Guest Lecturers

    • Dr Cora Beth Fraser is a classicist living in the North East of England  currently working as an Open University Associate Lecturer on undergraduate and postgraduate Classics modules.She is an Honorary Research Associate at the Open University, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a member of the ACCLAIM Network and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Cora Beth is proud to be a member of the Lego Classicists Family, and holder of a Recognition of Excellence in Teaching Award from the OU. She is also on the EDI Committee of the Council of University Classics Departments, and is passionate about widening participation in Classics.  In 2021 Cora Beth founded Asterion, an organisation dedicated to representing and celebrating neurodiversity in Classics. You can read some of her articles and interviews on my Asterion Profile.  Cora Beth is autistic, a single parent and the servant of two opinionated black cats. In her spare time she paints, illustrate and designs bookplates.Dr Cora Beth Fraser is presented two guest lectures online hosted by Dr Gina May.
    • Ellen Boekee MA is a linguist and scholar living in North Norfolk, Ellen discovered the Open University after disability forced her to abandon a Latin and Ancient History Joint Honours degree course at University of Wales Lampeter.  Having completed a BA (Hons) in History with the OU, she signed up for the MA Classical Studies and was assigned Gina as her tutor.  Ellen quickly developed a strong interest in the portrayals of grief and mourning in Roman literature, and wrote her second year dissertation on ‘Death and Dignitas: how did the observance of the traditional rituals of grief affect the perception of a Roman father in the public eye?’.  She earned a MA Classical Studies with distinction in 2016.
      After Gina May’s lockdown Classics classes, seminars and quizzes lured Ellen back to the world of academia in 2020, she continued working with Gina as a peer mentor on the Developing Research Ideas course, and is now pursuing further research into the theory and practice of grief and mourning in Roman literature during the final years of the Republic and the first century of Empire, with a special interest in the writings of Cicero and Ovid.      Ellen is presented a set of four lectures which work together to provide a really in-depth understanding of the importance of death and dying in Rome.  These were of particular interest to those studying Death and its rituals in Rome.