Nationality British Name Andrew Wallace-Hadrill | Religion Anglican Occupation archaeologist Role Academic | |
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Full Name Andrew Frederic Wallace-Hadrill Born 29 July 1951 (age 72) ( 1951-07-29 ) Oxford, United Kingdom Alma mater Corpus Christi College, Oxford Education Corpus Christi College, Oxford Books Herculaneum: Past and Future, Houses and society in Pompe, Rome's cultural revolution, Augustan Rome, Living and Working in the Roma | ||
Institutions Cambridge University | ||
Andrew Frederic Wallace-Hadrill, (born 29 July 1951) is a British ancient historian, classical archaeologist, 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.
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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. 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.
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. 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. 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.
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."
Television
Wallace-Hadrill has made three well-reviewed documentary programmes for BBC television. The Other Pompeii: Life and Death in Herculaneum, first screened in April 2013, was described by The Arts Desk as "a straightforward, lively but informative documentary of substance" on Herculaneum, a Roman city that was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. The two-parter, Building the Ancient City: Athens and Rome, was screened in August 2015, and showed how the building of Athens and Rome paralleled the development of democracy in those two cultures. Daisy Wyatt of The Independent said of it: "An exuberant Wallace-Hadrill made the...documentary watchable thanks to his passion for the subject. It was hard to feel anything but warmth for the antithesis of the typical Oxbridge academic presenter."