Dr Karl Dahm

Dr Karl Dahm

Associate Lecturer

Researcher profile

Email
khd2@st-andrews.ac.uk
Office
C32
Location
Craigard
Office hours
Wednesdays, from 12pm to 1pm.

 

Biography

I am a Roman historian with a particular interest in the later Roman empire and the transformations of Greek culture through time. Following a BA in History and Classical Archaeology (2015) and an MA in Ancient History (2018) at the Universities of Heidelberg and Durham, I completed a PhD in Classics at King’s College London (2023). Subsequently, I worked as Lecturer in Roman History at Bristol University, became the curiously named Germanicus Scholar of the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies (2022-23), and held a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at Durham’s Department of Classics and Ancient History (2023-26).

Research areas

I have published widely from the literary construction of religious identities in the Eastern Mediterranean to the reception of ancient Greek historiography by Christian writers to the material remains of ancient sea trade. The primary focus of my research lies on the literary and socio-cultural history of religious competition in the Greek East of the later Roman Empire, including the Syriac speaking provinces. I particularly seek to transform how we think about discursive spaces in religious conflicts by bridging the gulf between the stylised writings of vocal hardliners and the more complex realities of their wider communities.

My first book ‘Dissenting Voices in the Theodosian Empire’ will be out with Cambridge University Press in March 2027. It examines how historians of the fifth-century CE modelled traumatic pasts in agreement with the conflicting identities of marginalised religious communities and their complicated relationship with the imperial centre. My second book ‘Late Antique Church Historians on Their Own Times’ is under contract with ‘Cambridge Elements in Early Christian Literature’ and scheduled for late 2027. It argues that church historians of the fourth to sixth century CE are the true heirs to the classical Thucydidean legacy of contemporary historiography which they adapted to new Christian contexts.

Currently, I am particularly interested in the role of emotions in the processes of polarisation, marginalisation, and reconciliation during ancient religious conflicts. Building on some of my prior research on this topic, I am trying to answer the tricky questions of which emotions fuelled the dynamics of religious conflicts, how they were mobilised by individual authors, and what impact they left on the relationship between the involved parties.

Selected publications

 

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