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Roman Mobilities and their Afterlives

Delve into the Roman Empire with this multidisciplinary exploration of the concept of mobility

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CIVIS focus area
Society, culture, heritage
Open to
  • Bachelor's
  • Master's
  • Phd
Field of studies
  • Social Science and humanities
Type
  • Blended Intensive Programmes (BIP)
Course dates
7 February - 20 June 2025

This BIP develops and continues from Roman Mobilities: the Movement of Persons, Animals, Objects and Ideas in the Ancient Roman World, successfully hosted by Sapienza (2023) and Bucharest (2024). The programme offers an advanced undergraduate and postgraduate seminar on ancient Roman culture through the lens of  “mobility”.

The developments of Roman culture as it moved across Europe demand multidisciplinary reflection on research questions relating to identity, the relationship between contemporary culture and local histories, and the different approaches to the past demanded by varied source materials. The added dimension for 2025 responds to the context of Scotland: a country beyond the borders of the empire, but which nevertheless has a rich and diverse history of reworking and absorbing the traces of Roman history and culture, both material and imaginary.

Central to this programme is the investigation of Rome – the city at the centre of a European empire – through its encounters with the East, the West, and the North, and of the interaction between the centre of empire and its extremities: today’s Romania, Spain, Morocco, Britain, all countries represented in the teaching team. The investigation emphasises the ambivalent processes of cultural appropriation, exchange, and dominance in the self-definition of communities under Roman rule, as Rome confronted a wide range of cultures: Greeks, other ancient Mediterranean and Black Sea communities, including those in North Africa, Spain, Gaul, Briton, as well as diasporic Jews. 

At the heart of this programme is the desire to provide a space for critical thinking to an array of students from different countries and backgrounds and to generate an ongoing debate about the timeliness of studying ancient cultural discourses in the present moment. By focusing on the extremely mobile nature of ancient Rome in terms of space and time, we will question traditional claims about the legacy of Roman imperialism in the creation of European values and propose more innovative methods for exploring this dialectic from a broad interdisciplinary perspective, always counting on the added value of our Alliance’s goals regarding issues of multiculturalism and civic approach.

Main topics addressed

  • Portability of religious rites
  • Dynamics of change in ancient religion, including the imperial cult
  • The role of translation in the transmission of philosophical and scientific ideas the transmission of culture through language
  • The cultural transference of literary, rhetorical, and artistic motifs
  • The performative power of the moving body
  • The ethical dimensions of travel
  • The status of citizens subject to relegation and exile
  • Military mobility
  • Mobility and monuments
  • Cultural heritage, its preservation, restoration, and management.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, the students will be able to:

  • demonstrate in-depth knowledge on ancient Roman culture and society from synchronic and diachronic perspectives;
  • apply multi-disciplinary concepts in the Humanities to draw conclusions on the cultural idea of ‘mobility’;
  • critically discuss aspects of identity and cultural status in ancient Rome and the provinces;
  • identify the value of case studies in approaching broader topics;
  • incorporate first-hand exploration of visual and material culture;
  • draw critical parallels between ancient and modern cultures;
  • develop collaborative research with peers from other nationalities and fields of study;
  • compose an outreach project about the topic to be addressed to non-academic audiences;
  • communicate orally to refine individual and group conclusions relating to the topics of the course.
Dates: 7 February - 2o June 2025 Total workload: 165 hours
Format: Blended ECTS: 6*
Location: Glasgow, UK Language: English (B2)
Contact: matthew.fox@glasgow.ac.uk  

*Recognition of ECTS depends on your home university.

Physical mobility

The physical mobility part is scheduled between 16-20 June 2025 in Glasgow, and will include excursions to archaeological sites and museums in the area and in the North of England.

The remains of the Roman presence in this area represent a unique resource for considering the core themes of international mobility from a historical perspective. Equally unique is the dimension of heritage management and cultural reception of antiquity. The integration and restoration of these monuments, and their place in the physical landscape, raise multi-layered questions about the heritage management, and the cultural reception of the Roman past which will give a special educational value to these site visits. The remains of the Roman border, the history of its preservation and reconstruction, and the associated material remains of the Northern frontier, will present students with a challenging and little-explored set of research questions about national identity, empire-building, and the preservation and appropriation of material remains.

There will be  object handling sessions at the Hunterian Museum, an excursion from Glasgow to view the surviving remains of the Antonine Wall, and a longer spent visiting Hadrian's wall and sites associated with it, including Vindolanda, Arbeia, Broccolitia, Housesteads.

*We will endeavour to make the course as accessible as possible, therefore it is possible to complete the assessment without participating in the mobility element if personal circumstances make that difficult, by completing an equivalent individual research project.

