Staff Profiles

I am a historian of the Roman empire, with a particular focus on the Jewish experience of Roman rule in the early imperial period. I wrote my DPhil thesis on representations of Roman emperors in the works of the first-century Roman-Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, under the supervision of Prof. Martin Goodman at Oxford. Before coming to Newcastle, I taught Roman history and ancient languages at Maynooth University in Ireland, classical languages at Birkbeck College London, and papers for both the Faculty of Classics and the department of Jewish Studies at Oxford.

My research focuses on conceptions and experiences of imperial rule in antiquity. For the present, I am primarily focused on Jewish material which, while often overlooked by classicists and Roman historians, offers us something extremely rare and precious: literary perspectives on Roman rule written by members of a colonized people. In particular, my work so far has focused on the writings of the first-century historian Flavius Josephus. A descendant of royalty, a landowner and a priest at the Jerusalem Temple, Josephus was born into the Judaean provincial elite on which Rome depended for much of the governance of Judaea. When anti-colonial revolt broke out in 66 CE, Josephus sided initially with the rebels, before being captured by the Romans and "defecting" in captivity to their side. In later life, Josephus would write a detailed account of this conflict and his role in it. My doctoral thesis (soon to be published as a book) provides a close examination of how this author grapples with Roman power while remaining a devoted and committed spokesperson for his own people and religious tradition.

In addition, I have published several articles and book chapters, covering allusions to Roman and Jewish "theologies of history" in Josephus' Jewish War, Josephus' depiction of the Roman emperor Caligula, and the construction and representation of Greekness and Greek scholarship in Josephus' Against Apion.

This year, I will be contributing teaching for the following modules:

Semester 1

HCA1008 (Global Ancient Histories)

CAH2017 (The Roman World from Hadrian to Heraclius)

CAH2208 (Issues in Ancient History)

CAC8000 (Research Skills and Development)

CAC8110 (Ancient Cultures in Context)

Semester 2

CAH1015 (The Roman World from Romulus to Trajan)

CAH2061 (Slavery in Greco-Roman Antiquity)

CAH2020 (Greek and Roman Religions)

CAC8011 (The Writing of History)