Dr Tatiana Bur

Tatiana joined the ANU’s Centre for Classical Studies as a Lecturer in Classics in 2023. Prior to this, she was the Moses and Mary Finley Research Fellow at Darwin College, University of Cambridge. Tatiana is a graduate of the University of Sydney where she completed her undergraduate studies and MPhil. She then undertook her PhD at Trinity College, University of Cambridge and was the recipient of the Hare Prize in Classics. In 2025, she was named as one of the Australian Academy of the Humanities 'Rising Stars' and was also an ABC Humanities Top 5 winners. She has appeared twice on the ABC's award-winning podcast No One Saw it Coming with Marc Fennel.

Tatiana is an ancient Greek cultural historian with particular interests in ancient technology, entertainment, and religion. In 2025, Tatiana founded Fulcrum - Australasia's network for pre-modern science and technology.

Tatiana's gold open-access monograph Technologies of the Marvellous in Ancient Greek Religion (Cambridge University Press) considers how mechanics and religion interacted in the ancient Greek world. You can listen to her speak about the book in an interview with the New Books Network. With colleagues Dr Maria Gerolemou (JHU) and Prof Isabel Ruffel (UGlasgow), Tatiana has edited a volume bringing together international scholars on the topic of Technological Animation in Classical Antiquity (Oxford University Press). Tatiana is currently a CI in the ARC-funded Discovery Project 'Night Vision in the Late Ancient Mediterranean' (2025-2027). 

As an active collaborator of the Popsicule, ANU's Science in Popular Culture and Entertainment Hub, Tatiana loves being involved in conversations beyond the Classical world, and has loved partaking in the SCIENCE.ART.FILM series at the National Film and Sound Archive.

In 2024, Tatiana was the recipient of the Vice-Chancellor’s Awards for Teaching Excellence (Early Career). Tatiana has written for the Conversation, ABC Religion and Ethics, appeared on the The Week Junior's Mysteries of Science Podcast, spoken on The Secret History of Western Esotericism Podcast, the Australasian Humour Network's research podcast 'Cutting Edge', and featured on the APAC Network.

Tatiana is French-Australian and has lived in France, Australia, Spain, England and Portugal. She is passionate not just about ancient Greece and Rome, but about languages and cultures (ancient and modern) more broadly.

BA (Ancient history/Spanish and Latin American Studies) (Usyd), Dip.Arts (Ancient Greek and Latin) (Usyd), MPhil (Ancient History) (Usyd), PhD (Classics) (Cantab.)

• Ancient Greek history, literature and culture
• Ancient Greek religion
• Greek and Roman science and technology, especially mechanics
• Ancient automata
• Intersection of science and religion in antiquity
• Wonders and marvels in antiquity
• Ancient theatrical and paratheatrical entertainment