Pro-Proctor to the Junior Proctor

Melinda Letts is Supernumerary Fellow in Classics at Harris Manchester and Instructor in Classical Languages at Corpus Christi, where she teaches Ancient Greek and Latin Languages and serves as Assistant Director of the Centre for the Study of Greek and Roman Antiquity. Before moving to Corpus, she was Tutor in Greek and Latin Languages at Jesus (2012-2025), where she led the introduction of Active Greek and Latin, which involves teaching grammar and reading skills by having students speak and write the languages from the very first lesson. This led to a dramatic improvement in results. She is absolutely dedicated to making Classics appealing and accessible to all who want to study it, no matter what background they come from, and regardless of any previous experience of ancient Greek and/or Latin. She is Senior Member of the Oxford Ancient Languages Society and Chair of Oxford Latinitas, both of which offer immersive teaching of Latin and ancient Greek to enable people from all backgrounds to access the ancient languages with ease and fluency.

Melinda has also had a career outside academia, working first in overseas development and subsequently in a series of leadership roles in UK health charities and public bodies, for which she was appointed OBE in 2003. She returned to academic life in 2009. Her doctoral research, undertaken at Christ Church, Oxford, brought together both strands of her career in a study of the 1st century Greek doctor Rufus of Ephesus’s unique treatise on the importance of questioning patients about all aspects of their life and condition.