School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry

2014 RD Milns Visiting Professor: Professor John Bodel

Professor John Bodel

John Bodel is the W. Duncan MacMillan II Professor of Classics and Professor of History at Brown University, Rhode Island USA and a fellow of the American Academy in Rome.

Professor Bodel has been Director of the US Epigraphy Project since 1995, and he is a world renowned social historian and epigraphist. Professor Bodel’s research interests include Tomb gardens, life and death in Roman cemeteries, death and ‘social death’ in Ancient Rome, Roman epigraphy and literacy, slave names, the publication of Pliny’s Letters, muliones and the organisation of Roman land transport, status dissonance and dissidents in the equestrian order and the popular reception of elite taste and imperial ideology in Pompeii and Herculaneum.

During his time with the School Professor Bodel took part in many events, including:

  • Friday, 30 May: Research Seminar ‘High Culture in Low Places: The Popular Perception of Elite Taste in Pompeii and Herculaneum’
  • Monday, 2 June: undergraduate lecture (for the course ANCH2030: Myth, Magic and Religion)
  • Wednesday, 4 June: Epigraphy Seminar for Honours and Research Higher Degree Students
  • Friday, 6 June: RD Milns Antiquities Museum 2014-2015 Exhibition Opening ‘A Study in Stone: The History of Epigraphy’
  • Saturday, 7 June: Public Lecture, Museum Saturday Series ‘The Rediscovery of Rome and the Formation of the American Epigraphic Collection’