Classicist, Ancient Historian and Archaeologist History teacher at Whitstable - William

I tutored the applicant in his third year in 2017/18: I supervised his third-year dissertation and he also did my course City of Athens. He was clearly at the top of his year group in archaeological subjects with a first for the course and a high upper second for his dissertation. He was very highly motivated in his studies and took part very actively in the classroom discussions. He was quite unfortunate to fall short of a first in his degree classification by a small fraction, considering the effort he put in his studies he would have deserved a first. I have no reservations at all in very warmly recommending the candidate to you.

I taught William in his final year in the Department of Classics at Royal Holloway for my topographical course on the City of Rome which also covers both historical and archaeological aspects of the ancient city. He was always an enthusiastic and assiduous student who got on well with peers and staff, actively participated in seminars, made good presentations during the compulsory field-trip to Rome, and produced solid essays. He found the topographical approach of the course challenging, but nevertheless achieved a mark in the middle of the 2.1 range. This was in fact his lowest mark across his final year, since he achieved a high 2.1 in his dissertation in the field of Mycenaean archaeology and first-class marks on both a historical course on Alexander the Great and a strictly archaeological course on the City of Athens. He was unlucky narrowly to miss a 1st class overall. Although I cannot comment directly on his teaching, I would expect him to be effective, and popular with students. I am therefore happy to recommend him to you.

Boris Rankov MA DPhil FSA
Professor of Ancient History and Head of Classics
Royal Holloway, University of London