Dr Tom Lister

I read Classics as an undergraduate at Magdalen College (2017-2021) and returned to Oxford, after a brief sojourn in Cambridge, to complete my DPhil at Lady Margaret Hall (2022-2026). Before becoming Randall MacIver Fellow, I also held a stipendiary lectureship in Greek literature at Corpus Christi College (2025-2026).

Broadly speaking, my research aims to apply literary and anthropological theory to the close reading of classical texts. At LMH, I am working on two projects. Initially, I am aiming to turn my DPhil thesis, 'Feeling Through Terence: A "Realistic" Theatre and its Embodiments' into a book. Then, I am beginning a second monograph-length study, provisionally entitled 'Yearning, Invention, Rediscovery: A Study in New Comedy’s Modern Reception'. Other publications either out or in development deal with Hellenistic/Imperial anecdote, Roman Republican mime, Ennian intertextuality in Terence, and innuendo in Petronius' Satyricon.

I teach a range of Greek and Latin language and literature papers.

‘Tenuis Oratio or Terence’s “Limp” Poetics’ (co-author: S. Hyams), CP 121.3 (2026), 342-356.

‘An Anecdotal Itinerary: Remembering “Melanthius”, Over and Over Again’, MD 95 (2025), 46-97.

‘Catullus’ Phasma and Late Republican Paracomic Mime’, CQ (forthcoming).