Laura Swift, lecturer in classical studies at The Open University, has been awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize for her research.
This prestigious award is one of the highest honours in academic research and is awarded by The Leverhulme Trust to only 30 individuals each year across a range of academic disciplines.
Dr Swift received the award for her research, particularly her acclaimed 2010 monograph – The Hidden Chorus, and recognised by the judges as “one of the leading Hellenists of her generation.”
The Hidden Chorus was selected for breaking ground in providing “the first systematic, book-length study of the ways in which Greek tragedy appropriates and exploits other genres of choral song”.
Dr Swift, who will receive a £100,000 prize over the next three years to advance her research at The Open University, said:”I’m delighted by this news. The award will be a fantastic opportunity to develop new lines of research. I’m hoping to start a major project on ‘lost’ tragedies, and to continue a collaboration with theatre-makers on the idea of fragments. I’m very grateful to my colleagues in the Faculty who helped me put together the bid, especially my head of department Helen King and the research support team.”
The first Philip Leverhulme Prizes were awarded 2001 to commemorate the contribution to the work of the Leverhulme Trust made by Philip Leverhulme, the Third Viscount Leverhulme and grandson of William Hesketh Lever, the founder of the Trust.