Virtual part

The program includes 10 online meetings spread between 7 February - 6 June 2025:

07.02.2025

  • Course introduction, and 'meet and greet', hosted by Matthew and Adrastos (Glasgow)
  • Matthew Fox (University of Glasgow): Mobility, Nation, and Culture: Greek education in Rome

14.02.2025

  • Sabine Luciani (Aix-Marseille Université): Rome’s relationship to Greece through the case of Philosophy
  • Luis Unceta Gómez (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid): Mobility in Latin

21.02.2025 

  • Zoa Alonso Fernández (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid): The moving body and Roman dance. A study on performativity
  • Giorgio Ferri (Sapienza Università di Roma): Ritual movements of persons and animals in Roman Religion

28.02.2025

  • Florica Mihuț (University of Bucharest): Exile, social mobility, and the exclusion from the citizen body in ancient Rome
  • Pedro Duarte (Aix-Marseille Université): Mobility and language contacts through the Roman Empire in the 1st century CE

07.03.2025

  • Alexandra Lițu (University of Bucharest): Religious practices and mobility on the edges of the Empire
  • Katell Berthelot (Aix-Marseille Université): Jewish mobilities in the Roman Empire

14.03.2025  

  • Valentin Bottez (University of Bucharest): Mithra?
  • Adrastos Omissi (Glasgow): The Romans in Britain

21.03.2025

  • Javier Moralejo (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid): The mobility of the Roman army through the Western Empire
  • Sanaa Hassab (University Hassan II Casablanca): Patrimonies and the strategy of creating heritage: concepts and limits of application

28.03.2025

  • student workshop 1 (2h) - concluding discussion, debate and synthesis

11.04.2025

  • student Workshop 2 (2h) - planning of the team projects

06.06.2025

  • meeting to consolidate preparations for the mobility element of the course
  • students meet tutors in groups to share progress on research topics

This course is open to Bachelor's, Master's and PhD's students at CIVIS member universities, with university level study experience of Ancient Rome. Experience of the study of Latin (at any level) is desirable.

Also, the participants should have excellent English skills (B2), team work spirit, presentation skills, critical self-reflection, critical thinking, and to be able to do individual and collaborative research.

NB: Visiting Students - Erasmus Funding Eligibility

To be eligible for your selected CIVIS programme, you must be a fully enrolled student at your CIVIS home university at the time you will be undertaking the programme. Click here to learn more about the eligibility criteria.

Students from CIVIS’ strategic partner universities in Africa cannot apply for participation in this course.

Application process

Send your application by filling in the online application form by 31 October 2024, including:

  • CV
  • Motivation letter
  • Level of english (According to CEFR)

Applications will be evaluated based on:

  • the relevance of student's previous academic career to the topic of the course,
  • motivation to participate in the course,
  • level of English - as evidenced by examination and the use of language in the letter of motivation.

Apply now

Assessment

The assessment will include:

  • 30% individual written reflective portfolio; 
  • 10% individual contribution to online seminars;
  • 50% group work: a research presentation on a topic chosen as part of a team;
  • 10% individual participation in the group presentation.

Blended Intensive Programme

This CIVIS course is a Blended Intensive Programme (BIP): a new format of Erasmus+ mobility which combines online teaching with a short trip to another campus to learn alongside students and professors across Europe. Click here to learn more about CIVIS BIPs.

GDPR Consent

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Kattel Berthelot (Aix-Marseille Université) is a historian of religions, specializing in ancient Judaism and comparing the three monotheisms. She is a director of research at the CNRS, and from 2014-2019 directed the ERC project “Judaism and Rome”. Working with biblical manuscripts and their commentaries, her research covers the notion of humanism in ancient Greek philosophy and ancient Jewish thought. Her books include In Search of the Promised Land: The Hasmonean Dynasty between Biblical Models and Hellenistic Diplomacy (2013), Jews and their Roman Rivals: Pagan Rome’s Challenge to Israel (2021). 

Valentin Bottez (University of Bucharest) has been a lecturer in the Department of Ancient History, Archaeology and Art History in Bucharest since 2015. He has directed excavations on the Histria archaeological site in the district of Constanța since 2013. His research interest include ancient urbanism and topography, early Christianity, and Roman religion. His monograph, Cultul imperial in provincia Moesia Inferior was published in 2009.

Pedro Duarte (Aix-Marseille Université) is a lecturer in Latin language and Literature, and a specialist in Latin semantics and lexicology. His work focusses on technicisms in Latin and the language of Roman collectors, and also on the linguistic issues relating to ancient encyclopaedic practice. He has also co-edited Architectures et décors fictifs antiques et médiévaux (2022), and Incognito: l’art de la ruse et de la dissimulation dans l’Antiquité (2018).

Zoa Alonso Fernández (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) is Professora Contrada Doctora in the department of Classical Philology. Her research scrutinizes the role of dance and movement in ancient Rome, paying a special attention to the implications of the dancing body in the Roman constructions of gender, sex and ethnicity. In addition, she works on Latin syntax and semantics, as well as reception studies. Recent articles include The Dancing Spaces of Roman Foundation (2022), Dance and the Senses at the Convivium (2022), and Martha Graham, Richard Move y la cultura drag en la heroína trágica (2022). 

