Dr Ryan Denson

I am Assistant Professor for the Institute of Literary Studies at the University of Silesia in Katowice (Poland), working as part of the NCN-funded project “Beyond the Sacred: Conceptions of Nature in Byzantium (4th–15th centuries).” I am also an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter, where I completed my PhD in Classics and Ancient History in 2023. 

For an up-to-date listing of my research publications that includes forthcoming publications and other research works, see my full academic CV here

My research comprises four interrelated strands that span all periods of Greco-Roman antiquity, though often with a particular focus on the Late Antique and the Byzantine worlds: 

 1) Folklore 

Although popularly known by an antiquated definition confining such ideas to one class stratum alone, a more accurate definition of folklore as used by researchers today would be simply 'traditional informal culture'. These are the ideas, beliefs, and stories handed down outside of formal institutional structures and doctrines, often through oral means. Myths, legends, fables, fairy tales, and other narrative forms are embedded throughout sources of all periods and offer key insight into a variety of beliefs, systems of knowledge, and historical mentalities. 

In relation to this strand, I am a member of the editorial advisory board for the Folklore and Traditional Narrative in Antiquity Series  published by the University of Exeter Press and is led by Daniel Ogden as the series editor. 

2) Ecocriticism and Environmental Studies

Recent decades have seen much research in the Environmental Humanities as our current ecological crisis forces us to examine how humans engage with and think about the natural world. Much of my own contributions to this trend have concerned the Greco-Roman marine world. I am also working on a series of articles concerning Late Antique and Byzantine hexaemeral literature (Christian commentaries on the six-day creation narrative). This understudied genre is particularly vital for understanding early Christian ideas about the nature, and it is also the focus of several collaborative projects with my Byzantinist colleagues at Katowice. 

Another prominent feature of this research strand has been co-organizing the Imaginative Landscapes and Otherworlds (ILO)  project, an annual online conference focused on analyzing how different cultures construct fantastical landscapes and otherworldly environments with a different theme for each year. This conference series explores a wide range of ideas beyond the field of Classics alone. Previous speakers have given papers spanning from ancient Chinese folklore and Near Eastern literature up to modern science fiction and digital folklore. 

To date, the ILO project has produced two special issues (The first in 2024 on Space and Liminality  and the second in 2026 on The Liminality of Water and Aqueous Realms). A third special issue on the theme of Animate Beings is in progress (expected Autumn 2027), while an edited volume on the theme of The Alterity of Deserts and Arid Environments is being planned.

3) Cultural Constructions of the Supernatural, Monsters, and Mythological Figures

While humans necessarily engage with the natural world, most cultures also possess some conception of the 'supernatural' - a category for what is construed as beyond the natural in one way or another. Ideas about gods, ghosts, monsters, along with other beings and phenomena offer us another crucial means to explore how humans view and interact with the world around them as one often conceptualized as thriving with a variety of (unseen) forces and entities. 

One major aspect of this strand is a monograph that I am currently writing on the ancient Greek god Triton, the pluralized Tritons, and their reception up to the modern world, This is under contract with Routledge for their Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World Series. 

4) Imaginary Animal Studies 

Not unrelated to the Environmental Humanities, the subfield of Animal Studies has been particularly prominent in recent years, dedicated to assessing human interactions with and perceptions of animals. Yet this need not be confined to only real animals (dogs, horses, cats, etc.). Most cultures (ancient and modern) also thrived with conceptions of imaginary animals (the phoenix, dragons, sea monsters, unicorns, the chupacabra, etc.). Whether as the object of sincere belief, metaphor, or as symbolic representation, imaginary animals offer another angle through which one may study cultural mentalities and perceptions of what the could exist in the natural world. 

I have written a monograph on one such imaginary animal, the kētos (pl. kētē), the most prominent sea monster of Greco-Roman antiquity. This is entitled A Zoobiography of the Ancient Sea Monster and was published by Bloomsbury for their Ancient Environments Series