Projects
Transformations in animal husbandry and consumption patterns at the fringes of the Roman Empire. A zooarchaeological study of selected Roman sites in the civitas Menapiorum and Nerviorum (1st century BC- 4th century AD). Ghent University
This research is a zooarchaeological study executed on animal remains from Gallo-Roman sites with diverse socio-economic functions (rural, administrative, military) spread over multiple landscape components in Flanders. Through interdisciplinary research patterns in the relationship between food and social status and how the absorption in the Roman empire has influenced animal husbandry in farthest corners of the Imperium.
Identity and stigmatization; the Roman freedman. A qualitative analysis of the socialization and stratification of and the interaction between freed and freeborn Romans. Ghent University
This project focuses on the strongly undervalued group of Roman freedmen. The aim is to determine which processes influenced and determined the interaction between Roman elites and freeborn civilians on the one hand and the ambivalent 'class' of the freedmen on the other hand. Rather than just accepting 'the stain of slavery' and using it as an explanans, we want to study it as an explanandum: a social phenomenon that deserves research ...
Libertus unchained! A qualitative analysis of the impact of the Roman freedman's "dishonourable past" on his socialisation and interaction with freeborn Romans. Ghent University
This project focusses on the socialisation of, and interaction between, two non-elite groups in the Roman world: freed slaves and the freeborn members of the urban ‘middle class’. Scholarly interest in these groups continues to steadily increase, but has so far rarely considered them in conjunction. Early studies on the interaction between elites and non-elites typically defined the first category in more specific and detailed terms than the ...
Hierarchy and equality in Late Antiquity. Subverting power relations in the Later Roman Empire. Ghent University
Although the Later Roman Empire (ca 300-650) was highly stratified, scholars have rarely asked how this impacted on social interactions and what the impact was of ideas of equality on social hierarchies. This project fills this lacuna, by introducing a new method, sources and topics. It combines discourse-analysis of philosophical and theological reflections about hierarchy and equaliyty with an analysis, inspired by practice theory, of a set ...
The tribuni plebis and the end of the Roman Republic Ghent University
The tribuni plebis are central in understanding the political power of socio-political groups in Roman society. They had massive influence in the late Republic, and are often linked with the transformation into the Principate. My study will provide a more correct image of them through the use of a socio-political methodology, based on principal-agent analysis and models of social conflict.
Salt of the north. An interdisciplinary study of Roman salt production, distribution and consumption in the civitas Menapiorum Ghent University
Researchers concur that salt constituted a crucial part of the Gallo-Roman economy and in the civitas Menapiorum especially. Yet, curiously, little is known of the production process, the distribution to consumers and how salt affected the overall economic development of the region. This project aims to analyse these research questions through a multidisciplinary approach.
Dissenting Church. An Interdisciplinary Relecture of Roman Catholic Tradition as Contestation. KU Leuven
Re-readings of Roman Catholic tradition through the lens of power-critical studies have exposed a host of silent and silenced voices underneath its master narrative of unity and stability; however, Roman Catholic theology has not developed adequate models to enable a thoroughgoing reflection on this ecclesial polyphony in its full complexity. The proposed research programme addresses this lacuna through an interdisciplinary retrieval of ...
Building on the edge. A socio-cultural approach of rural stone domestic buildings on the north-western edge of the Roman Empire Ghent University
Stone domestic architecture is first encountered in north-western Gaul in the Roman period. The shift from indigenous houses in perishable materials to residences in stone is a major turning point in the history of the region and reveals how native inhabitants were engaging with the Roman cultural sphere. This project investigates an understudied corpus of rural stone ...
Stratification and social inequality in Italy and Lugdunum. A comparative qualitative epigraphic analysis of the class structure, power relations and social struggle between municipal status groups during the Principate. Ghent University
Romans meticulously described their social position, but modern researchers often use general categories treating humiliores as an undifferentiated 'class'. We want to investigate 'status groups' from local Italian municipalities and the relationships between them and compare them with material from Lugdunum. How are power relations, competition and violence connected with 'class' and hierarchy? We will use concepts from P. Bourdieu.