Professor Laurence Totelin

Biography

Education and qualifications

• 2002–2005 PhD, Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL
• 2001–2002 MPhil in History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge
• 2000–2001 Teaching degree in History and Classical languages, Free University of Brussels
• 1996–2000 BA in Ancient History, Free University of Brussels

Career overview

• 2019–Present Reasder in Ancient History, School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University
• 2015–2019 Senior Lecturer in Ancient History, School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University
• 2009–2015 Lecturer in Ancient History, School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University
• 2006–2009 Wellcome Trust Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, and bye-fellow at Newnham College. I combined my postdoctoral research with teaching at various UK institutions (Cambridge, UCL, Imperial College, and Reading)

Honours and awards

• ISSF Cardiff Wellcome Trust Grant for ‘Ancient-biotics, re-evaluating traditional medicines for future antibacterial therapies’, collaborative project led by Professor Les Baillie (Pharmacy), 2016
• Wellcome Trust small grant to organise the conference 'Bodily Fluids/Fluid Bodies in Greek and Roman Antiquity', 2016
• Classical Association grant to organise the conference 'Bodily Fluids/Fluid Bodies in Greek and Roman Antiquity', 2016
• ICS grant to organise the conference 'Bodily Fluids/Fluid Bodies in Greek and Roman Antiquity', 2016
• ISSF Cardiff Wellcome Trust Grant for ‘Nain, Mam and Me: infant feeding in Wales, social history and modern practices’, collaborative project with Dr Julia Sanders (consultant midwife) and Ms Heather Trickey (DECIPHer). Smaller grants were awarded to this project by the School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff and Cardiff Engagement Team, 2015
• Cardiff University Research Leave Grant, 2014-2015
• Wellcome Trust Grant to organise the ‘Approaches to Ancient Medicine’ conference 2012 (Cardiff University), 2012
• Classical Association grant to organise ‘Approaches to Ancient Medicine’ conference 2012 (Cardiff University), 2012
• Classical Association grant for ‘Approaches to Ancient Medicine’ conference 2010 (Cardiff University), 2010
• Wellcome Trust Grant to organise ‘Approaches to Ancient Medicine’ conference 2010 (Cardiff University), 2010
• Wellcome Trust Grant to organise panel entitled ‘History of ancient science and medicine vs economic history’ at the Classical Association Conference 2010 (Cardiff University), 2010
• Wellcome Trust Grant to organise panel on Ancient Medicine at the Classical Association Conference 2007 (University of Birmingham), 2007
• Wellcome Trust Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, 2006-2009
• Wellcome Trust Centre PhD Studentship, 2002-2009
• Maurice Wiener–Philippe Anspach Studentship, 2001-2002
• Medal of the Free University of Brussels for Excellence, 2000
• Erasmus Studentship, 1998
• Marguerite Bervoets Prize for the best first-year result in the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, Free University of Brussels, 1997

Professional memberships

• Member of the Classical Association
• Member of the British Society for the History of Science
• Member of the British Society for the History of Pharmacy

Academic positions

• 2009-2015 Lecturer in Ancient History, School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University
• 2006-2009 Wellcome Trust Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge
• 2006-2009 Bye-fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge
• 2006-2009 Teaching fellow, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Cambridge University
• 2006-2009 Supervisor, Faculty of Classics, Cambridge University
• 2006-2007 Teaching fellow, Department of Classics, University of Reading
• 2005-2006 Teaching fellow, London Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, Imperial College, London
• 2005-2006 Teaching fellow, Department of Science and Technology Studies, University College London
• 2003-2006 Supervisor, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Cambridge University

Speaking engagements

2018

• 'Teaching trees - tree teaching: the ancient art of grafting', Society for Classical Studies Annual Meeting 2018

2017

• 'Aelian's fabulous trees', Conference: Greek biological literature in teh imperial period: genres, functions, problems, University of Marburg, Germany
• 'A woman in flux: fluidity and "bursting out" in Hippocratic gynaecology', Conference: Ancient holisms, Institute of Classical Studies
• 'A little old lady told me: appropriation of weak actors' knowledge in Graeco-Roman botany and pharmacology', Conference: Weak knowledge: forms, functions and dynamics, University of Frankfurt
• 'Faithful marriages and wild unions: Palladius' De insitione', Conference: Hortus inclusus: expanding boundaries of space and time, British School at Rome
• ‘Hard Graft: stories of plant propagation from the Greek and Roman worlds’, Botanic Garden of Wales
• 'Climbing up the ladder: the ladder as medical machine in classical antiquity', Medical machines in antiquity workshop, University of Glasgow
• 'Breastmilk: a healing and poisonous substance in late antiquity', Society for the History of Medieval Technology and Science, London

2016

• 'The poor man's bees', The London Renaissance Seminar: In search of early modern honey
• 'A sea of synonyms: naming plants in Galen's pharmacological texts', Conference: Parlare la medicine, University of Parma, Italy
• 'Anti-abortion and abortion laws: some historical insights', Abortion Rights Cardiff
• 'Mother and nurse plants in Latin literature', Classical Association 2016, University of Edinburgh
• 'Crying over spilt milk: analogies between tears and milk in ancient literature’, Departmental Seminar, Swansea Department of History and Classics

