Matthew Dillon

I can still remember as a child reading a lengthy version of Homer’s Odyssey written for 12-14 year olds, and a few years later I read J.C. Stobbart’s Glory That Was Greece and his The Grandeur That Was Rome. At school, our ancient history textbook was C. Roebuck’s classic, The World of Ancient Times. These books were inspiring and led me into my university ancient history career. I have had a life-long passion for ancient history, and in my career as my main priority I have sought to bring the ancient world not only to the academic community, but to spread knowledge of it to students, at both secondary and tertiary levels, and to the community.

I have an active engagement in my discipline area through an abiding research interest and ongoing publication record in ancient history, which feeds into my teaching and its strategic directions and pedagogy in the actual or e-virtual classroom. My teaching units at undergraduate and postgraduate levels are constructed around frameworks of historical problems and methodological discourses which students are guided to interact with as a set of learning challenges, to be intellectually pursued within the learning scaffolding of the resources I devise. I am a facilitator of student learning, inspiring and motivating students, and empowering them to identify key ideas, comprehend context, appreciate limitations, and become knowledgeable about ancient history through the study of original contextualised historical sources. All my units have student-focused curricula in which content and concepts are constructed for learners in logical, meaningful, and coherent ways. To inspire learning, my materials draw upon students’ previous knowledge, assist in building new perceptions, and develop comprehensive skills.UNE Units taughtANCH Ancient History109 (Of Gods, Heroes and Monsters: Foundation Myths of Antiquity)110 (Introduction to Greek History)111 (Introduction to Roman History)112 (Introduction to Egyptian and Near Eastern History)201/301 (Greek Democracy and Imperialism)202/302 (Unity and Disunity Among the Greeks)206/306 (The Disadvantaged in Classical Antiquity)211/311 (The Roman Political Tradition)304/504 (Citizen and Society in Classical Greece)312/512 (Rome Under the Caesars)314 (Roman Social History)321/521 (Mesopotamia and the Hittites)322/522 (Bronze Age Greece and the Aegean)323/523 (From the Pyramids to Ramesses the Great)324/524 (Egypt in the Age of the Pyramids)325/525 (New Kingdom Egypt)326/526 (Art and Architecture of the Ancient World)328/528 (Towns and Cities of the Ancient World)380 (Culture and Society in Ancient Greece and Rome)401H & 402H (Ancient History Honours); HIST401H & 402HClassical Studies research units; HASS301, 505, 506, 512, 518CLLA Classical Languages Greek & Latin texts taught:Aristophanes, Demosthenes, Euripides, Lysias, Herodotos, Homer, Lucian, Lysias, Gospel of Mark, Plato, Sophokles, Thucydides, Xenophon;Caesar, Sallust, Suetonius, Tacitus, Virgil.CLLA101CLLA102CLLA202CLLA301CLLA302CLLA304RELS Studies in Religion384/584 (Religions of the Ancient Near East)386/586 (Women in Religion)387/587 (Earliest Christianity: Social Context and Sacred Text)388/588 (The Pagan Religions of Ancient Greece and Rome)HIST History305/505 (Byzantine History AD 330-1056)308/508 (The Crusades)322 (History as Film)401H, 402H (History Honours)511 (Crime, Incarceration, Servitude: Historical Views)512 (Cities of the Ancient and Modern World)513 (Empires: Conquest and Conflict)595 (Understanding History)EXSC Exercise Science100 (The History and Practice of Sport)