After his doctorate (Cambridge), James taught full-time across the Classics curriculum at the University of Cambridge (2013-2016), including positions as Bye-Fellow at Fitzwilliam College and Director of Studies in Classics at Corpus Christi and Sidney Sussex College. In 2017 he took up a Woolf-Fisher Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for independent research based at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He took on the role of Lead Tutor and Lecturer in Latin at Trinity College, Oxford, in 2018-19. A DAAD-PRIME Research Fellowship (2019-21) supported a second independent postdoctoral project based at Universität Potsdam and Università degli Studi di Firenze, where he was based as a Visiting Researcher (Lettere Classiche) in 2019-20. In early 2021 James taught at Universität Rostock, before returning to New Zealand as Visiting Fellow in Classics at Victoria University. In January 2022 he took up a role as Researcher/Analyst in the Research Team of the Waitiangi Tribunal Unit of the New Zealand Ministry of Justice, conducting research related to a range of the Tribunal’s inquiries. In March 2023 he took up the Lise Meitner Research Fellowship, which supported his third independent postdoctoral project, based at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Neo-Latin Studies. During this project he was Visiting Fellow in Classics at Trinity College, Oxford, in 2023-24. The project produced a monograph, William Camden’s Annales of Elizabeth I: Antiquity and the Present, the first book-length study of Camden’s seminal history of the reign of Elizabeth I, forthcoming in the Bloomsbury Academic Neo-Latin series. A collected volume, Early Modern Receptions of Tacitus: High Tacitism, co-edited with Prof. Victoria Pagán (Florida), is also forthcoming with Bloomsbury; several book chapters treat further aspects of Camden’s Annales and Britannia. In Autumn 2025 James worked under the Boltzmann Gesellschaft’s Expert Internship Programme in the departments of Kulturvermittlung and Communication and Marketing at the Tiroler Landesmuseen and contributed to interactive educational stations for the exhibit Aufgespürt, on provenance research, at the Tiroler Volkskunstmuseum (June 2026-April 2027). In early 2026 James was Basel Fellow in Latin Literature, working on a project on Tacitus’ Germania at the Departement Altertumswissenschaften at Universität Basel.

• 2009-2013: PhD in Classics, University of Cambridge (Trinity College)
  • Supervisor: Dr. Christopher Whitton
  • Trinity College External Research Studentship; Woolf Fisher Scholarship; Cambirdge Commonwealth Trusts Special Bursary
• 2007-2008: MA with Distinction in Classics, Victoria University of Wellington (VUW)
  • VUW Masters by Thesis Scholarship
• 2006: First Class Honours in Latin (BA Hons), VUW
  • VUW Graduate Scholarship
  • Victoria Medal for Academic Excellence for top student in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
• 2005-2006:       DAAD Semester Scholarship: Humboldt University, Berlin
• 2003-2005: BA with triple major in Latin, Ancient Greek and German, VUW
  • VUW Erasmus Scholarship

• 2022-2025: Lise Meitner Fellowship administered by FWF, Austrian Science Fund (€200,000+)
• 2019-2021: DAAD-Prime Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (€121,387.65)
• 2017-2018: Woolf Fisher Postdoctoral Scholarship (NZ$52,000)

• William Camden’s Annales: Antiquity and the Present
  Bloomsbury Academic Neo-Latin Series: Studies in Early Modern Latin
  Publication date planned: 13 May 2027

• (2021) ‘Pliny, Tacitus and the Monuments of Pallas’
  Classical Quarterly 71.1, pp. 308-329.
  Open access
  DOI: 10.1017/S0009838821000203
  
• (2020) ‘Portrayal of Germani in German Latin Textbooks, 1945-1989’
  International Journal of the Classical Tradition 29, 103-124, published 2 November 2020.
  Open access
  DOI: 10.1007/s12138-020-00581-0
  
• (2020) ‘The Portrayal of Germani in German Latin Textbooks, 1989-2009’
  Syllecta Classica 30, 73-108.
  DOI: 10.1353/syl.2020.0003
  
• (2015) ‘Lehrbuchgermanen: the representation of the Germani in Latin textbooks in Germany from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century’
  Pegasus Onlinezeitschrift 15.1, 83-155.
  ISSN: 1861-499X

• Chapter, peer-reviewed and accepted; publication scheduled for late 2026:
  ‘Ireland in William Camden’s Britannia: state description and contemporary politics’ in Lukas Reddemann and Karl Enenkel eds, Design, Depiction, and Propaganda. Early Modern State Descriptions in an Interdisciplinary Perspective. Intersections (Brill).
  
