Macintosh gained her BA in English and Greek Civilisation at the University of Leeds in 1980. She remained at Leeds for her MA in English Literature, awarded in 1981. Macintosh moved to King's College, London for her PhD in Classics and Comparative Literature, which was awarded in 1990. Macintosh was a lecturer in English at Goldsmiths’ College, University of London until 2000, when she moved to Oxford as Senior Research Fellow at the APGRD. She was Reader in Greek and Roman Drama from 2008 to 2014, when she became Professor of Classical Reception. Macintosh became the Director of the APGRD in January 2010. Macintosh's research focuses on the adaptation of Greek plays for the modern theatre and the reception of Greek tragedy from the Enlightenment to the present day. She has taken a particular interest in the adaptation of Greek tragedy for the Irish stage and has interviewed Frank McGuinness on the subject and discussed with Wayne Jordan his adaptation of Oedipus for the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in 2015. Macintosh has also researched adaptations of Antigone for the Irish stage. Macintosh frequently appears on discussion panels and at public events to examine the re-staging of Greek drama today, such as at the York Festival of Ideas in 2018, speaking at the SAS in 2016, debating at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2015, the Oxford Literary Festival in 2014, and pre-performance talks at Magdalen College School in 2012. Macintosh was invited to deliver the keynote lecture "From hearth to Hades: adventures with Medea and ballet d'action" at the international symposium "Placing Medea: Transfer, Spatiality, and Gender in Europe 1750−1800", at Uppsala University on April 25, 2018. Macintosh will deliver the 2018-19 Sigmund H. Danziger Jr. Memorial Lecture in the Humanities on the 17thMay 2019 at the University of Chicago. Macintosh has been at the forefront of exploring the potential of presenting research in interactive multimedia ebooks, publishing performance histories that showcase digitised archival material and newly commissioned films, art, audio and audio-visual material. The earliest fruit of this exploration has been the e-book , published by the APGRD in 2016. A second e-book, dedicated to the performance history of Aeschylus' Agamemnon, is forthcoming.
