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Faculty of Classics

 

Research

My research looks at Roman social and cultural history, with a focus on trying to look at history 'from below'. I'm also interested in sensory history, disasters, and the use of Classics to create various imagery and stereotypes relating to subordinate groups.

Publications

Key publications: 

Homer's Turk: How Classics Shaped Ideas of the East (Harvard University Press, 2013) which shows how historians and travel writers have used classical sources to help create various images of Islam and the Orient.

Roman Disasters (Polity Press, 2013) looks at the important role that disasters played in Roman life and culture, ranging from floods and fires to warfare and famine.

Popular Culture in Ancient Rome, Polity Press, 2009, analyses the life of the non-elite in Roman society.

Leisure and Ancient Rome, Polity Press, 1995, looks at the important role leisure in various forms played in Roman society at all levels.

Fellow and Director of Studies at Churchill College
Director of Studies at Hughes Hall
Dr Jerry  Toner

Contact Details

Churchill College
Cambridge
CB3 0DS
jpt14@cam.ac.uk
Not available for consultancy

Affiliations

Classifications: 
Specialities: 

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...