• Chapter, peer-reviewed and accepted (publication scheduled 4 March 2027)
  ‘Tacitus and Tacitism in William Camden’s Annales of the Reign of Elizabeth I’, in James McNamara and Victoria Emma Pagán (eds) Early Modern Receptions of Tacitus: High Tacitism.
  
• Co-authored introduction, peer-reviewed and accepted (publication scheduled 4 March 2027):
  James McNamara and Victoria Emma Pagán, ‘Introduction’ in James McNamara and Victoria Emma Pagán (eds) Early Modern Receptions of Tacitus: High Tacitism.
  
• (2026) ‘Shaping the Narrative in William Camden’s Annales: Walter Devereux, First Earl of Essex and Tacitean Models’ in C. Ferradou (ed.), Histoire et politique: l’utilisation des historiens de l’Antiquité dans l’enfléchissement idéologique des oeuvres de la Renaissance, Neuville-sur-Saône, 33-42.
  Open access.
  Digital ISBN: 978-2-313-06840-3
  
• (2021) ‘Lost in Germania: The Absence of History in Tacitus’ Ethnography’
  In: T. Geue, E. Giusti (eds.) Unspoken Rome: Absences in Latin Literature and its Reception, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 201-18.
  ISBN: 9781108843041
  DOI: 10.1017/9781108913843.012
  
• (2021) ‘I confini del mondo nell’Agricola di Tacito’
  In:  M.L. Delvigo (ed.) Centro e periferia nella letteratura latina di Roma imperiale. Lingue antiche e Moderne. Strumenti, Udine: Forum editrice universitaria udinese, 35-52.
  ISBN: 978-88-3283-246-4
  
• (2019) ‘The Monstrosity of Cato in Lucan’s Civil War’
  In: G.M. Chesi, F. Spiegel (eds.) Classical Literature and Posthumanism, London: Bloomsbury Academic, 167-74.
  DOI: 10.5040/9781350069534.ch-012

• Under contract and accepted: publication scheduled for 4 March 2027
  James McNamara and Victoria Emma Pagán (eds) Early Modern Receptions of Tacitus: High Tacitism
  Bloomsbury Neo-Latin Series: Studies in Early Modern Latin.
   
• (2022) James McNamara & Victoria Emma Pagán (eds) Tacitus’ Wonders: Empire and Paradox in Ancient Rome, London: Bloomsbury Academic.
  ISBN: 9781350241749
  https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/tacitus-wonders-9781350241725
  
• (2022) ‘Wonders in the Agricola and Germania’ in James McNamara and Victoria Emma Pagán (eds), Tacitus’ Wonders: Empire and Paradox in Ancient Rome, London: BloomsburyAcademic.
   
• (2022) [with Victoria Emma Pagán], ‘Introduction’ in Tacitus’ Wonders: Empire and Paradox in Ancient Rome, London: Bloomsbury Academic.

• 10 Articles for The Tacitus Encyclopedia, ed. Victoria Pagán, 2023.
  • 1. Curtius Montanus, 500 words.
  • 2. Calpurnius Piso, Gaius, 1000 words.
  • 3. Germania, Germani, 3000 words.
  • 4. Ubii, 750 words.
  • 5. Cherusci, 750 words.
  • 6. Batavia, Batavi, 750 words.
  • 7. Bructeri, 750 words.
  • 8. Suebi, 1000 words.
  • 9. Nerthus Tribes, 750 words.
  • 10. Marcomanni, 750 words.

• ‘Romani Praeceptores Germaniae’, New Zealand Association of Classics Teachers’ Bulletin,36.1 (2009) 15-23.

• Chapter submitted for edited volume, February 2026:
  ‘Agricolan Tacitism in William Camden’s Britannia’Metaforms (Brill), volume edited by Jan Waszink: Tacitism: Ethics, Politics and Europe.

