Bloomsbury Summer School
Fascinated by ancient civilisations?
We offer anyone with any level of knowledge, inspiring short courses on ancient Egypt and other areas of the ancient world.
2026 Course timetable
Monday 20 to Friday 24 July 2026
CLEOPATRA: FROM EGYPTIAN QUEEN TO GLOBAL ICON (in person and online)
Course Director: Prof. Lloyd Llewelyn-Jones (Cardiff University)
To be held in person at UCL Institute of Archaeology (31 - 34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY UK) and livestreamed online.
Monday 20 July
10:30* – 11:00
Students gather in the BSS Common Room / login to Zoom
11:00 – 11:30
BSS Director’s Welcome Address
11:30 – 13:00
1. The Starting Point: Orientalist Cleopatras
Welcome Lunch in BSS Common Room (14:00 Short optional tour of UCL with the Director)**
14:30 – 15:45
2. History’s Cleopatra – and Caesar
16:15 – 17:30
3. History’s Cleopatra – and Caesar
17:45
Non-BSS event: Get together with fellow students for a drink in the Woolf and Whistle Bar on the ground floor of the Tavistock Hotel**
Tuesday 21 July
10:00 – 11:15
4. Roman Poets, Dido, and Cleopatra
11:45 – 13:00
5. Plutarch’s Cleopatra
14:15 – 15:30
6. Medieval Cleopatras
16:00 – 17:15
7. Renaissance Cleopatras
17:15 – 18:30
BSS Social on Common Room balcony**
Wednesday 22 July
10:00 – 11:15
8. Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra 1
11:45 – 13:00
9. Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra 2
14:15 – 15:30
10. Afternoon visit to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre**
16:00 – 17:15
11. Afternoon visit to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre (cont'd)**
17:30
Non-BSS event: Get together with fellow students for dinner at Poppadom Indian Kitchen in the Tavistock Hotel
Thursday 23 July
10:00 – 11:15
12. Baroque Cleopatras on Stage and in Art
11:45 – 13:00
13. “How Unlike the home life of our own dear Queen”: Victorian Cleopatras
14:15 – 15:30
14. Film Screening: “Cleopatra” 1934 (directed by Cecil B. DeMille)
16:00 – 17:15
15. Cleopatra Goes to Hollywood
Friday 24 July
10:00 – 11:15
16. When Liz Met Dick: “Cleopatra” 1963
11:45 – 13:00
17. Comic Cleos: “Carry On Cleo” and “Asterix and Cleopatra”
14:00 – 15:15
18. On-Stage Cleopatras: Peggy Ashcroft, Judi Dench, Janet Suzmann, and others
15:45 – 17:15
19. Was Cleopatra Black? Metropolitan Opera, HBO, and Nextflix
17:15 – 19:00
End-of-Course Drinks and Online Social (you are welcome to invite guests)
*All times are London UK time; **In-person participants only.
NB: Timetables, once published, are unlikely to change, but remain provisional until the first day of the course.
