Founded in 1998, in Wales, the Celtic Conference in Classics has met by rotation – initially every two years, and now every year: in Aquitaine, Brittany, Ireland, Québec, Scotland, Wales and Portugal. Since the first meeting in Maynooth University in 2000, participation in the CCC - whether as panel-organizers, speakers, or as an interested specialists - is open to those from any country.
The CCC allows each panel to explore fundamental questions in classical studies. Essentially, a number large-scale conferences on major research topics in Classics occur simultaneously.
Scholars are encouraged to move between panels in order to shape interdisciplinary perspectives and approaches. Specialist panels are open to experts from other subject-areas and scholars from different national traditions are encouraged to build international academic networks among their home institutions in order to foster future collaboration.
The CCC is a democratic, inclusive organization that invites scholars and students to discuss fundamental issues of Greco-Roman society and culture. The official languages of the CCC are English and French.
The people behind the CCC …
Anton Powell
(1947 – 2020)
Founded the venture in 1998, and underwrote its earliest conferences from personal resources. In his research, as in his organising, he believed in combining specialisms, and in lasting collaborations with colleagues.
In 1987 he founded the International Sparta Seminar, and with Stephen Hodkinson edited its volumes over some 30 years. With Kathryn Welch and Hans-Peter Stahl he produced a series of publications on the poetry, prose and political history of the first-century Roman revolutions. Under the architectural Chairmanship of Stephen Mitchell, he set up an inter-campus Institute of Classics and Ancient History at the then federal University of Wales (UWICAH, 1993-2008), and became the Institute’s Director. Also in 1993 he founded, as a private venture, the Classical Press of Wales, where as General Editor he oversaw the publication of (to date) more than 90 volumes.
Powell’s monograph Virgil the Partisan: A Study in the Re-integration of Classics (2008) was awarded the prize of the Vergilian Society of America for ‘the book that makes the greatest contribution to our understanding and appreciation of Vergil’. He also wrote an introductory monograph, Athens and Sparta: Constructing Greek Political and Social History (1988, 3rd edition 2017), and edited the collections Hindsight in Greek and Roman History (2013) and The Eyesore of Aigina: Anti-Athenian Attitudes in Greek, Hellenistic and Roman History (2016). He was the Editor and a co-author of the two-volume Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Sparta (2018).
For the very young he was author of illustrated volumes, translated into various languages, on the ancient world, including the tabloid-style Greek News (2000).
Anton taught in France as visiting Professor at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, and at the University of Bordeaux. His enthusiasm for learning from France was one reason why the Celtic Conference in Classics has from the start been bilingual.
Douglas Cairns
Director of the Celtic Conference in Classics
douglas.cairns@ed.ac.uk
Has been involved with the Celtic Conference in Classics since 2002, when he helped organize the Glasgow conference. He is now Director of the organisation. The CCC’s structure, he believes, by allowing individual panels to pursue specific and focused themes under the aegis of a large, sociable, and international event, offers unique opportunities for research collaboration and the development of scholarly networks.
Douglas has held the Chair of Classics in the University of Edinburgh since 2004, having previously taught in each of Scotland’s other two Classics departments, as well as in England and New Zealand. He has also held visiting positions in Japan, Italy, and the United States. He was elected to Membership of Academia Europaea in 2013 and to Fellowships of both the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the British Academy in 2018. In 2018 he was also awarded an Anneliese Maier-Forschungspreis by the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung and a Mercator Fellowship at Johannes Gutenberg Universität, Mainz.
He is the author of Aidôs: The Psychology and Ethics of Honour and Shame in Ancient Greek Literature (1993), Bacchylides: Five Epinician Odes (2010), and Sophocles: Antigone (2016), as well as editor or co-editor of 14 volumes, including (most recently) Emotions through Time: From Antiquity to Byzantium (with Martin Hinterberger, Aglae Pizzone and Matteo Zaccarini, 2022), Contempt, Ancient and Modern (2023), In the Mind, in the Body, in the World: Emotions in Early China and Ancient Greece (with Curie Virág, 2024), Mixed Feelings: An Interdisciplinary Phenomenology (with Pia Campeggiani, 2025), Slavery and Honour in the Ancient Greek World (with Mirko Canevaro and David Lewis) and Hubris, Ancient and Modern: Concepts, Comparisons, Connections (with Nick Bouras and Eugene Sadler-Smith, 2025).