2015

• ‘Concocting History and other blogging adventures’, Work in Progress Seminar, School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University
• ‘The she-wolf at the Eisteddfod’, Conference: UWICAH, Cardiff University
• ‘What will the neighbours say? Middle-distance drug trade in the ancient world’, Conference: Trade, Discovery and Influences in the History of Herbal Medicine, the Herbal History Research Network, Wellcome Trust
• 'Baah baah black Sheep, have you any Wool: wool in ancient medicine’, Conference: Technologies of Daily Life in Ancient Greece, Swansea University
• ‘Castoreum or the testicle of the Istrian beaver: ingredient presentation strategies in ancient recipes’, Conference: Towards a history of epistemic genres: the textbook, the commentary, the case and the recipe in the making of medical knowledge,Max-Plack Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Berlin
• ‘Easy remedies – difficult texts: the pseudo-Galenic Euporista’, Conference: Pseudo-Galenic texts and the formation of the Galenic Corpus,Warburg Institute
• ‘Crying over spilt milk: analogies between tears and milk in ancient literature’, Classical Association 2015, University of Bristol
• ‘Back to Cleopatra’s kitchen: what I have learnt experimenting with ancient medical and cosmetic recipes’, Remaking History: using re-enactment in historical research and engagement, Symposium, Art Workers Guild, London

Selected earlier speaking engagements

• June 2014: ‘Etouffement et empoisonnement au lait dans le monde Gréco-Romain’, Journée d’étude internationale, les ambiguïtés du lait, Université de Fribourg
• April 2014: ‘Ethnic and hybrid vegetables: reading ancient botanical texts with a historian’s eye,’ Departmental Seminar, Classics, Princeton University
• December 2013: ‘The Third Way:  Galen’s influence on gynaecological pharmacology in late antiquity and early Byzantium’, Conference on Late Antique – Early Byzantine Pharmacology and its Reception in the Talmud Tradition, Humboldt University
• October 2013: ‘Selling pharmaka – buying health: pharmacology, wealth and branding in the ancient world’, Ancient Drugs: Pharmacology across the Ancient World, Penn Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

Committees and reviewing

• 2015-present Erasmus/Study Abroad coordinator, History
• 2015-present Postgraduate coordinator, Ancient History
• 2015-2016 Chair of Equality and Diversity Committee, School of History, Archaeology and Religion
• 2015-2016 Member of the School Board, School of History, Archaeology and Religion
• 2013-2014 Senior Tutor, Ancient History Department
• 2010-2015 Chair of the Cardiff and District Classical Association Branch
• 2010-2013 Member of the Equality and Diversity Committee
• 2010-2012 Ancient History Part One Coordinator
• 2009-2012 Third-Year Dissertation and Second-Year Independent Study Coordinator, Ancient History Department
• 2009-2012 Exams Convener, Ancient History Department

Publications

• Date
• Type
• Selected

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Investigating the Ancient World: Skills and Evidence (HS3103)
• The Ancient World in 20 Objects (H3104)
• Greek and Roman Medicine (HS3376)
• Invention and Discovery in the Ancient World (HS3390)
• Gender and Sexuality in Greece and Rome (HS3362)
• Pots, Poems and Pictures: Using Evidence for Ancient History - 20 credits (HS4336)
• Independent Second Year Study (HS4334)
• Researching the Ancient World: Final Year Dissertation (HS4335)

Research supervision

I welcome PhD proposals relating to Greek and Roman medicine, science and technology. In particular I am interested in topics relating to pharmacology, botany and gardening, especially if they have a gender element, and gynaecology. I would also be interested in topics relating to the reception of ancient botany and pharmacology, especially in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Ancient botany

In collaboration with the botanist Gavin Hardy, I have published a book entitled Ancient Botany, Routledge 2015. Our hope was for this book to promote further research in the field. Personally, I will look further in the history and symbolism of grafting, as well political allusions in ancient texts on plants.

Retail Therapy: Selling pharmaka, buying health in the Greek and Roman World

Ancient pharmacological recipes may appear to be a very dry topic of research, but they are a mine of information for any ancient historian interested in social or economic history. I have published a book on the earliest recipes preserved in Greek, the recipes of the Hippocratic Corpus (Hippocratic Recipes: Oral and Written Transmission of Pharmacological Knowledge in Fifth- and Fourth-Century Greece, 2009). This study brought together my interests in the history of Greek medicine, social, cultural and economic history, studies of ancient literacy, and gender studies. With Dr Rebecca Flemming (Cambridge), I have edited a volume on the ancient medical marketplace, Medicine and Markets in the Graeco-Roman World and Beyond. Essays on Ancient Medicine in Hnour of Vivian Nutton (2020). I am currently working on a book examining the economic aspects of ancient pharmacology. I discuss how those involved in the Greek and Roman pharmacological 'business' promoted their remedies and sold them at the highest cost.

Got Milk? The symbolism of milk in antiquity and beyond

I am interested in the symbolic significance of milk – all milks, be they human, animal or vegetable – in Greek and Roman culture. Together with Dr Mark Bradley and Dr Victoria Leonard, I am editing a volume entitled Bodily Fluids in Antiquity (Routledge, 2021). I have also worked on a project entitled 'Nain, Mam and Me: infant feeding in Wales, social history and modern practices' with sociologist Dr Heather Trickey and professor of midwifery Professor Julia Sander. Our aim was to use historical artefacts to promote discussions on infant feeding in Wales.

Supervision

Current supervision