I hope you’ve all had a productive Study Week and managed to relax a little.
Our newsletter returns after a week’s break during which I ‘ve managed to collect a number of contributions. I am really delighted to see the positive reactions that the newsletter has elicited this year! This week’s issue is going to be longer than usual, but is probably one of the best so far! Please scroll to the very end…
Contents:
- Congratulations, Dr Leah Hewerdine!
- An Academic Update from our Undergraduate Education Leads: “Meet the Academic” and “Mid-module Surveys
- Our alumna, Aria Mia Loberti, the star of Netflix’s All the Light we cannot see; a film review by Dr Nick Lowe
- “City of Athens” trip to Athens: a report and… a video!
Congratulations to Dr Leah Hewerdine!
Our PhD student, Leah Hewerdine, was successful in her PhD viva examination last week. We can now call her Dr Leah Hewerdine! In next week’s issue of the newsletter will feature a short abstract of her PhD thesis. Congratulations, Dr Hewerdine from everyone in the Classics Department!
An Academic Update from our Undergraduate Education Leads
“Meet the Academic” is an new departmental initiative, an opportunity for our students to get to know our members of staff. Dr Liz Gloyn, joint-Undergraduate Education Lead, writes: “Thanks to everyone who came along to our inaugural Meet The Academic session on Wednesday! Dr. Nick Lowe gave a rip-roaring tour through his intellectual journey thus far, with highlights including one of his two Neil Gaiman anecdotes and a picture of a most peculiar pup, before everyone enjoyed fizzy drinks, crisps and good conversation. Our next Meet The Academic session will be on Wednesday 17th January, 4-5pm, when our speaker will be Dr. Emilio Zucchetti.” Mark the date in your diaries!
Mid-module Surveys
Dr Erica Rowan, joint-Undergraduate Education Lead with Dr Gloyn, would like to remind 2nd and 3rd year students that mid-module surveys should be filled this week on a number of modules: “Thanks to everyone for filling in the mid-module surveys running in second and final year modules over the last week. Instructors will be looking at the results and getting back to you in classes next week.” This is an important means for collecting student views, especially as we are preparing for the National Student Survey that our 3rd years will have to fill in early next term.
Our alumna, Aria Mia Loberti, is the star of Netflix’s All the Light We Cannot See + a film review by Dr Nick Lowe
Aria Mia Loberti, the star of Netflix’s All the Light We cannot see, arrived at Royal Holloway in September 2020 to pursue our MRes in Rhetoric. Aria impressed those of us who taught her with her gentleness, intelligence, tenacity, and deep-seated desire to make a difference in the world. She and Ingrid, her loyal and hard-working Labrador guide dog, us left us in August of 2021 to return to the US, where Aria had already accepted a place at the University of Pennsylvania to pursue a PhD in Rhetoric. She randomly found out about auditions for a lead role in a new Netflix series and, just like that, was given the role of Marie-Laure, a blind young French woman, in an adaptation of Anthony Doerr’s best-seller, All the Light We Cannot See. The Netflix series starring Aria premiered last Thursday. We hope that Aria will be able to return to Royal Holloway before too long…!
Our resident film critic, Dr Nick Lowe, has just written the following review of the series (only 389 words!)
“Reactions to this series have been mixed, particularly from admirers of Anthony Doerr's much-loved source novel. (I personally prefer his more audacious followup Cloud Cuckoo Land, not least for a prominent Classics angle that isn't what you might think.) Steven Knight's adaptation cracks the intricate non-linear narrative pretty well, but his cast find themselves battling not just cartoon Nazi villains but schlocky on-the-nose dialogue which proves tough even for hardened veterans like Hugh Laurie to speak straight-faced, even without the obstacles of language and accent barriers. (French characters have posh British accents to shadow Laurie’s, but German cast stick with their own, while British actors playing Nazis just have to lay one on, and wow do they.)
All this puts a lot of weight on delivery, one of several areas where Aria absolutely kills it – particularly over her principal scene-partner Mark Ruffalo, who visibly struggles with basic line readings. If you can imagine the Hulk trying to do an accent, this is worse, though he’s about to reprise the performance in Yorgos Lanthimos’ otherwise brilliant Poor Things, where at least his character is intentionally ludicrous. In contrast, even though Aria was only in the UK for a year, which is less time than Ruffalo has spent here on Avengers shoots alone, I suspect many viewers will just assume she's a local stage-school veteran who's been doing this stuff for years, rather than a doctoral student for whom all this is just a side gig.
But she's also very good at subtle physicalities, and for those who know the offscreen Aria her transformation and craft are pretty astounding for a complete first-timer, particularly as it involves playing an alien nationality, voice, and age. She's not given as much inner life to work with as her vastly more experienced young co-star Louis Hofmann (from Dark, and lately seen as Lucilius in Seneca), and I’m not sure you get a full sense of her own innate sharpness and brilliance in what remains a shockingly underwritten lead role in a series that suffers badly from Netflix bloat, with the final episode having to pad out what’s essentially a single rather silly scene. But Aria’s is a career-making turn; at the very least, I bet she's getting a ton of offers from Australian horror films, in which you have to admit she'd be great.”
“City of Athens” trip to Athens: a report and… a video!
Last but not least, the expected report from the “City of Athens” student group that Prof. Jari Pakkanen took out to Athens last week...
“We had a fantastic time on this trip, not only was it a great way of solidifying the knowledge we’ve gained in the lectures, but it was such a fun experience. Although we have learned so much about the sites, nothing compares to seeing these artefacts in person and we are very grateful to have had this opportunity to further our classics knowledge. It was a privilege to have other specialists join us at various sites and share their knowledge and works with us. Jari [Prof. Jari Pakkanen] made the trip extra special by recommending us lots of lovely restaurants and places to visit as well as taking us for a welcoming dinner which was one of the highlights of the trip. Not only did we learn about ancient Greek culture but also modern and we enjoyed trying traditional Greek dishes such as Pastitsio and Souvlaki (and Ouzo!). Our favourite activity was hiking to the top of the Pnyx and seeing an incredible view of the city as well as the coast, we ended up going back to the top of the hill a further two times in our free time fuelled by the buzz of endorphins and the gyros in our stomachs! We collectively agree this trip was one of the best weeks of our lives and we enjoyed every moment and have already spoken about going back! We are very thankful to Jari and the classics department for this memorable adventure we went on.”
(Madeleine, Emily, Tom, Dominik, James and Gethin)
Enjoy fantastic video they made - and please remember to subscribe to our channel (https://www.youtube.com/@rhulclassics/), if you haven’t already done so!
Christos