• 2026     Bloomsbury Academic, London
• 2025     Pàtron editore, Florence
• 2023     Terminus,Kraków
• 2023     Acta Conventus Neolatini,International Association for Neo-Latin Studies
• 2022    Millenium
• 2021     Lettere antiche e moderne, Udine
• 2019     Australasian postgraduate Classics journal Amphora

• Sept 2025    Tacitism: Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw
  – Reorienting Tacitism: Agricolan Tacitism in William Camden’s Britannia
• July 2025    International Association for Neo-Latin Studies, Aix-Marseille Université
  – William Camden’s Annales: transformations of classical literature
• April 2025  Early Modern State Descriptions, Universität Münster
  – William Camden’s Britannia: the bounds of history and chorography in Hibernia
• May 2024    The Early Modern Transnational Book, University of Manchester
  – Paper: William Camden’s Annales: Publication History and Early Reception
• May 2024    Ijsewijn Laboratorium in Neo-Latin Studies, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
  – Paper: William Camden’s Annales Rerum Anglicarum et Hibernicarum Regnante Elizabetha and its Classical and Neo-Latin Contexts
• May 2024    Revisiting the Death of Charles IX and its Aftermath: Continuity and Change in French Politics, Society, and Culture, c. 1574-1584, Maison Française d’Oxford
  – Paper: External Perspectives on the Death of Charles IX: the narrative focus of William Camden’s Annales (1615)
• Dec. 2023    Histoire et politique: l’utilisation des historiens de l’Antiquité dans les oeuvres de la Renaissance. Aix-Marseille Université
  – Paper: Ancient history and contemporary politics in William Camden’s Annales
• July 2023    William Camden and his World, Society of Antiquaries, London
  – Paper: ‘Antiquity and the Present: the Classics in Camden’s Annales’
• May 2022    L’eredità di Roma antica in età moderna, Università degli Studi di Firenze (online)
  – Paper: ‘Antiquity and the Present: Ancient History and Contemporary Politics in William Camden’s Annales’
• Jul. 2021     BioRom conference: ‘Othering and the Other: Performing Identity in the Roman Empire’, Universidade de Évora, Portugal (online)
  – Paper: ‘Getting in touch with Rome’s roots: self-othering and the ethnographic tradition’
• Mar. 2021   Antiquity and Immersivity, University of Bristol (online)
  – Paper: ‘Immersivity and Exoticism: Ecphrastic Rhetoric in Statius’ Silvae and Tacitus’ Germania’
• Jan. 2021    Invited speaker at ‘Centro e periferia nella letteratura latina di Roma imperiale’, Università degli Studi di Udine (online)
  – Paper: ‘I confini del mondo nell’Agricola di Tacito’
• Nov. 2019   Invited speaker at seminar on the Tacitus Encyclopedia Project, Università degli Studi di Genova
  – Paper: ‘Questions of identity: entries on Curtius Montanus and the Suebi’
• April 2019  Invited speaker at Royal Holloway seminar ‘Tacitus for the 21st Century’ convened by Prof. Richard Alston, Dr. Henrietta van Blom and Dr. Siobhan Chomse
  – Paper: ‘The fright of the mind: philosophy and its limits in the Agricola and the Germania’
• Jan. 2018    Australasian Society for Classical Studies, University of Queensland
  – Paper: ‘Tacitus’ Germania and ecphrasis’
• June 2017   Unspeaking Volumes: Absence in Latin Texts, University of St Andrews
  – Paper: ‘Ethnographic absences in Tacitus’ Germania’
• Jan 2017     Australasian Society for Classical Studies, Victoria University of Wellington
  – Paper: ‘Tacitus and Claudius the historian’

