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• School of Classics

Professor Greg Woolf

Research Interests

My past work has included studies of patronage, of epigraphy as a cultural phenomenon, of literacy and of the economic history of the empire and its urbanization. My first monograph dealt with the archaeology and history of Roman Gaul, especially the cultural changes usually termed Romanization. I have carried out fieldwork in northern France, and maintain an interest in the later prehistory of Europe. I have also published on Greek identity under Roman rule and on the Younger Pliny.

Current projects include writing up the Blackwell Bristol Lectures on Ethnography and Imperialism in the Roman West and co-directing, with Jason König, a project on Science and Empire in the Roman World funded by the Leverhulme Trust. During 2009-2012 I will be engaged on a study of the relationship between ancient imperialisms and religious change funded by a Major Leverhulme Research Fellowship.

Select Publications

A more extensive list of publications is available in the Research Expertise database.

• Literacy and Power in the Ancient World, (edited, with Alan Bowman) Cambridge University Press 1994.
• Becoming Roman. The Origins of provincial civilization in Gaul, Cambridge University Press 1998.
• Rome the Cosmopolis (edited with Catharine Edwards) Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2003
• Cambridge Illustrated History of the Roman World (editor) Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2003
• Et tu Bruté? The murder of Caesar and Political Assassination, Profile Books, London 2006

Research Students

I am glad to supervise students working in any of the above fields, and in many other areas. Past students have written theses on the North Italian Gauls, epigraphy and society in Roman Italy, on Velleius Paterculus, Roman Narbonensis, Cyprian of Carthage, Culture and Identity in Lycia, the economy of Roman Britain and various topics in Roman Religion.

Teaching

I teach on a range of ancient history, classical studies and archaeology modules. I have contributed to five of the sub-honours modules in ancient history and classical studies, and to the core methods module in archaeology. I have taught Honours modules on the Roman Economy, on Roman Leisure, on Greece under Roman Rule, on Roman Religion, on Ancient Slavery and on Archaic Greece and have taught a variety of postgraduate taught courses. I have also taught on collaborative graduate schools held in Erfurt and Seville.

Academic Career

After graduating from Oxford in 1985 I wrote a doctorate in Cambridge under the supervision of Peter Garnsey and Keith Hopkins in ancient history, and Ian Hodder and Sander van der Leeuw in archaeology. While at Cambridge I also spent some time as a CNRS chercheur at the Laboratoire d'Archéologie of the École Normale Supérieure in the rue d'Ulm in Paris, taught part-time at the University of Leicester for three years and was a research fellow of Christ's College. In 1990 I returned to Oxford to teach ancient history and archaeology as a fellow of first Magdalen and then Brasenose Colleges before being elected in 1998 to a chair at St. Andrews.

Beyond service within my home institutions, I have served on the Councils of the Roman Society, the Classical Association and the Classical Association of Scotland. I have chaired the HEA subject centre advisory committee for Classics and an AHRC postgraduate panel, and have served on various national and international committees, including RAE 2008 subpanel 59. I have served as an external examiner for taught and research degrees in classics, history and archaeology; have advised on appointments and been an external member of departmental reviews in a number of universities.

I have contributed to various reference works including the Cambridge Ancient History, the Barrington Classical Atlas, and the Neue Pauly. During 2004 I was an Honorary Research Fellow of the British School at Rome. During 2005 I delivered the Rhind Lectures to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and the Walsh Lecture in the University of Chicago. In 2006 I was visiting professor at Université de Paris VII Denis Diderot, and gave the Magie Lecture at Princeton University. In 2009 I gave the Bristol Blackwell Lectures. During academic year 2009-10 I am a Visiting Fellow in the Max Weber College of the University of Erfurt.

I am currently Editor of the Journal of Roman Studies. I am also a member of the editorial boards of Classica et Mediaevalia , the American Journal of Archaeology, International Journal of Euro-Mediterranean Studies, and New Voices in Classical Reception Studies.