Meri Bird
Mary Beard, the only child in the family, was born on January 1, 1955, in Much Wenlock, Shropshire. Her father, Roy Whitbread Beard, worked as an architect in Shrewsbury. Her mother, Emily Joyce Beard, was an avid reader. Mary Beard attended a direct grant grammar school. In summer she took part in archaeological excavations—first to earn money for holidays, but later she unexpectedly became interested in the study of antiquity.
At the age of 18, Mary Beard was interviewed at Newnham College, Cambridge, and also successfully passed the required entrance exam. In addition, she wanted to apply to King’s College, Cambridge, but abandoned the idea when it turned out that the college did not offer scholarships to women. In her first year, Beard felt the condescending attitude of men toward women’s academic potential, and this only strengthened her determination to succeed. She also became an advocate of feminist views, which played an important role in her later life. Finally, Beard earned a master’s degree at Newnham and remained in Cambridge to pursue a doctorate.
From 1979 to 1983, Mary Beard taught ancient art at King’s College London. She returned to Cambridge in 1984 as a research fellow at Newnham College and became the only female lecturer in the Department of Classics. Her work Rome in the Late Republic, which she co-authored with the Cambridge classicist Michael Crawford, was published that same year. In 1985, Beard married Robin Cormac Sinclair. In 1985 she gave birth to a daughter, and in 1987 to a son. In 1992, she became the editor of the classics section of The Times Literary Supplement.
Since 2004, she has been a professor of classics at Cambridge. In 2008/2009, she was the Sather Visiting Professor at the University of California,
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