Dr Jasmine Hunter Evans

Professional biography

My research unites ancient and modern literature, visual artwork, cultural and political discourse, and intellectual history, through the ways in which the classical world, particularly ancient Rome, was reimagined across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

While I am fascinated by the reception of Rome and of Latin literature in the works of many writers, artists, historians and philosophers, my monograph focuses on the Anglo-Welsh, Catholic, First World War veteran David Jones (1895-1974). Across his drawings, watercolours, unique painted inscriptions, poetic fragments, letters and essays, Jones shaped his conception of modern Western civilisational decline on a creative and dynamic reimagining of ancient Rome. His vision of Rome was not founded on a classical education but fashioned instead from his engagement with contemporary dialogues surrounding Rome’s relationship with the modern world. In this way, Jones’s works become a lens through which we can explore Rome’s position in complex areas of twentieth-century discourse such as imperial rhetoric, cyclical history, the Catholic intellectual revival, and the Welsh nationalist movement.

Working across disciplines and engaging deeply with archives has led to my discovery of lost filmed interviews and the digitisation, public screening and sharing of new materials. Building on this research, I am currently collaborating on projects exploring innovations in archival methodologies and developing publications on creative approaches to marginalia and fragmentation.

Selected Publications:

David Jones and Rome: Reimagining the Decline of Western Civilisation (Oxford University Press: Classical Presences Series, 2022).

‘Reimagining Nationhood: Welsh Nationalism’s claim that “Rome is our mother”’, in Peck (ed.), Nationalism, Patriotism, Ancient and Modern (London: Pickering & Chatto, forthcoming).

‘“The first experiences are the things that stay”: The Lost 1973 Mabon Studios Interview with David Jones’, in Henderson Staudt, Price-Owen and Berenato (eds.), David Jones on Religion, Politics and Culture: Unpublished Prose, Modernist Archive Series (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018), 269-303.

‘“The Agent”: Probing into Agency’, David Jones Special Issue, Religion & Literature 49. 1 (Spring 2018), 2-8.

‘Introduction: Towards a Theology of History’, David Jones Special Issue, Religion & Literature 49. 1 (Spring 2018), 2-8.

‘Bridging the Breaks: David Jones and the Continuity of Culture’, Flashpoint, no.18 (Summer 2016).

‘“You’re awfully unorthodox David”: Saunders Lewis’s Lost 1965 Film Interview with David Jones’, New Welsh Review (May 2014), 24-31.

Selected Conference Papers:

2021: “History, they say, repeats herself”: Temporal Cycles in The Grail Mass’, in Mapping the Artist’s Mind: The Grail Mass, Modernism, and Inscription (Washington Adventist University Honors College).

2019: ‘Inscriptional Practice as Cultural Preservation’, in Theory of Art; Theory of Culture Conference (Georgetown University).

2018: ‘New Insights from Lost Footage’, in Historicizing Modernism / Modernist Archives Conference, (University of York).

2015: ‘Recovering Radical Reception’: Welsh Nationalism’s Claim that “Rome is our Mother”’, in the Classical Association Conference (University of Bristol).

2014: ‘David Jones’s vision of Passchendaele’, in British Poetry of the First World War, English Association Conference (Wadham College, Oxford).

2014: ‘Re-imagining Rome at the Fall of Western Civilisation: David Jones and the Analogy of Decline’, in Classics and Classicists in the First World War Conference (University of Leeds).

Due to my interdisciplinary specialism, I have lectured on a wide range of Latin and Greek literature and on Roman history across Classics, English Literature and History, in particular tracing the reception of classical texts, ideas and artworks from the ancient world to the modern. I am currently working on the Part 1 module of our MA in Classical Studies (A863) and our new Myth module (A350).

Alongside my work in the Humanities, I have led MA modules in Education and professional development programmes for staff and postgraduate researchers. My interest in pedagogy led me to undertake the HEA’s Teaching Excellence Programme (2018) and complete both SFHEA accreditation and an MA in Professional Practice in Higher Education in 2021.

In my ongoing role as a trainer in the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement’s Associates Network I have the opportunity to share my expertise in research impact, public and community engagement and co-production.