I studied Classics in Bologna and Pisa, Italy, and worked in Reading and Durham before coming to Ireland in 1999. I joined the Classics Department at Trinity College in 2006.

My research focuses on fragmentary Republican Latin, Latin linguistics, and the transmission of Latin texts from antiquity to the early modern period. I am especially interested in the study of Latin registers and of the interaction between literary and spoken language. I have long been engaged in the study of early Latin satire, working on a new edition of, and the first English-language commentary on, the fragments of Lucilius. I am also preparing an edition, with English translation, of fragmentary satire, political invective and popular verse for the Loeb Classical Library, which explores the relationship between literary and colloquial, sub-literary and non-literary Latin. I am also involved in initiatives for the study of Trinity College Latin manuscripts. I am consulting editor for the Bryn Mawr Classical Review, member of the COST Action IS1407 on ‘Ancient European Languages and Writing’ (AELAW), and convener of the Trinity Research Theme ‘Manuscript, Book and Print Cultures’. I am a Fellow of Trinity College (FTCD[2007]) and Public Orator of the University of Dublin.