Associate Professor Chris Mackie

Biography

Qualifications: BA Hons (Newcastle, NSW) PhD (Glasgow)

Chris Mackie studied Classics at the University of Newcastle (NSW) and the University of Glasgow in Scotland. He worked at the University of New England (NSW) for two years before moving to the University of Melbourne. His earlier research was on the Roman poet Vergil, but since then he has focused on the Homeric epics, Greek mythology, and modern responses to ancient cultures. His main teaching responsibilities are in the classical languages and in a wide variety of non-language courses (Ancient Greece: Myth, Art, Text; The Epics of Homer; Underworld and Afterlife; the Epic Cycle and Homeric Hymns). He has been Director of the Centre for Classics and Archaeology (with a break for leave) since its inception in 2000.

In 2002, Chris led a team from the Centre and joined creative forces with the New Media and Digital Services arm of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) to produce the internationally acclaimed website Winged Sandals, which won the following awards:

• Gold World Medal (Education category) at the New York Festivals 2004 Interactive Award
• Best of the Best Award and Best eLearning in the 2003 Australian Interactive Media Industry Association Awards
• Best Storytelling award at the 2004 San Francisco Flash Forward Festival
• SXS Web Media Festival Award

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Research

Research areas
Greek and Roman epic poetry (especially Homer and Vergil). Greek and Roman mythology; Greek heroes and contemporary superheroes; the reception of Classical antiquity in modern times (with particular reference to the attitude towards the Classics before, during, and after the Great War); the Dardanelles region in antiquity as a historical and archaeological background to the Gallipoli campaign of 1915.

Current projects
Gallipoli and the Classics
Type of Project: An analysis of the Greek/Homeric/Trojan context of the Gallipoli campaign. This will include archaeological analysis of the battlefield site.
Collaborators: Professor Antonio Sagona
This project will explore the many references to Homer, Troy, and the Classics in the written record of the Gallipoli campaign. It will concentrate on the close proximity of Troy and Gallipoli (just across the Dardanelles from one another) and the fact that some participants in the campaign evoked Achilles and the Trojan war in their writings. It will explore the strong tradition of Classics in education in the pre-Great war period, especially in Britain, and the way that this influenced some Gallipoli writings.

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Select publications

Books

• Mackie, C.J. The Characterisation of Aeneas, Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh: X+ 247pp (1988)
• Mackie, C.J. Rivers of Fire: Mythic themes in Homer’s Iliad, New Academia Press, Washington, DC (2008) viii + 264pp (Available at: www.newacademia.com)

Edited Books

• K.H. Lee, C.J. Mackie, H.Tarrant (co-eds.) Multarum Artium Scientia, Prudentia, Auckland viii +189pp (1993)
• C.J. Mackie, (ed.) Oral Performance and its Context, (Brill, Leiden, 2004) viii+208
• W. Haslem, C.J. Mackie and A. Ndalianis, Super/Heroes (New Academia, 2006) X+416pp

Book Chapters (from 2001)

• Mackie, C.J. ‘Introduction’ in Oral Performance and its Context (Brill, Leiden, 2004)
• Mackie, C.J. ‘Men of Darkness’ in W. Haslem, C.J. Mackie and A. Ndalianis (eds.) Super/Heroes (New Academia, 2006) pp. 83-95
• Mackie, C.J. ‘Gallipoli 1915: Encounters with Antiquity’, in Conflict Landscapes: Materiality and Meaning in Contested Places ed. N. Saunders and P. Cornish (London, 2008, in press)
• Mackie, C.J. ‘Homer and Thucydides: Corcyra and Sicily’, in Greek Literature Volume 5, ed. Gregory Nagy (New York, 2001), 213-223

Journal Articles (from 2002)

• Mackie, C.J. ‘The Earliest Jason: What's in a Name?’, in Greece and Rome 47 (April, 2001), 1-17
• Mackie, C.J. ‘Homeric Phthia’, in Essays on Homeric Epic (eds. H and J Roisman) Colby Quarterly 38.2 (June 2002) 163-173 C1

Other Publications (from 2002)

• Mackie, C.J. ‘Aeneid 12: Some Introductory Comments' on selections from Aeneid 12 by Virgil (2001) Ed. J. Tuckfield (Melbourne)
• Mackie, C.J. ‘Gallipoli and Troy’ in Victoria Turk Toplomu (Melbourne, 2002) 102-3

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