Department: Classics
Supervisor: Prof Christopher Kelly
College: Fitzwilliam
Title of thesis: Religion and Rhetoric at the Courts of the Theodosians, c.381-404
Biography:
I read Ancient & Modern History at Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating in 2015. I studied for an MPhil in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies, also at Oxford, writing my second-year thesis on monotheism and religious tolerance in the fourth century, focussing on Themistius' Or. 5. I graduated from that programme in 2017, and came to Cambridge the same year.
My thesis looks at the way in which pagans negotiated their position at the Christian courts of Theodosius I, and his sons Honorius and Arcadius. I explore this theme through the orations of Themistius and of Claudian, in many ways very different authors, but nonetheless very fruitfully comparable.
Other Academic Interests
I am interested more broadly in the intellectual history of the Later Roman Empire, in particular the intersection of religion with politics and culture; and the development of Christian theology in this period. I also have a more 'amateur' interest in the Renaissance and Reformation.
Research Interests
Politics in the Later Roman Empire
Late Antique Intellectual Culture
Patristic Theology
Research Supervision
I supervise the C4 'Transformation of the Ancient World' undergraduate paper
