Overview
I am a historian of the ancient world with an emphasis on the political, social, and military history of the Roman Republic. I am interested primarily in the human element of ancient warfare and on the formation, preservation, and application of social bonds and identity in military environments.
Advisors: Committee Members: Barry Stuart Strauss (Ancient History, Chair); Eric Rebillard (Ancient Roman History); Sturt Manning (Classical Archaeology)
Research Focus
My dissertation project, tentatively titled “Cohesion, Morale, and Combat Motivation in the Late Republic,” seeks to understand the social and psychological nature of combat against the backdrop of the 1st century BCE, when Roman state and military institutions were experiencing immense crisis and change. The study of cohesion and combat performance in modern militaries has grown steadily since its inception after World War II. However, scholars have only recently attempted to apply these sociological frameworks to ancient contexts. In choosing the Late Republic as my focus, I aim to contribute both to the budding military sociological conversation on unit cohesion as well as to the long historiographical tradition of political upheaval in the final decades of the Republic.