Biography

Personal details

  • Name: Richard George Alexander Buxton BA, MA, PhD (Cantab.)
  • Born: Mansfield, England
  • Title: Emeritus Professor
  • Spouse: Mercedes Aguirre (https://mercedesaguirrecastro.com/)

Academic career

School

Nottingham High School

Undergraduate study

  • Scholar of King’s College, Cambridge, 1968-71
  • Double First in Classical Tripos
  • Cooke Prize
  • John Stewart of Rannoch Scholarship
  • Henry Arthur Thomas Prize
  • Hallam Prize
  • Henry Arthur Thomas Travel Exhibition
  • Porson Prize
  • Richards Prize
  • King’s College Senior Scholarship
  • Chancellor’s Medal for Classics
  • Craven Scholarship
  • Craven Studentship

Postgraduate study

King’s College, Cambridge and École des Hautes Études, Paris, 1971-3

Degrees

  • B.A. (Cantab.) 1971
  • M.A. (Cantab.) 1974
  • Ph.D. (Cantab.) 1977 (thesis entitled ‘Peitho: its place in Greek culture and its exploration in some plays of Aeschylus and Sophocles’)

Posts held

  • 1973: Lecturer in Classics, University of Bristol
  • 1989: Senior Lecturer in Classics, University of Bristol
  • 1990: Reader in Ancient Greek, University of Bristol
  • 1991-2: Professeur Associé, University of Strasbourg
  • 1995-2013: Professor of Greek Language and Literature, University of Bristol
  • 2014-: Emeritus Professor of Greek Language and Literature, University of Bristol
  • 2015: Visiting Fellow, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge

Awards

  • 1994: Dean’s Prize for Excellence in Research, University of Bristol
  • 1999-2000: University of Bristol Research Fellowship
  • 2002-4: Major Research Fellowship awarded by Leverhulme Trust
  • 2007-8: AHRC Research Leave
  • 2014-22: Senior Research Fellowship, University of Bristol
  • 2023: shortlisted for the Runciman Prize, for The Greek Myths that Shape the Way we Think

Distinctions

  • 2001: RAE Panellist
  • 2006-2012: President of the Fondation pour le Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae
  • 2009: Member of jury for Grand Prix des Belles Lettres, awarded by the Onassis Foundation in association with the Institut de France
  • 2013-2014: Profesor Honorífico de la Universidad Complutense, Madrid
  • 2013: Chancellor’s Medal, University of Bristol
  • 2015: Elected as Life Member, Clare Hall, Cambridge