Victoria Leonard


Victoria Leonard is a British Classicist specialising in the study of religion, gender, and the body in Late antiquity. She is a Post-Doctoral researcher at Royal Holloway, University of London and a research fellow at the Institute of Classical Studies.
She holds a PhD from Cardiff University. Leonard was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in July 2019.
She is a founding member and current steering committee member of the Women's Classical Committee UK, a group who aim to support women in Classics, promote feminist and gender-informed perspectives in Classics, raise the profile of the study of women in antiquity and Classical reception, and advance equality and diversity in Classics.

Select bibliography

  • Leonard, V. 2011. "Nefarious Acts and Sacrilegious Sacrifices: Live Burial in the Historia adversus paganos", in Alberto, J. Quiroga Puertas Hierà kaì lógoi. Estudios de literatura y de religión en la Antigüedad Tardía. 395–411.
  • Leonard, V. June 2016. "How we doubled the representation of female classical scholars on Wikipedia", '.
  • Leonard, V. 2017. "The Origin of Zealous Intolerance: Paulus Orosius and Violent Religious Conflict in the Early Fifth Century", Vigiliae Christianae 71, 261–284.
  • Leonard, V. December 2018. "Female scholars are marginalised on Wikipedia because it's written by men", '
  • Leonard, V. 2019. "Galla Placidia as ‘Human Gold’: Consent and Autonomy in the Sack of Rome, CE 410", Gender and History 31, 334–352.
  • Leonard, V. and Bond, S. 2019. "Advancing Feminism Online: Online Tools, Visibility, and Women in Classics", Studies in Late Antiquity 3, 4–16.
  • Leonard, V. and J. Wood. 2020. "History-writing and Education in Late Antique and Early Medieval Iberia", in Heydemann, G., and Reimitz, H. Historiography and Identity II: Post-Roman Multiplicity and New Political Identities. Belgium: Brepols, pp. 237–67
  • Leonard, V. 2020. "The Ideal Female: Hypatia of Alexandria and Distorting Patriarchal Narratives", in LaValle Norman, D., and Petkas, A. Hypatia of Alexandria: Her Context and Legacy. Mohr Siebeck. 171–192.
  • Bradley, M., Leonard, V., and Totelin, L. 2021. Bodily Fluids in Antiquity. Routledge.
  • Leonard, V. 2022. In Defiance of History: Orosius and the Unimproved Past. Routledge.