Social and Cultural History of the Greco-Roman World

The Classics and Ancient History discipline in the School has a research strength in the social and cultural history of the Greco-Roman world. We are interested in the social and ideological forces that shaped the lives and beliefs of ancient populations. We employ a range of research strategies to accomplish our goals including demographic and economic modeling, comparative anthropological analysis, poststructuralist techniques of critique, and close readings of our sources. The material that we analyse includes inscriptions, papyri, literary texts, and archaeological evidence. Our areas of competency include the economic practice and democratic thought of Ancient Athens, Greek masculinity and sexuality, the culture of Hellenistic warfare, Greco-Roman belief systems, the Roman family, and ideologies of governance.