Faculty Member, History and Art History
About
In 2009 I finished my DPhil in Classical Archaeology at the University of Oxford and currently I am a lecturer in Ancient History and Classical Civilisation at Utrecht University.
My principle research focuses on the significance of boundaries and the use of space in the Ancient World, in particular, how they stipulated human behaviour and daily life. For my doctoral research I explored the impact of urban development on city boundaries in Roman Italy (4th century BC-AD 271). By exploring the dynamics and interaction between urban development processes, city limits and the law, new insights were gained in Roman attitudes towards the symbolic meanings of civic boundaries. Other research interests include Roman domestic architecture and urban water systems.
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My thesis is called:
CITY BOUNDARIES AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN ROMAN ITALY - 4TH CENTURY BC - AD 271
The aim of my thesis is to take a new approach to Roman urban boundaries and city planning by exploring the dynamics and interaction between urban development processes, city limits and the law, as a way of gaining a better understanding of Roman attitudes towards the symbolic meanings of civic boundaries. It is argued that not only landownership influenced and determined the use of urban space and its boundaries, but that conflicts and constant negotiations between law, culture and tradition, politics, and the dynamics of everyday urban life, also were important factors that had an impact on the Roman approach towards urban limits.
Three different aspects of urban boundaries are used to address these themes: the construction of city boundaries and their roles in the urban fabric and political propaganda; the transformation of city boundaries, in particular the dismantling of fortifications; and thirdly, city boundaries as a separating factor between the world of the living and the world of the dead. A consecutive chapter presents case studies on the development of three urban neighbourhoods on the edges of cities, integrating and applying the results of the previous chapters and offering, as a result, a ‘real’ insight into Roman city planning, administration and the implementation of the legal system regarding urban boundaries.
