MAJOR FIELDS OF INTEREST
| Ancient history | The social, political and cultural history of the ancient Mediterranean; esp. Roman Empire |
| Ancient religion | The religions of the ancient world; esp. Greek and Roman religion |
| Latin | Historiography, literature, rhetoric and philosophy; esp. prose under the
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| Ancient Greek | Literature, history and philosophy in the Classical and Imperial periods |
| "Hilfswissenschaften" | Epigraphy: esp. Latin; Roman prosopography; Late Latin paleography |
| Related fields | Theoretical approaches to the study of antiquity; excursions into archaeology and art history |
TEACHING AND WORK EXPERIENCE
| 2001- | Boston University, Boston - Assistant Professor, Dept. of Classical Studies |
| 2000 | Barnard College, New York - Latin Tutor |
| 1997-1999 | Columbia University, New York - Teaching Assistant, Dept. of History |
| 1995-1996 | Pázmány Péter University, Hungary - Lecturer, Dept. of Ancient Studies |
| 1995-1996 | Bell Educational Trust, Hungary - English teacher |
| 1992-1995 | ELTE, Hungary - Teaching Assistant, Department of Ancient History |
EDUCATION
| 2002 | PhD in History -
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Dissertation: "The religion of the senatorial elite in the
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| 2002 | MA in Ancient Greek - Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE),
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| Thesis: "Philosophy and philosophers in Dio Chrysostom" | |
| 1998 | MPhil in History -
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| Major fields: Greek intellectual history, Roman social history,
Religious history of the
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| 1996 | MA in English Language and Literature - ELTE,
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| Thesis: "The Joyce experience today - Postmodern readings of the Ulysses" | |
| 1995 | MA in History, summa cum laude - ELTE,
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| Honors Thesis: "The written word in Archaic Attica" |
MONOGRAPH
| 2010 | "The Religion of Senators in the Roman Empire: Power and the Beyond" Cambridge University Press |
| in progress | "The Others of the Self: Communities of Belonging in Imperial Rome" (Proposal under consideration at Cambridge University Press) Cambridge University Press |
| in progress | The Trauma of War in the Ancient and Modern Worlds" (Proposal is being prepared for the Classical Inter/faces series of Duckworth) |
EDITED VOLUME
| 2005 | “A Tall Order: Writing the social history of the ancient world. Essays in honor of William V. Harris” Beiträge zur Altertumskunde, Saur Verlag (with co-editor Jean-Jacques Aubert, Université de Neuchâtel) |
| in final revision | With co-editor J. Knust, Sacrifice in the Ancient Mediterranean. Images, Acts, Meanings. Oxford University Press. |
ARTICLES
| in revision | "The politics of the personal: negotiating 'family values' in imperial Greece and Asia Minor," Arethusa |
| in press | “’To forgive is divine:’ gods as models and guides of forgiveness in early imperial Rome,” in C. Griswold, D. Konstan (eds.) Ancient Forgiveness. Cambridge University Press. |
| in press | “Political murder and sacrifice: from republic to empire,” in J.W. Knust, Zs. Várhelyi (eds.), Sacrifice in the Ancient Mediterranean. Images, Acts, Meanings. Oxford University Press. |
| 2008 | Les ostraca de l’Antiquité tardive de l’Afrique du Nord : contextes d’interprétation |
| (in print) | in: Africa |
| 2009 | “Sites, stratigraphy and materials: ostraka” (with R.S. Bagnall) |
| in: An Island Through Time: Jerba Studies, ed. A. Drine, E. Fentress, R. Holod, Vol. 1. 330-340. | |
| 2008 | “Finding a place for religion in Roman historiography: between the Scylla of the Roman Empire and the Charybdis of Late Antiquity,” G. Németh (ed.) Kalendae. Studia sollemnia in memoriam I. Sarkady (Hungarian Polis Studies 16). Debrecen, 337-344. |
| 2007 | “Salus senatorum: pro salute inscriptions in the Roman Empire” |
| in: Actes du XII Congrčs International d'Épigraphie, ed. X.E. Corbalan | |
| 2007 | “The specters of Roman imperialism: the live burials of Gauls and Greeks at Rome” |
| in: Classical Antiquity, vol. 26.2, pp. 277-304. | |
| 2006 | “Social history and archaeology: opportunities and problems” |
| in: Common ground: archaeology, art, science and the humanities: the proceedings of the XVIth international congress of classical archaeology, ed. C. Mattusch, A. Donohue, A. Brauer, Oxford, pp. 312-314. | |
| 2005 | “A sense of change and the historiography of the turn from Republic to Empire” |
| in: A Tall Order, ed. J-J. Aubert, Zs. Várhelyi. München. 357-375. | |
| 2001 | "Magic, religion and syncretism at the oracle of Claros" |
in: Between Magic and Religion, ed. S. Asirvatham, C. Pache, J. Watrous |
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| 2000 | "Jews in civic life under the
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| in: Acta Ant. Hung. 40, pp. 471-478. | |
| 1998 | "What is the evidence for the survival of Punic culture in Roman North Africa?" |
| in: Acta Ant.Hung.38, pp. 387-399. | |
| 1997 | "The religion of the Egyptians in the Greek Novel" |
| in: Heorte. Studia in honorem J. Sarkady. Ed. Z. Nemes, Gy. Nemeth. Hungarian
Polis Studies 2.