Giorgio Ferri (Sapienza Università di Roma) is Tenure Track Researcher and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Department of History, Anthropology, Religions, Art History, Media and Performing Arts at Sapienza University of Rome with the project RITMO - The place-making function of ritual movement in Roman religion (GA 101024439). His main research interest is Roman religion, from its early stages to the first Christian emperors. He is author of two books and several articles and essays published on international peer-reviewed journals and gave papers in many conferences and workshops worldwide.

Luis Unceta Gómez (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) is Senior Lecturer of Latin Philology at UAM. His research interests focus on Latin semantics, pragmatics, and linguistic politeness. He has coedited (with Łukasz Berge) Politeness in Ancient Greek and Latin (Cambridge University Press, 2022). His second research line focuses on classical reception in contemporary popular culture. Currently, with Rosario López Gregoris, he leads the research project Marginalia Classica. He has recently co-edited the volumes 'Classical Reception': New Challenges in a Changing World (with Anastasia Bakogianni, De Gruyter, 2024), and Playful Classics. Classical Reception as a Creative Process (with Juliette Harrison and Martin Lindner, Bloomsbury, 2024).

Matthew Fox (Glasgow University) has been professor of Classics at Glasgow since 2007. He has wide-ranging research interests, including Roman historiography, Roman poetry, Classical Reception, History of Scholarship, Gender. He has published widely, including two monographs: Roman Historical Myths (1996) and Cicero's Philosophy of History (2007), and is currently completing a study of Roman ideas of materialism

Sanaa Hassab (University Hassan II Casablanca) is professeure habileté, FLSH, Benmsik, Hassan II University Cassablance. She works on themes related to Antiquity, Late Antiquity, and heritage, focussing on periods of transition, mobility and acculturation in the Mediterranean area. Her work also explores the contribution of cultural heritage to economic development, and the use of new technologies (including VR and AR) for the dissemination and safeguarding of this heritage. Recent articles include ‘Quelques exampes du Luxe dans la ville mauréto-romain en Tingitane’. She has participated in numerous CIVIS projects. 

Sabine Luciani ((Aix-Marseille Université) is professor of Latin language and literature. She specializes in the history of Roman and Hellenistic philosophy and in Latin literature. In numerous publications, she has explored Lucretius, Roman Epicureanism, the Christian reception of Hellenistic philosophy, Roman philosophy of time, and Cicero’s anthropological thinking. She is currently working on Roman traditions of philosophical consolation. Monographs include L’éclair immobile dans la plaine. Philosophie et poétique chez Lucrèce (2000) and Temps et éternité dans l’oeuvre philosophique de Cicéron (2010).

Alexandra Lițu (University of Bucharest) is senior lecturer in Ancient History and a Vice-Dean of the Faculty of History. She is chercheur associée at Villa Noël, Centre Régional Francophone d'Études Avancées en Sciences Sociales. Her research interests cover Greek religion, epigraphy and colonisation, Homer, and Digital Humanities. Recent articles include ‘Guess who’s coming to dinner? Strange, stranger, strangeness in the encounter between Odysseus and Polyphemus’ (2023) and (with Valentin Bottez) ‘An evaluation of the Ithaca Tool Performance for Restoring Lost Texts (Ancient Greek) - 2022. She co-ordinated the CIVIS BIP Roman Mobilities in 2024.

Florica (Bohîlțea) Mihuț (University of Bucharest) is senior lecture at the Faculty of History, University of Bucharest, Romania, PhD in History (since 2003), head of the Centre of Comparative History for Ancient Societies (CICSA). Her articles and books concern the social and political history of Ancient Rome, Roman Art, and recently, Romanian ethnography.

Javier Moralejo Ordax (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) is a lecturer in the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, specialising in the iron-age archaeology of the Iberian peninsula, Roman military history, and Latin epigraphy. He currently directs the archaeological project “Surface land survey in the municipality of Montemayor: Battlefields of the Roman conquest”, and is co-PI of ”Scientific and technological innovation in archaeology: the Iberian necropolis of El Toro (Alcubillas, Ciudad Real)”. Recent articles include ‘Ejército y soldados de Roma. Epigrafía y territorio en la Hispania Citerior altoimperial’ (2021) and, with Peter Rothenhoefer, ‘New evidence of Roman governors and officers on glandes inscriptae from republican Hispania’ (2023).

Adrastos Omissi (University of Glasgow), lecturer in Latin at Glasgow, is a historian of the later Roman Empire (3rd – 5th centuries AD), whose work has focussed on the themes of panegyric and civil war, as well as explorations of geography and the breakup of the West Roman Empire. He works mostly with textual material, but also considers physical sources, particularly coins and epigraphy. Emperors and Usurpers in the Later Roman Empire: Civil War, Panegyric, and the Construction of Legitimacy was published by Oxford University Press in 2018.