We have a bonus episode for you…what better way to close out Season 2 than with an interview with one of the most fascinating people we’ve ever met – Baroness Black. Sue, as she prefers, is a trailblazing scientist and a champion for education and, indeed classical subjects.

After graduating from the University of Aberdeen in human anatomy and forensic anthropology, Sue has had a varied and distinguished academic career, lecturing in Anatomy at St Thomas’ Hospital London and working as a consultant in forensic anthropology for both the Home Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office, undertaking forensic investigations in Iraq, Sierra Leone and Grenada.

She was the lead forensic anthropologist during the international war crimes investigations in Kosovo and in 2024, she was appointed to the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, the highest honour in Scotland.

Sue is currently the President of St John’s College, Oxford and a crossbencher peer in the House of Lords, where she is a part of the Classics All Party Parliamentary Group.

In this episode, she explains to Katrina what a Day in the Life is like for a Peer and President of an Oxbridge college, talks about the careers classicists go into, her own experiences with forensic archaeology, her love for Roman roads, and using her Latin in everyday life! Click below to listen.

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