“As a newcomer to Denmark and to Aarhus University, it is a genuine honour to have been selected as the recipient of this year’s Victor Albeck award. Winning this prize as a researcher in the Humanities means a very great deal because it shows that Humanities research is valued at Aarhus University,” said Isabelle Torrance.

Isabelle Torrance began her research career at Aarhus University with a 3-year fellowship at AIAS (Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies) in 2016, coming from a tenured position as Associate Professor at the University of Notre Dame in the US. During her AIAS fellowship stay, Torrance was awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant for her project on “Classical Influences and Irish Culture” (CLIC) (2019-2024). The ERC grant has allowed her to establish her own research group, which is based at Aarhus University, where Isabelle Torrance is professor of Classical Reception in English and Other Modern European Literatures and Cultures since 2019.

Her CLIC research group is investigating how classical models expose the shifting political structures of the nation through the politics of language, of conflict, of (post)colonialism, of gender, of identity. As part of her CLIC project, Torrance is developing a database that allows for new interdisciplinary research within both classical and modern literature, whereby she is contributing to the development of the field of ‘Classical Reception Studies’.

Isabelle Torrance is trained as a classical philologist. She has an outstanding and productive research career behind her, with already seven books and numerous research articles published. Her interdisciplinary work and her ability to establish synergy between classical studies and modern history make her a sought-after speaker among her peers as well as for a broader public audience.

"At the Department of English, we are proud that Isabelle Torrance is receiving the new Victor Albeck Award, because she has created an energetic and exciting research environment. Isabelle´s research in Classical Reception Studies is based on elements that have been central to the department's profile for many years, especially Irish and postcolonial studies, and the classical tradition has a huge lasting relevance in English studies (and the humanities in general), whether you are talking about literature, language, or culture and society,” said Head of Department Dominic Rainsford 

Short bio of Isabelle Torrance

Isabelle Torrance earned her PhD in Classics from Trinity College Dublin in 2004 and has previously held teaching and research positions at Trinity College Dublin, the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, the University of Nottingham, the University of Notre Dame, and the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies; she has also visited Stanford University on an invited fellowship.

Her books include Aeschylus: Seven Against Thebes (London, 2007), Metapoetry in Euripides (Oxford, 2013), Oaths and Swearing in Ancient Greece (Berlin, 2014; co-authored), Aeschylus and War (London, 2017; edited volume), Euripides (London, 2019), Euripides: Iphigenia among the Taurians (London, 2019), and Classics and Irish Politics 1916-2016 (Oxford, 2020; co-edited volume). 

About the Victor Albeck Award
The Victor Albeck Award is a newly established award by the Aarhus University Research Foundation that acknowledges younger talented researchers who have contributed significantly to their research field. The recipient of the award is on top of the recognition given a prize of DKK 100,000.

Contact
Professor Isabelle Torrance, Professor, AIAS Former Fellow
School of Communication and Culture - English
itorrance@cc.au.dk
Phone: +4593522172
Twitter: @CLIC_ERC