Arlene is an Associate Professor of Classics and Ancient History at Durham University and she has been at the forefront of Classics Education for many years, co-leading Classics in Communities and the Advocating Classics Education (ACE) project, and since 2020 she has been the CA’s Outreach Officer, a role in which she raises of awareness of the ancient world and classical subjects across all sectors.

Born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland, Arlene graduated with a BA (Hons) in Classics from St Hilda’s College, the University of Oxford, then received a scholarship to Harvard University for graduate study. Arlene later received her Doctorate in Education from the University of Glasgow and was a practising secondary school teacher before moving into research and policy making, where she has published reports into the teaching and learning of Classics in partnership with the Department for Education and the CUCD.

Her books ‘Forward with Classics‘ and ‘Expanding Classics‘ showcase the positive impact that learning classical subjects can have upon people of all ages and backgrounds and it is wonderful to see that her determination to make Classics more widely available in schools and communities has been recognised with this honour.

With her commitment to bringing classical subjects to greater prominence and policy priority, Arlene sits on the Executive Committee of the University Council of Modern Languages (UCML) as their first ever representative for Classical Studies and she is also Vice-Chair of the Universities Policy Engagement Network (UPEN).

An expert in classical rhetoric, she currently holds a British Academy Innovation Fellowship (2022-2024) entitled ‘Levelling-up through talk’, which investigates how speech, communication and active listening contribute to young people’s social mobility and employability, and she is also leading a major new multi-disciplinary project ‘Shy bairns get nowt’ to help teachers improve the teaching of oracy skills in North East England schools.

She has judged the Cambridge and District Classical Association competition, the Lytham St Annes Classical Association Ancient Worlds Competition and delivered talks and workshops to many of our local branches, communities, schools and groups across the UK and beyond. She also features on our Speaker List and if you’d like to access outreach support she can be contacted at arlene.v.holmes-henderson@durham.ac.uk or on Twitter at @DrArleneHH

Congratulations Arlene!