FACULTY
Edward Watts
- Associate Professor, Department of History
- Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Classical Studies
Education
- A.B. at Brown University, 1997
- Ph.D. at Yale University, 2002
Research Interests
- Roman history
- Greek Intellectual culture from the Second Sophistic to the reign of Heraclius
- Late Antique religious, social, and intellectual history
- Coptic Christianity
- Anti-Chalcedonian (Monophysite) culture
Contact Information
| ejwatts@indiana.edu |
| Ballantine Hall, Room 828 |
| 855-6882 |
Background
To date, my research has concentrated on the intellectual and religious history of the later Roman Empire. My first book, City and School in Late Antique Athens and Alexandria (University of California Press, 2006), details how the increasingly Christian upper class of the late Roman Empire used a combination of economic and political pressures to neutralize pagan elements of the traditional educational system. My second book, Riot in Alexandria: Historical Debate in Pagan and Christian Communities (forthcoming) draws upon Greek, Latin, Coptic, and Syriac sources to reconstruct the progression of a three-day long violent encounter between pagan intellectuals, Christian ascetics, and the bishop of Alexandria. By examining the ideas and communal interactions that fueled this moment of urban violence, Riot connects the power of oral and written texts to the personal relationships that gave them meaning and to the actions that reshaped a city. I have currently begun work on a third book-length project that explores the institutional and cultural history of Platonism from its origins until the early seventh century. In addition to these larger projects, I have also published articles discussing violence in late antiquity, anti-Chalcedonian eschatology, the role played by oral traditions in late antique communities, and Platonism in both the Hellenistic and late antique periods. I teach a wide variety of graduate and undergraduate courses that present the political, cultural, and religious history of the ancient, late antique, and medieval Mediterranean world. In addition to a 2-course sequence of Roman history surveys, I also regularly offer undergraduate and graduate seminars exploring late Roman paganism, the evolution of the ancient biographical genre, hagiography in late antiquity, the late antique Near East, and Egypt in late antiquity.
Selected Awards
- Outstanding Junior Faculty, Indiana University
- Fellow, College Arts and Humanities Institute, Indiana University (2006)
- Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Humanistic Studies (1997-1998)
- Phi Beta Kappa (1997)
- GTE Academic All-American (Spring 1997)
- Ivy League High Jump Champion (Winter 1997)
Courses Recently Taught
- Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
- Roman History Survey
- Jews, Christians, and Muslims in the Medieval Mediterranean
- Late Antique Paganism
- Ancient Biography
- The World of Late Antiquity
- Beyond Rome: The Late Antique Near East
Publication Highlights
Books
City and School in Late Antique Athens and Alexandria, Transformation of the Classical Heritage Series, (Vol. 41). Berkeley: The University of California Press, 2006.
Riot in Alexandria: Historical Debate in Pagan and Christian Communities,(University of California Press, forthcoming).
The Roman Empire from the Tetrarchy to Theodosius II, volume of articles co-edited with Scott McGill and Cristiana Sogno, (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).
Articles
"Three Generations of Christian Philosophical Biography," in The Roman Empire from the Tetrarchy to Theodosius II, eds. S. McGill, C. Sogno, and E. Watts: forthcoming.
"John Rufus, Timothy Aelurus and the Fall of the Western Roman Empire," in Romans, Barbarians, and the Transformation of the Roman World, ed. R. Mathisen and D. Shanzer, (Ashgate, 2008): forthcoming.
"Creating the Academy: Historical Discourse and the Shape of Community in the Old Academy," Journal of Hellenic Studies 127 (2007): 106-22.
"Creating the Ascetic and Sophistic Mélange: Zacharias Scholasticus and the intellectual influence of Aeneas of Gaza and John Rufus," ARAM 18-9 (2006-7): 153-64.
"Winning the Intracommunal Dialogues: Zacharias Scholasticus' Life of Severus." Journal of Early Christian Studies 13, no. 4 (2005): 437-65.
"Where to Live the Philosophical Life in the Sixth Century: Damascius, Simplicius, and the Return from Persia." Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 45 (2005): 285-315.
"Orality and Community Identity in Eunapius' Lives of the Sophists and Philosophers." Byzantion 75 (2005): 334-61.
"Justinian, Malalas, and the End of Athenian Philosophical teaching in A.D. 529." Journal of Roman Studies 94 (2004): 168-83.
