Research Themes

The history and culture of late Antiquity (c. 250-700 AD) forms my principal area of ongoing research. I am particularly interested in the historical and geographical writing of this period, poetry and its reception, issues of identity formation, and the evolution of modern scholarship on the late Roman and early medieval world.

While these interests have encompassed a fairly wide geographical span, much of my most recent work has focused on late antique North Africa, (what is now Tunisia and Northern Algeria), and the importance of this region within the wider world. My book The Vandals (Wiley-Blackwell) (co-written with Richard Miles of the University of Sydney) explores the origins, history and later understanding of this ‘barbarian’ group who dominated Carthage and the Western Mediterranean for much of the fifth and early sixth centuries. I also edited a volume entitled Vandals, Romans and Berbers: New Perspectives on Late Antique North Africa (Ashgate) which explores the wider world of North Africa in this important period.

I am also interested in the history of ancient geographical thought. My book History and Geography in Late Antiquity (CUP) explored the interdependence of geographical description and historical narrative in Latin historiography. At present, I am involved in a substantial research project investigating the cultural importance of the River Nile within the early Roman Empire. The Nile featured prominently in a variety of different media in the ancient world – from formal geographical treatises and historical writing to mosaics and wall paintings, poetry and triumphal processions. My research examines the contradictions and interdependences of these different forms of representation, and explores the complexities of Roman responses to the physical world.

Current PhD Students

Jason Morris, 'From Imperator to Agrimensor: Lines of Power'.

Topics available for Supervision

I would welcome enquires from prospective graduate students interested in working on late Antique North Africa, the successor kingdoms of the west or classical geographical writing. I am happy to supervise undergraduate/Masters level dissertations on any aspect of Roman, late Antique or early medieval history or on the representation of the ancient world in film and other media.