Mary Beard OBE, FBA, FSA is an English Classical scholar.
Beard became interested in the ancient world at the age of 5 after a trip to the British Museum in London. She attended Shrewsbury High School where she excelled, particularly in Latin and Greek. During the summer holidays she participated in local archaeological excavations.
In 1972 Beard took the entrance exam for Cambridge University. She had originally intended to go to Kings College, but they did not offer scholarships for women so she chose Newnham College. This was her first experience of the institutional prejudice toward women. While at University studying Classics – typically a more male dominated subject – she found that some men believed that women did not have the same academic capabilities as men, this only strengthened her desire to succeed. She began to develop feminist views that would only strengthen in her later life. She has said that she does not understand what it would be to be a woman without being a feminist.
Beard graduated with a first class degree and then went on to complete her PhD at Newnham. Her thesis was entitled The state religion in the late Roman Republic: a study based on the works of Cicero. She became a lecturer in classics in 1979 at Kings College London before becoming a Fellow and lecturer at Newnham College, Cambridge in 1984. At the time she was the only female lecturer in the classics faculty.
In 1985 Beard’s first book ‘Rome in the Late Republic’ was published. It was praised as an accessible and innovative account of Rome’s transformation into an Empire. It is a firm favourite with classics students. She married fellow classicist and art historian Robin Sinclair Cormack in the same year. In 1989 she published her only book on a subject other than history. The book contained hints and tips for working mums and was titled ‘Good Working Mother’s Guide’. She wrote the book while working and raising her two children. Beard became the classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement in 1992, she continues to hold the position.
After her book ‘Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town’ was published in 2008 she achieved wider fame, she won the 2008 Wolfson Prize for History and in 2010 presented a graphic historical documentary for the BBC based on her book. She aimed to show what the residents of Pompeii would have been doing prior to the eruption of Vesuvius. This led to further television appearances including Jamie’s Dream School (2011) and a three part series for BBC2 in 2012 showing how ordinary people lived in Rome called ‘Meet the Romans’.
In January 2013 Beard appeared on Question Time speaking positively about about immigrant workers. She received online abuse after her appearance, most of it horrifically misogynistic. She quoted the abuse on her blog, stating that she was free to express her opinions and present herself in public in an authentic way. After exposing the abuse she’d received she said that “Women are too often told just to shut up and don’t make a fuss and it’ll go away. But not this time.”
Beard is currently a Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge, a fellow of Newnham College, and Royal Academy of Arts professor of ancient literature. She is described as “Britain’s best-known classicist”.