Elizabeth Minchin

Who is Elizabeth Minchin?

Elizabeth Hume Minchin is an Australian classicist and Professor of Classics at the Australian National University. She is one of the two editors of Antichthon, the journal of the Australasian Society for Classical Studies.

After finishing her undergraduate degree at the University of Sydney, Minchin taught French, Latin, and Indonesian at Narrabundah College, Canberra. She subsequently completed her MA and PhD in Classics at the ANU.

Minchin's research focuses on the Homeric epics as oral poetry. Her main contribution is the application of cognitive psychology and sociolinguistics to the narratological studies of the Homeric epics. Her book Homer and the Resources of Memory draws on several forms of narratology and cognitive science, such as the script theory developed in the 1970s by Roger Schank and Robert Abelson. Her studies have encouraged classical scholars to recognise the continued relevance of linguistic studies for Homeric epic. Her 2007 book Homeric Voices: Discourse, Memory, Gender provides a compositional study of substantial speeches and exchanges of speech in Homeric songs.