Profile
My research focusses on Roman interactions with their environment, and how Romans influenced and were influenced by natural features in the built environment of Rome. I completed my PhD at the University of Nottingham in 2019, and my thesis examined the role of trees in the cityscape. This research demonstrated the importance of trees in Roman conceptualisations of victory, and their changing roles across the city, indicating the necessity to examine natural features on a case-by-case basis. Some findings were published online in the Roman Trees Database, and in an article for Papers of the British School at Rome. In a subsequent 9-month Midlands3CitiesNext Steps fellowship at the University of Nottingham, this thesis was significantly adapted, and it is currently under preparation for publication in Bloomsbury’s Ancient Environments series.
In addition to completing this monograph, entitled Trees in Ancient Rome: Growing an Empire in the Late Republic and Early Principate, I plan to advance research on my next project, on Roman understandings of environmental pollution, their efforts to mitigate the impact of environmental pollution in their cities, and the efficacy of these efforts. As a trained classicist who has bridged Classics and Geography since the start of my doctorate, I am committed to interdisciplinarity in the study of the ancient world. I am keen to engage people both within and without the world of ancient history through talks and podcast appearances in order to advertise these rapidly developing cross-discipline aspects of Classics.