Project summary
This five-year project (2004-2009) integrates three interrelated areas of academic enquiry which are normally separated in scholarly research. Its first strand is a study of Spartan social institutions from the perspective of comparable institutions at other times and places. A second strand is historiographical scrutiny of attempts in historical writings since the eighteenth century to illuminate Sparta through comparison with other societies. The third strand is an examination of the broader intellectual context of this historiography: the appropriation of Sparta in modern European thought involving explicit or implicit comparison with contemporary societies, both ‘civilised’ and ‘primitive’.

Project team
Project director: Professor Stephen Hodkinson
Postdoctoral research fellow: Dr Ian Macgregor Morris
Doctoral students: Applications are warmly encouraged from postgraduate students wishing to pursue doctoral research within the framework of the project or on topics related to it. Any postgraduate students wishing to enquire further about this possibility are warmly encouraged to contact Professor Stephen Hodkinson (stephen.hodkinson@nottingham.ac.uk). In addition to the usual sources of funding, we will be offering:
Two three-year AHRB-funded studentships open to United Kingdom and European Union applicants, available 2005-2008

Project Conference (September 2007)
An international conference on ‘Sparta: comparative approaches and classical tradition’ will be held in the University of Nottingham in early September 2007. The aim of the conference is bring together a range of work being done by scholars around the world on the three strands of the project: (i) the substantive study of classical Spartan institutions in the comparative context of other Greek poleis and/or societies at other times and places;
(ii) historiographical study of attempts in earlier classical scholarship to compare Sparta with other societies;
(iii) study of the broader intellectual appropriation of Sparta within modern European thought as a positive or negative comparative model for contemporary societies.

Anyone wishing to offer paper on any of these themes should contact Sparta@nottingham.ac.uk
(Please title your message: ‘Comparative Sparta conference 2007’.)