Carmen Soares
Director of the Celtic Conference in Classics
cilsoares@gmail.com
She was first a CCC speaker and panel convener during its 6th edition (Edinburg, 2010) and 9thedition (Dublin, 2016), respectively, and first took on the role of organiser in 2019, during its 12th edition in Coimbra. Since 2023, she has regularly overseen the CCC on a biennial basis, alongside Douglas Cairns and Delfim Leão. Her affection and friendship for Anton Powell was a deciding factor in her decision to accept Douglas Cairns’s invitation to become a CCC Director, beginning in 2025.
A Full Professor of Classical Studies at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra (where she has taught since 1994), she specialises in Greek Literature and Ancient Greek History. Her main fields of research are identity, political thought, family, dietetics, and food heritage, cultures and history. Besides several books and papers, she is also the co-editor, with Thomas Figueira of Ethnicity and Identity in Herodotus (Routledge, 2020). Her translation work into Portuguese includes works onEuripides, Plato, Plutarch, and Archestratus. She has also co-translated books V and VIII of Herodotus’ Histories .
She holds several positions of scientific leadership, most notably as Principal Investigator of the European project CONVIVIUM: New European Bauhaus Solutions in Food, Living Heritage, and Conviviality (2024-2027), Scientific Coordinator of the Centre for Classical and Humanistic Studies of the University of Coimbra, and Chair of the Research Committee of the European Institute for the History and Cultures of Food (Tours, France) being worthy of note.
Recently, she was elected to the General Council of the University of Coimbra (2024-2028).
Delfim Leão
Director of the Celtic Conference in Classics
leo@fl.uc.pt
His connection with the CCC began in 2019, when he helped organize the first Coimbra edition. Following its success, he played a key role in establishing Coimbra as a recurring CCC host every two years. In 2025, he was invited to join the Board of Directors of the CCC.
He is Full Professor of Classics at the University of Coimbra and a researcher at the Centre for Classical and Humanistic Studies (CECH). His academic work ranges across ancient Greek law, political theory, the ancient novel, and theatrical pragmatics, alongside a strong engagement with the digital humanities and Open Science.
A former President of the International Plutarch Society (2014–2017), he currently co-directs the Brill’s Plutarch Studies series. As Director of Coimbra University Press (2011–2021), he transformed one of the world’s oldest academic presses into a model of innovation and Open Science, earning international acclaim.
He developed Classica Digitalia, now the largest digital library for Classical Studies in the Lusophone world, and coordinates CECH’s participation in multiple EU-funded Open Science initiatives. He was a member of UNESCO’s Advisory Committee on Open Science (2020–2021), contributing to the 2021 UNESCO Recommendation.
His published works include The Laws of Solon: A New Edition, with Introduction, Translation and Commentary (with Peter J. Rhodes, 2015), and edited volumes such as Symposion 2015. Vorträge zur griechischen und hellenistischen Rechtsgeschichte (with Gerhard Thür, 2016), A Man of Many Interests: Plutarch on Religion, Myth, and Magic (with Lautaro R. Lanzillotta, 2019), Figures de sages, figures de philosophes dans l’oeuvre de Plutarque (with Olivier Guerrier, 2019), Crises (Staseis) and Changes (Metabolai): Athenian Democracy in the Making (with Breno Sebastiani, 2022). In 2023, he became the first Portuguese scholar appointed to the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique – Humaines & Sociales (CNRS – Paris) for the term 2023-28.
Nancy Bouidghaghen
Active collaborator of the Celtic Conference in Classics
nancy.bouidghaghen@gmail.com
Depuis 2006, Nancy Bouidghaghen est un membre actif des CCC, en particulier du séminaire international sur Sparte.
Afin de renforcer la participation des chercheurs francophones, Nancy Bouidghaghen est désormais la coordinatrice de la sphère francophone pour les CCC.
Elle a fait des études d’histoire à l’université de Sorbonne-Paris IV puis à l’université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense. Ses travaux ont porté sur les guerres proches et guerres lointaines à Sparte de 525 à 338 avant J.-C. (sous la direction du professeur O. Picard) et sur les images du guerrier spartiate chez Hérodote (sous la direction du professeur P. Carlier). Elle a publié ” ‘Ceux dont j’ai appris le nom’ : Hérodote et les Thermopyles” paru dans Das antike Sparta, dirigé par A. Powell & V. Pothou (Steiner Verlag, 2017). Directeur de thèse: M. Jean-Yves CARREZ-MARATRAY.
En 2023, elle soutient sa thèse de doctorat intitulée “La belle mort spartiate : l’histoire française d’un mirage européen au XXe siècle”, sous la direction de Jean-Yves Carrez-Maratray (Université Sorbonne Paris Nord).
Nancy a vécu plus d’une décennie en Angleterre puis au Canada avant de retourner en France. Depuis 2018, elle vit de nouveau en Angleterre.
