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Faculty of Classics

 

Biography

I am currently a Teaching Associate in Ancient History at the Faculty, as well as Director of Studies in Classics for Sidney Sussex (Prelim & IA). Previously I taught at King’s College London, where I also completed my PhD. Prior to this I studied at Durham and Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

Research

My core research concerns the identities of early Christian subjects of the Roman empire, and particularly how they navigated the relationship between their religious, social, and political loyalties. My PhD examined the ways in which Christian authors of the second and third centuries AD engaged with Roman imperial justice as a response to persecution, and I am currently working on turning this into a monograph with CUP. Other work-in-progress includes studies on the presentation of Roman military figures in the Christian martyr acts, and on the processes by which narratives of persecution were produced from communal trauma in the ancient world.

Beyond this, I am interested in Roman governance—particularly the administration of justice, and the role of voluntary associations—and the place of the Roman army in society.

Publications

Key publications: 

Articles:

Forthcoming, 2024: ‘Read it in Rome: miracles, documents, and an empire of knowledge in Justin Martyr’s First Apology’, Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum.

Forthcoming, 2024: ‘Pontius’ conscience: Pilate’s afterlives and apology for empire in fourth-century Antioch’, The Journal of Late Antiquity.

2022. ‘A flagrant fabrication? Deconstructing the tradition of collegia fabrum as voluntary fire-brigades in the Roman empire’, Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 71/3: 337–361.

2018. ‘A foot in both camps: the civilian suppliers of the army in Roman Britain’, Theoretical Roman Archaeology Journal 1/1. (https://doi.org/10.16995/traj.355).

 

Chapters:

Forthcoming. ‘The early Church and war: the witness of Tertullian’, in I. Polinskaya, A. James, and I. Papadogiannakis (eds.), Religion and War from Antiquity to Early Modernity. London: Bloomsbury.

 

Reviews:

‘P. McKechnie, Christianizing Asia Minor’, The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 71/3: 607–609. (https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022046920000366).

Teaching and Supervisions

Teaching: 

I teach ancient history at all undergraduate levels, convene an MPhil seminar on the reality and representation of violence in the imperial period, and supervise research students studying Christianity in the early Roman empire, and experiences of Roman imperialism more broadly.

Teaching Associate in Classics (Ancient History)
Director of Studies in Classics for Sidney Sussex (Prelim & IA)
Not available for consultancy

Affiliations

Latest news

Election of two new Professors in the Faculty of Classics

27 March 2024

The Faculty is delighted to announce the election of Professor Josephine (Jo) Crawley Quinn to the Professorship of Ancient History and Professor Serafina Cuomo to the A. G. Leventis Professorship of Greek Culture . Jo will join the Faculty on 1 January 2025 and will be the first woman to hold the Professorship of Ancient...

Craven Seminar 2024

26 March 2024

The programme for the Craven Seminar 2024, ‘Interface Interpretation: exegesis as encounter in Greco-Roman literature’ , is now available online . This will be an in-person event. Please click here to register.

Classical Equalities Lecture 25 April 2024 at 17.00 in G19

4 March 2024

Jane Draycott will be giving this year’s Classical Equalities lecture, on ‘ Prostheses in Classical Antiquity: Everything You Never Knew You Wanted To Know’. Jane Draycott is Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Glasgow. Her research investigates science, technology, and medicine in the ancient world. She has...

Soundmarks Project

12 February 2024

Soundmarks, an art/archaeology collaboration between Rose Ferraby, Cambridge Archaeologist, and Rob St John using sound and visual art launches at DIG in York. In 2019 the pair created work exploring and animating the sub-surface landscape of Aldborough Roman Town in North Yorkshire, UK. Soundmarks Aldborough was re-shown...