From 11th January until 5th February Prof Alastair Blanshard of University of Queensland, Australia will be the IAS Visiting Fellow in the Department of Classics and Ancient History. Alastair will be participating in a number of events co-organised with different departments during his Fellowship.

For the full programme see: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/classics/research/seminars/iasvisitingfellow2016/

Students and visiting academics took part in a debate on Histories of Freedom of Speech, Ancient and Modern.

Dr Suzanne Frey-Kupper introduced the event, part of the Humanities Research Centre's Warwick 50 celebration, by highlighting two anniversaries, the 50th anniversary of the University of Warwick and the 75th anniversary of the war-time Coventry Blitz.

Aristophanes' female characters Mika (Maheen Rizvi) and Lysistrata (Sasha Desai), as performed by Warwick undergraduates, demonstrated the problems of free speech within Athenian democracy, our first taste of the complications of ancient free speech. Thomas Matthews-Boehmer and Emma Johnson, directors of our undergraduate Classics plays, spoke about the complications of transferring Aristophanes' comedies, with their ancient ideas and humour, to the modern stage.

Our guests Prof Paul Cartledge, Dr Katie Fleming and Prof Robert Fine each spoke briefly about the history of free speech, from Athens to the present day, Socrates to Charlie Hebdo, demonstrating that it has always been a problematic and contested idea; Dr Dan Orrells then chaired a lively discussion between the panellists and students in the audience.

Highlights and more pictures from the event via Storify

Dr Michael Scott has been appointed a Foundation Fellow in the Warwick International Higher Education Academy. More details can be found here: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/academy/

On June 1st, Dr Michael Scott's latest documentary 'Rome's Invisible City', co-presented with Xander Armstrong, aired on BBC1 at 9pm. The show was watched by over 4.4 millions viewers and received very favourable reviews in print, on line and from the BBC Audience Appreciation Index system. Michael live-tweeted during the programme to answer comments and questions. You can still see the programme on BBC iplayer until June 28th: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05xxl4t You can follow Michael's tweets by searching for #invisiblerome

As Islamic State fighters clash with Syrian government forces around the historic site, it is worth considering what the loss of this wonder, dubbed the "Venice of the Sands", would mean for the world's cultural heritage.