The Iris Project - About Us

About Us

Director of The Iris Project and Rumble Museum: Lorna Robinson

Lorna studied Classics at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University; after a chance encounter with a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel in her finals year, she became curious about the similarities between it and Ovid, and eventually received a doctorate from University College London on 'Magical Realism in Ovid's Metamorphoses' in 2005.

She created The Iris Project and Iris magazine to promote Classics in state schools in 2006, and runs Latin and Greek projects in state schools across the UK. She has also worked with UCL Bloomsbury Theatre and The Scoop on ancient drama projects, and she set up 'Latin in the Parks' for adults to have a go at picking up Latin. She created and runs the Iris Classics Centre, which opened in 2013, and the Rumble Museum, the first museum in a state school. It was awarded Arts Council Accreditation in March 2020.

She has written a book "Ovid and Gabriel Garcia Marquez", and has also written the Latin course Telling Tales in Latin and part two, Distant Lands, which introduces Latin through the stories of Ovid. She has also written Telling Tales in Greek, introducing ancient Greek through the stories of Homer.

More recently she has written a series of short storybooks exploring myths around plants:Telling Tales in Nature: Forest Tales, Telling Tales in Nature: Orchard Tales and Telling Tales in Nature: Underworld Tales.

 

 

David Gimson: Museum Lead

David supports the planning, organising and running of events, workshops and projects which involve Cheney School students. He is also a trustee.

He is Head of Higher Attainment and UCAS at Cheney School. David is the member of staff at Cheney School who liaises and collaborates with the Iris Community Classics Centre and was crucial in arranging for the classics centre to first appear at the school back in 2012. 

He has continued to work closely on classics and wider museum-related projects and events. He has recently become Museum Lead, supporting the director in embedding the museum throughout the school.

 

 

 

Neil Parkinson

Neil studied Classics at Oxford and has since then spent more than ten years working in the charity sector with London's homeless. His interest in Classics grew from a childhood love of mythology and soon encompassed a great deal of Classical literature and history too.

He has a particular fascination with anything charting the interactions of the Greeks with their Eastern neighbours, from Homer and Herodotus to Xenophon and the exploits of Alexander the Great. He also loves Greek drama, Hellenistic novels, neoteric poetry and much more besides.

Neil is a trustee, and provides valuable input on fundraising and governance. He is actively involved in the running of the charity, particularly its work in London schools and communities.

 

 

 

 Graphics Design and Illustration:

Soham De

Soham is an visual artist and an illustrator. His work has been shown at group exhibitions in Oxford. He graduated in 2008 with a B.Arch (Honours) degree from Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur, India. In 2010 he completed an MA Urban Design from the Joint Centre for Urban Design, Oxford Brookes University.  He is currently collaborating in writing Eco- Responsive Environments to be published in 2013.

Soham has illustrated the Telling Tales in Latin and Greek courses. He has also painted a number of wall and ceiling murals for Iris' Community Classics Centre.

 

 

 

Web Development

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Duncan gained a degree in Physics from Oxford University, and an MSc in Aerospace Dynamics from Cranfield University.  He then became a computer programmer, and currently works at a financial firm based in Oxford.  His main loves are old cars, sport, computing and books.  He has long been involved in the organisational side of Iris and is a trustee.

He built the current Iris Project and Iris online websites using a CMS called Joomla, and he is the web administrator and developer for the charity.

He has a keen interest in constructing ancient armour and has made a Greek aspis shield, which lives in the classics centre at Cheney.

 

University Liaison Officers

King's College London - Dr Will Wootton

Will Wootton is the Lecturer in Roman Art in the Classics Department at King's College London. He has been involved with the Iris Project since 2008 and is the KCL liaison for the Literacy through Latin scheme.

He has also delivered talks in primary schools and the East Oxford Community Classics Centre as part of the project. Will is a trustee for The Iris Project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Iris Project
24 Green Ridges
Headington
Oxford
OX3 8PL

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.