Chella Ward

Marchella Ward (“Chella”) is Lecturer in Classical Studies at the Open University. Her research has two main strands. The first is her interest in bodies and the ways that they are made meaningful across time – through lenses like ability / disability and racialisation. Her first book retools the methodologies of classical reception in order to dismantle the narrative tropes that shape ableist prejudice from antiquity to the present. The other (related) strand of her research is within a constellation of decolonial approaches and (re)orientations known as Critical Ancient World Studies. She is the co-editor, with Mathura Umachandran, of Critical Ancient World Studies: The Case for Forgetting Classics (2024 – open access). She was recently elected the Working Classicists’ ‘Classicist of the Year’, and she is also the co-host of Radio ReOrient, the podcast arm of the Critical Muslim Studies project. She writes frequently for non-specialists, and also writes for children. You can find her on Twitter (@LuxMea) and Instagram (@luxmeagram).

Please note: the views and opinions expressed in these podcasts are those of the speaker, and do not necessarily reflect those of the CA.

Listen to our intro episode with Chella over on The Classics Podcast

Our 100th episode of The Classics Podcast is a really interesting Q&A with Chella: