronze Age collapse, and a rules-based order undermined from within.
Today on AOH, Dr. Catherine Bonesho, a professor of Early Judaism at UCLA, discusses ancient languages as a grammar puzzle, identifying as a scholar of ancient Judaism in the Greek and Roman periods rather than simply “biblical studies,” and reflections from UCLA’s 2025 Bible conference.
On this Ancient Office Hours special release, returning guest, Dr. David Schenker, a professor of classics at Mizzou, returns for a 6-year catch up! At the time of this recording, he had just taught his final formal class after 35 years at the University of Missouri.
ICYMI - Dr. Salima Ikram, a Distinguished Professor and the Amelia Peabody Chair in Egyptology at the American University in Cairo, was recently featured on the podcast!
Today on AOH, Dr. Jenn Finn, an Associate Professor and Chair of the Classics Department at Loyola University Chicago, discusses framing Alexander the Great in an ancient Near Eastern context, Alexander as a symbolic strategist, and consulting for the Netflix series “Alexander: The Making of a God”.
Today on AOH, Dr. @petramcreamer.bsky.social, an archaeologist and professor of the Ancient Near East at Emory University, discusses studying the Assyrian Empire to understand how non-elites experienced state power, Assyrian deportation as a labor and control strategy, and her fieldwork experiences.
Today on AOH, Dr. Jeffrey Newman, an Egyptologist and a research associate at UCLA's Pourdavoud Institute, discusses his dissertation on ritual performance and the origins of Egyptian bureaucracy and state formation, First Dynasty human sacrifice, and his heritage photography & photogrammetry skills
On today’s episode of Ancient Office Hours, Dr. Curtis Dozier, an associate professor of Classics at Vassar College, discusses founding Pharos: Doing Justice to the Classics, his new book The White Pedestal, and how “historical accuracy” rhetoric often masks racism and misogyny.
On today’s episode of Ancient Office Hours, Jonathan Todd Ross, a voice actor and writer (the voice of Marik Ishtar & Yami Marik in the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime), discusses getting into acting, stumbling into voice work via an urgent Ultraman audition, and why the original Yu-Gi-Oh! dub endures.
Today on AOH, Dr. @roelkonijn.bsky.social, the Darby Fellow in Ancient History at Lincoln College, Oxford, discusses psychological warfare and imperial brutality in antiquity,Greek ambivalence about war’s glory and horror, & myth-busts Sparta as less uniquely militarist than popularly imagined.
Today on AOH, Cricket Leigh, a therapist and accomplished voice-over artist (the voice of Mai on Avatar the Last Airbender), discusses studying intense classical works at NYU, booking Mai on Avatar: The Last Airbender and the show’s enduring appeal through big themes and values.
On today’s episode of AOH, Dr. Dan-el Padilla Peralta, a Professor of Classics at Princeton, discusses how growing up unhoused in New York City led him to discover Classics, the limits of relying on one person for courses, and his new book Classicism and Other Phobias.
Today on AOH, Gigi Berardi, a Western Washington University environmental science professor and award-winning writer, talks about her historical fiction novel Bianca’s Cure. The book centers on the “greatest mystery of the Renaissance”.
Today on AOH, Dr. @katexe.bsky.social, a Lecturer in Greek Culture at King’s College London, discusses hostility toward prominent or “masculinized” women in modern games & ancient tragic narratives about women, and critiques the “historical accuracy” discourse including mods that remove women.
Today on AOH, Dr. @sarahebond.bsky.social, an associate professor of Classics at the University of Iowa, discusses her book 'Strike' and the evolution of labor unions from ancient Rome to modern times, the future of classics & the impact of AI on jobs, and the significance of empathy in humanities.
Dr. Alex Dold, a literary scholar, historian, and “Dr. of Outlander,” discusses blending literary scholarship and historical research, the challenges of researching an ongoing series, the importance of studying popular culture academically, and the essential role of books and public history.
On today’s episode of AOH, Dr. @alexvandewalle.bsky.social, a postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University, discusses his research on the characterization of mythological figures in video games, the evolution of classical reception in games & its growing legitimacy as a field of study.
Special release! Hailey Beaupre, is an American who moved to Scotland and she recounts her journey from a small-town Connecticut upbringing to becoming a Scottish history tour guide, inspired by a childhood fascination with the Titanic and a pivotal visit to Scotland.
On today’s episode of AOH, Dr. Naomi Weiss, a Professor of Classics at Harvard, discusses the works of Euripides and Aeschylus, the complexities of modern adaptations, and the potential of transforming ancient stories into contemporary performances, like a musical adaptation of Greek tragedies.
Today on Ancient Office Hours, Dr. Lindsey Mazurek, an Associate Professor of Classics at Indiana University Bloomington, discusses her interests in Roman provincial archaeology, ancient migration, and the implications of migration on social and political dynamics in ancient civilizations.
✨Meet the presenters!✨ Julie Levy (she/they) is an archaeogamer, independent scholar, and activist. She is the Managing Director at the Save Ancient Studies Alliance, an organization devoted to bringing ancient studies into the mainstream.
Today Hitpoints & History is shining a light on our conference’s panel: Using TTRPGs to Activate Mythology! Presented by Dr. Michael Anthony DeAnda, Kai Hakamori, Ziyi Wu, Alexej Hrajnoha, Bradley Estacio.
Often, when we think of archaeogaming, we think of The Assassin’s Creed games, but technically, all gaming can be archaeogaming! Here are a few non-traditional archaeogames to get your mind going:
✨Meet the presenters!✨ Dr. Alexander Vandewalle is a postdoctoral researcher who specializes in the reception of antiquity, history, and mythology in video games. For his PhD thesis (2024), he investigated the characterization of Greek mythological figures in games.
✨Meet the presenters!✨ Colin Snyder is a game designer and artist based in Brooklyn, New York. He is the founder and director of Little Red, an independent game studio and publisher of nonfiction games.
Humans have been playing games since earliest ancient history. We're a social species, and gameplay is one of the oldest forms of social interaction.
✨Meet the presenters!✨ Meghan Sullivan is the founder of History N’ Games, an educational video & audio podcast that helps video game fans discover & explore the real history hidden inside their favorite games. Meghan has been in the games industry for 2 decades, & loves Mario Kart and Mass Effect.
✨Meet the presenters!✨ Joel Gordon is a socio-cultural historian whose research focuses on the development of eschatological thought in the ancient world. Related to this is his reception studies work which explores how the gods/heroes of antiquity are portrayed in modern mass media.