Biography
I am currently a Teaching Associate in Ancient History at the Faculty, as well as Director of Studies in Classics for Sidney Sussex (Prelim & IA). Previously I taught at King’s College London, where I also completed my PhD. Prior to this I studied at Durham and Corpus Christi College, Oxford.
Research
My core research concerns the identities of early Christian subjects of the Roman empire, and particularly how they navigated the relationship between their religious, social, and political loyalties. My PhD examined the ways in which Christian authors of the second and third centuries AD engaged with Roman imperial justice as a response to persecution, and I am currently working on turning this into a monograph with CUP. On a similar topic, with James Corke-Webster I recently published a joint-edited special issue of the journal Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum exploring Justin Martyr and his negotiation of Roman imperialism, which can be read here: https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/zach/28/1/html. Other work-in-progress includes studies on the presentation of Roman military figures in the Christian martyr acts, and on the processes by which narratives of persecution were produced from communal trauma in the ancient world.
Beyond this, I am interested in Roman governance—particularly the administration of justice, and the role of voluntary associations—and the place of the Roman army in society.
Publications
Articles:
Forthcoming 2025: 'A telling terminus technicus in the Codex Bezae's Latin text of Acts', Journal of Theological Studies.
Forthcoming 2024: 'Pudens, Optio Carceris: Roman military figures and their narrative function in the Passion of Perpetua', The Classical Quarterly.
2024: ‘Read it in Rome: miracles, documents, and an empire of knowledge in Justin Martyr’s First Apology’, Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum 28/1: 21–48 (https://doi.org/10.1515/zac-2024-0002).
2024: ‘Pontius’ conscience: Pilate’s afterlives and apology for empire in John Chrysostom's Antioch’, The Journal of Late Antiquity 17/1: 3–34 (https://doi.org/10.1353/jla.2024.a926279).
2022. ‘A flagrant fabrication? Deconstructing the tradition of collegia fabrum as voluntary fire-brigades in the Roman empire’, Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 71/3: 337–361 (https://doi.org/10.25162/historia-2022-0012).
2018: ‘A foot in both camps: the civilian suppliers of the army in Roman Britain’, Theoretical Roman Archaeology Journal 1/1. (https://doi.org/10.16995/traj.355).
Chapters:
2024: ‘The early Church and war: the witness of Tertullian’, in I. Polinskaya, A. James, and I. Papadogiannakis (eds.), Religion and War from Antiquity to Early Modernity. London: Bloomsbury, 242–261
Reviews:
‘P. McKechnie, Christianizing Asia Minor’, The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 71/3: 607–609. (https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022046920000366).
Teaching and Supervisions
I teach ancient history at all undergraduate levels, convene an MPhil seminar on the reality and representation of violence in the imperial period, and supervise research students studying Christianity in the early Roman empire, and experiences of Roman imperialism more broadly.