• July 2026         Special Research Area: Neo-Latin in the Modern World, Universität Innsbruck
  – Note-taking and imitatio in Camden’s Annales
• May 2026        Departement Altertumswissenschaften, Universität Basel
  – Tacitus’ Germania: Looking beyond the ethnographic tradition
• Jan 2025          Classical and Neo-Latin seminar, University of Innsbruck
  – Making and forgetting a classic: Elizabeth I after the Annales
• July 2024         Classical and Neo-Latin seminar, University of Innsbruck
  – Camden’s Annales: questions of authorship
• Feb 2024          Awe and Wonder (University of London, School of Advanced Study. Institute of Classical Studies)
  – Is awe out of date? Perspectives on awe and cultural history in the early Roman principate
• Jan 2024          Trinity College Classics Society, Oxford
  – Camden’s Annales: a Neo-Latin History
• Sept 2023         Forum Neolatinum, Innsbruck
  – Progress report on ‘Antiquity and the Present in Camden’s Annales’
• June 2023        Forum Neolatinum, Innsbruck
  – Natural phenomena in Camden’s Annales
• April 2023       Forum Neolatinum, Innsbruck
  – Modes of intertextuality in Camden’s Annales
• March 2021     Australian National University (online)
  – The Groves of Germania: Poetics, Ethnography, Knowledge
• Dec. 2020         Universität Rostock, klassische Philologie (online)
  – In nemora et lucos: poetische Begegnungen in der Germania des Tacitus
• 2019                Oxford University seminar series on the Appendix Vergiliana:
  – ‘Catalepton 4 & 11’
• 2019                Oxford University Classical Language and Literature sub-faculty seminar
  – ‘Tacitus’ Germania and didactic literature’
• 2018                Trinity College Classics Society, Oxford
  – ‘The groves of Tacitus’ Germania’
• 2018                University of Otago Classics Research Seminar
  – ‘The ends of the earth in Tacitus’ Agricola’
• 2017                Victoria University Classics Research Seminar
  – ‘Lost in Germania: confronting the unknown in Tacitus’ Germanic ethnography’
• 2017                Victoria University Classics Research Seminar
  – ‘Pliny’s letters on the monument of Pallas’
• 2014                 Literature Seminar, Faculty of Classics, Cambridge
  – ‘Lucan 9.587-699: practical Stoicism and exemplarity’

• 2024  Co-organiser of ‘Reinventing Tacitus: The Dynamics of Reappropriation’ at Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Neo-Latin Studies, Innsbruck, 26-27 September
  – Co-organisation with Prof. Victoria Pagán (University of Florida)
  – Funding from Austrian Science Fund, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Neo-Latin Studies and University of Florida
  – Keynote speakers: Dr. Shushma Malik, University of Cambridge; Dr. Claudio Buongiovanni, Università Luigi Vanvitelli, Naples; Dr. Lucie Claire, Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens
  – Contributors from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, UK.
  – Volume under contract, peer-reviewed and accepted by Bloomsbury Academic: Early Modern Receptions of Tacitus: High Tacitism
  
• 2018     Organiser of ‘Tacitus’ Wonders’ conference at VUW, New Zealand, 27-29 August
  – Secured research funding, managed the budget, allocated subsidies for student participants, organising the academic programme, liaising with contributors and making practical arrangements with the university, catering etc.
  – Keynote speaker: Prof. Victoria Pagán (University of Florida)
  – Funding from Woolf Fisher Trust (NZ), Australasian Society of Classical Studies (NZ & AU), and Victoria University
  – Contributors from New Zealand, Australia, USA, China, Germany
  – Volume emerging from conference (Tacitus’ Wonders) published with Bloomsbury Academic in 2022

• University of Rostock (2021):  
  • Course co-ordinator, L3 reading course: Tacitus, Germania
    
• University of  Oxford (2018-19):          
  • Director of Studies and Lead Tutor in Latin, Trinity College
  • Chair of College Admissions Committee for Classics
  • Teaching across full breadth of Latin in literae humaniores
  • Collaborative teaching for Texts and Contexts
    
• University of Cambridge (2010-2016):
  • Director of Studies in Classics, Corpus Christi College: 2014-16
  • Director of Studies in Classics, Sidney Sussex College: 2015-16
  • Supervisions across Classics tripos in Latin literature; Greek literature
  • Supervisions in Latin language; Greek language
  • Classics Faculty reading courses
  • Classics Faculty ab initio Greek course
  • BA dissertation supervision
  • Board of Examiners, Faculty of Classics
  • Admissions interviews
    
• Victoria University of Wellington (2007-9 and 2017-18):          
  • Course co-ordination, lecturing, assessment: Latin Language, including ab initio and intensive courses (BA years 1 and 2)
  • Lecture courses and assessment: Latin language and literature, BA years 2 and 3; BA Hons.
  • Tutorials: Roman Social History (years 2 and 3); Roman History (year 1)
  • Graduate Reading Group