Iona Macgregor

Iona did a B.A. in Classics (Greek & Latin) and Sanskrit at New College, Oxford University (Focus: Greek epic and tragedy; Comparative Indo European linguistics and mythology) from 2009–2012. She completed an M.A. at Hamburg University (2012–2014) (Thesis: Vidyamadhava's commentary on the first canto of Bhāravi's Kirātārjunīya: critical edition, translation, notes). During her M.A., she spent time working with local teachers at the EFEO, Pondicherry, where she learnt to speak modern Tamil, and where Profs. Eva Wilden and Jean-Luc Chevillard first instilled in her a passion for Classical Tamil.

After nearly a decade spent outside the world of academia — working, among other things, as a Tamil interpreter for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Sri Lankan political prisons (2014–2017); a Classics and English Literature teacher at international schools in Poland and the Czech Republic (2017–2021); and an investigator and refugee support-worker for a London-based Sri Lankan refugee charity (2022–2023) — she returned to Hamburg in November 2023 to join the Tamillex team, and start a PhD under the supervision of Prof. Eva Wilden.

The subject of her PhD will be a critical edition and annotated English translation of the Manimēkalai (Cantos 1-10), with an accompanying study of its structure and aims. As part of this, she will conduct a thorough survey and collation of extant available manuscripts of the poem (and its commentaries). Through extensive prolegomena and footnotes, she will set the text in its cultural and literary context. She will analyse the structure of the poem, in particular its use of numerous digressive sub-narratives; its genre (in particular its relationship to its 'twin' epic, the Cilappatikāram); and its many fascinating themes, for example Tamil Buddhism and female renunciation. The desired end result will be a fully digital critical edition of the first ten cantos of the poem. She hopes to complete the remaining twenty cantos as a postdoctoral project.