Research

Research in the Ancient History department in Groningen focuses on the connectivities of the Mediterranean world, from the Classical Greek world to the Late Roman empire. We have expertise in interdisciplinary approaches that combine written and material sources (including inscriptions) and innovative methods (e.g. deep-mapping, network analysis, agent-based modelling).

All of our staff are active researchers involved in various projects. Onno van Nijf and Christina Williamson directed the project Connecting the Greeks on the development of festival networks in the Hellenistic world (see also their online database Connected Contests with information on the careers of the most important athletes of antiquity). On her website Deep Mapping Sanctuaries, Christina uses the new method of deep-mapping to produce ‘spatial narratives‘ of what festival sites meant to different people in Hellenistic and early Imperial Asia Minor. Jeremia Pelgrom works on the history of colonisation, co-directing projects on mapping the Via Appia and landscapes of early colonisation in Italy in the mid-Republican period. In her current project Rebecca Van Hove examines the role of writing and the function of written records in ancient Greek religion. Bart Danon works on several projects related to the socio-economic history of the Roman Empire, with a focus on inequality, slavery and urbanisation. Chris Dickenson is interested in public space, statues and monuments in Hellenistic and Roman Greece with a special focus on cultural heritage. Postdoctoral researcher Marlena Whiting works on the Christianization and Urban life in the Hellenized cities of the Southern Levant.

The department is a member of OIKOS, the National Research School in Classical Studies and participates in Anchoring Innovation, the large research agenda of OIKOS. Many of our PhD and MA students are also involved in the CRASIS.

For more information about the research of individual members of our team, see their personal websites (accessible here). For an overview of how our research fits into the wider research agenda of Classics and Ancient History see this website.