I am a historian of the late ancient Mediterranean. I have earned a B.A. in Medieval History and an M.A. in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies from King’s College London. My teaching and research interests broadly embrace topics pertaining to the history of philosophy, spirituality, and society in the Mediterranean and Middle East from the 1st– 5th centuries CE.
My dissertation research looks specifically at the archive of Oxyrhynchus, a middling-sized Roman town some 130 miles south of modern Cairo. This “city of the sharp-nosed fish”, though not so remarkable in its own time, has become famous to scholars of Mediterranean antiquity thanks to the many thousands of papyrus fragments (a thick sort of paper made from papyrus stalks) excavated there from 1898-1934. However, despite the fame of the Oxyrhynchus papyri, the city hardly receives focus as an object of inquiry in its own right. My research will aid in the building of a social and historical picture of this city.
What’s more, the Oxyrhynchus papyri, though an immense collection, is an incomplete archive. Many scholars working with the papyri have been told by prior excavators and papyrologists that there is no other trace of the ancient city left; this is simply not the case. The site has hosted nearly annual excavation work by a joint Calatan-Egyptian team since 1992 and their findings have added fascinating dimensions to the Oxyrhynchus we know from the papyri. I join a growing number of scholars seeking to consider papyri not as abstract texts but as text-bearing objects in assemblages with other objects.
My research looks at a specific kind of object—the amulet—as entangled in social networks with other objects, people, places, institutions, and divinities. Through analysis and interpretation of these social networks, my work explores one small corner of the Oxyrhynchite social world: the space of lived religion in the late ancient Egyptian metropolis.
A City of Amulets: Ritual Power and Daily Anxiety in Late Antique Oxyrhynchus
In Submission
“‘Confusion of Gender’ in Egyptian Applied Magic? On the Pronouns of Pantous, Apis, and Others” Shifting Frontiers in Late Antiquity XVI (Routledge; forthcoming, 2027)
“Athanasius’ Demon-Monks: P.Oxy. 924, 5306, & 5307 through a Patristic Lens” Studia Patristica (Peeters; forthcoming, 2026)
“Review of Brand, Religion and the Everyday Life of Manichaeans in Kellis: Beyond Light and Darkness.” Rhea Classical Review (2025).
“Review of Faraone and Torallas Tovar, The Greco-Egyptian Magical Formularies: Libraries, Books, and Individual Recipes.” Aestimatio (2025).
In Preparation
“Exorcizing the Exorcist: Legion’s Adjuration of Jesus in Mark 5”
“She, Apis: Pronouns and Performativity in Two Greco-Egyptian Magical Devices”
Late Antiquity – Roman Studies – New Testament & Early Christianity – World History
Instructor
WRIT 2 – Academic Writing (Fall 2022, Winter 2023, Spring 2023, Summer 2023)
HIST 114A – History of Christianity: Beginning to 800 CE (Summer 2021, Summer 2022, Fall 2023)
Teaching Assistant
HIST 114A – History of Christianity: Beginnings to 800 CE (Spring 2021)
HIST 56 – Introduction to Mexican History (Spring 2022)
RG ST 24 – Jesus in Comparative Perspective (Winter 2024)
HIST 8B – Latin American History: The National Period (Spring 2024)
ARTHI W6R – Rome: The Game (Fall 2024)
HIST 2A – World History: Prehistory–1000 CE (Fall, 2020, Fall 2021)
HIST 2B – World History: 1000–1700 CE (Winter 2022)
HIST 2C – World History: 1700 CE–Present (Winter 2021)
2025 Dissertation Completion Grant – North American Patristics Society
2024 Excellence in Teaching Award – UCSB Graduate Student Association
——— Graduate Division Dissertation Fellowship – UCSB Graduate Division
——— Humanities and Social Sciences Research Grant – UCSB Graduate Division
——— Doctoral Student Travel Grant – UCSB Academic Senate
——— Graduate Student Dissertation Support Grant – UCHRI & UCOP
——— Lawrence Badash Prize – UCSB History Associates
——— Annual Van Gelderen Endowed Lecturer – UCSB History Associates
2023 Esmé Frost Fellowship – UCSB Dept. of History
——— Conference Travel Grant – UCSB Dept. of History
2019 Dumas Travel Scholarship – UCSB Dept. of Classics
——— Harold and Kathleen Drake Award – UCSB History Associates
——— Research Travel Grant – UCSB Dept. of History
——— Summer Scholarship Package – Dumbarton Oaks Research Library
2018 Late Ancient Studies Professional and Instructional Development Fellowship – UC Press & UCSB Dept. of History
——— Thomas N. Sizgorich Memorial Award – UCSB History Associates
Service to the Profession & University
2023–2024 Lead Teaching Assistant, Dept. of History, UCSB
2021 Online Moderator; GLAS I: Tracing Christians in Global Late Antiquity, May 30–June 2
2020–Pres. Submissions Reviewer, UCSB Undergraduate Journal of History, UCSB
2018–2020 Editorial Assistant, Studies in Late Antiquity: A Journal, University of California Press