Mary Beard: Portrait Of An Academic

Cambridge classicist Mary Beard is celebrated for her scholarship, including her excellent history of ancient Rome (SPQR), TV documentaries, and her work on Roman religion. But she is also an public intellectual and a celebrity, at least in the UK, where she blogs, appears on the popular Question Time, and even debated Boris Johnson on the merits of Greece verses Rome (here).

This long-form bio is extremely rewarding. It predates the latest brouhaha she has become involved in around Oxfam workers hiring prostitutes in disaster zones (here). It does delve into the details of some of the debates she's had over immigration and its role in the fall of Rome, and over sexual harassment in academia.  But the main reason for reading the piece is that it digs deeper than regular news articles do, providing a portrait of Beard the academic. 

Beard was an academic star in Cambridge in the late 1970s and early 1980s. But with motherhood, her academic career didn't initially fulfill its early promise as she didn't produce a major research monograph. Instead, Beard blossomed as a public intellectual, writing articles in the Times Literary Supplement and then moving into TV. One doesn't have to agree with every position Beard takes to appreciate her as an engaged academic–the story of her career remains a fascinating one.