Philippa Steele

Dr Philippa Steele is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, Affiliated Lecturer in the Faculty of Classics and a Fellow of Magdalene College. She published two books in 2013, an edited volume entitled Syllabic Writing on Cyprus and its Context and a monograph, A Linguistic History of Ancient Cyprus.

As a Classicist, ancient notions of success resonate with me: fame-related words such as Greek kleos and Latin fama are based on verbs of hearing and speaking, and therefore reflect the notion of whether you are spoken about by others.

For me that has to mean more than accumulating noteworthy achievements; it’s also about people speaking well of you and describing you as a decent person. The person who still has the most influence on me is definitely my mother. She was a teacher and helped to inspire my love of history. At the same time she instilled the importance of being generous: with your time, your ideas and your willingness to encourage others. Interacting with people is such an important part of life, and if you don’t see it as integral to your own success story, then I think you’re missing out.

“Interacting with people is such an important part of life, and if you don’t see it as integral to your own success story, then I think you’re missing out.”

As a Director of Studies it really matters to me that I have a positive impact on the students I’m responsible for. I was a student not so long ago, which makes me very aware of the pressure they’re under. They might struggle to learn a language or write an essay, and part of my job is to provide practical support. But I also try to remind them about what they’re good at and how hopeless it is to judge themselves by others’ standards. They are all very different from one another and have varied ideas about what they want to gain from being at Cambridge, which means that there can’t possibly be a universal standard for success.

Most students are at a formative age, where they’re learning to be adults, experimenting with how they want to express themselves and deciding what kind of people they want to be. If they’re taught by people who appreciate their individuality, it can give them a powerful sense of being accepted. It’s the kind of experience that will really matter later on in their lives. I had a wonderful Latin teacher at school who still comes up to Cambridge and takes me out for dinner. He never lets me pay; his view is that people did that for him, and he would rather I passed on that generosity. I want to take the trouble to be there for my students, and to fight their corner when they need me to do so.

“I want to take the trouble to be there for my students, and to fight their corner when they need me to do so.”

It‘s vital to have role models and people who are viewed as successful throughout every level of an organisation. When you come to Cambridge, you meet all sorts of people, and it’s not only the famous professor who is going to have an influence on you. In fact, they might be a much more distant figure than the people you have dealings with every day, your fellow students, your tutor or administrators in the faculty. Everyone needs to play their part and the success of the whole system is more important than who is at its pinnacle.

“It‘s vital to have role models and people who are viewed as successful throughout every level of an organisation.”

If being an academic has taught me anything, it’s that the work you put in doesn’t automatically lead to a tangible outcome, like a great article or lecture. Achievements are worth celebrating but so too is the hard work that may (or sometimes may not) bring them about.
The journey itself has intrinsic value; working hard, trying your best and putting the effort in all count for something.

At the same time I still see myself as very career-driven and I love the thrill of being published. The Roman poet Horace said that he could never completely die because he would be remembered through his writing, so there is that sense of a life beyond. I remember the first time I saw my name in print and it was just the most wonderful feeling: it’s a physical manifestation of all the hard work you’ve put in, usually over years. It’s a tangible achievement and one that I will be measured by as an academic.

“Achievements are worth celebrating but so too is the hard work that may (or sometimes may not) bring them about."

I’ve never felt that being a woman has had an effect on my career opportunities or likelihood of being published. Similarly, when I take on committee roles or collegiate responsibilities, I don’t put that down to my gender: I just do them because I enjoy them. I suppose I might be described as being quite motherly with my students, but then again I know some male Directors of Studies who behave in a very similar way. In the Classics Faculty people are more interested in your value as a colleague than your gender, and there is a sense that everyone is on an equal footing. The same is true of the warm community at Magdalene College.

When you’re at a relatively early stage in your career you aren’t really thinking about what you’ve already achieved; you’re more focused on what you’re going to achieve in the future. But I am clear about the questions I need to be able to answer as I progress. What kind of a person am I? Do I work hard? Have I, through my endeavours and interactions with other people, done the right thing? I hope that would make me a better example for other women.