Mary Beard

Mary Beard earned her Ph.D. at Cambridge University and has been lecturing there since 1984, becoming Professor of Classics in 2004. The author of numerous books, Beard also has a string of BBC appearances to her name, and her media presence has led to her being dubbed “Britain’s best-known classicist.” In recognition of her contributions to classics, in 2013 she even received an OBE. As well as frequently updating her “tweeps” on news and her fields of expertise, Beard has also used the social networking site to fight back at trolls who directed abusive remarks and death threats her way. After she and several other high-profile women suffered threatening tweets in 2013, Twitter responded by announcing that it would update its rules and bring in a “report abuse” button.