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| 1996 | "The written word in Archaic Attica" |
| in: Klio 78, pp. 28-52. | |
| 1996 | "Menos stalas: The Greek literacy in the mirror of contemporary inscriptions" (in Hungarian) |
| in: Antik Tanulmanyok 40, pp. 1-9. | |
| 1993 | "The Greeks and early literacy" (in Hungarian) |
| in: Sic itur ad astra, pp.17-40. |
OTHER PUBLICATIONS AND BOOK REVIEWS
| in press | Review of D. Fishwick, The Imperial Cult in the Latin West. 3.1-3.4. Leiden, Brill 2002. |
| 2010 | “Imperial cult, Roman” Entry, Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, ed. by Michael Gagarin et al., Oxford University Press |
| 2009 | “Roman religion: Rome and Italy.” Research report, Archiv für Religionsgeschichte 11: 338-341. |
| 2009 | “Review of C. M. C. Green, Roman Religion and the Cult of Diana at Aricia. Cambridge 2007. Book review, International Journal of the Classical Tradition 16: 577-581. |
| 2009 | (with Jennifer Knust) “What the Gods Demand: Blood Sacrifice in the Ancient Mediterranean.” Conference report, The Journal Henoch 31: 217-220. |
| 2009 | Review of J. Bodel and S. M. Olyan (edd.), Household and Family Religion in Antiquity. Malden: Blackwell 2008. New England Classical Journal 36.3: 207-209. |
| 2006 | Review of T. Murphy, Pliny the Elder's Natural History: The Empire in the Encyclopedia. Oxford, Oxford UP 2004. 233pp. |
| 2004 | Review
of R. Rollinger, Ch. Ulf (eds.), Geschlechterrollen und Frauenbild in
der Perspektive antiker Autoren. Innsbruck, Studien Verlag 2000. 367pp. |
| 2003 | Review
of D. Frede, A. Laks (edd.), Traditions of theology. Studies in
Hellenistic theology, its background and aftermath. (Philosophia
Antiqua, 89.) Pp. xiv + 343. Leiden, Boston, Köln: Brill, 2001. |
| 2003 | Review of E. Bispham, C. Smith (edd.): Religion in archaic and republican Rome and Italy: evidence and experience. (New perspectives on the ancient world, 2.) Pp. xiv + 199, ills. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2000. |
| 2003 | Review of J. Rüpke: Die Religion der Römer. Eine Einführung. Pp. 264, 23 ills. München: Verlag C.H. Beck, 2001. |
| 1996 | “Demetrios and the Athenian volunteers” (Hungarian transl. of 4th c. BC inscription) in: Greek History: Documents, Ed. Gy. Németh, n.169. |
| 1995-1996 | Greek and Roman entries (in Hungarian) to “Magyar Nagylexikon” |
| 1994 | “Die wissenschaftliche Tätigkeit von Prof. István Hahn” (Bibliography, in German) with E. Missura and Gy. Németh in: Annales Univ. Sci. Budapestiniensis de Rolando Eötvös Nom., Sect. Hist., XXVI, pp.271-291. |
PAPERS/PRESENTATIONS
2010 |
“’Doctrines’ in traditional narratives and exemplary figures: rethinking ‘belief’ in Roman religion,” Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta (accepted) |
2010 |
“Selfhood, power and religion among pagan elites.” Conference on the ‘Religious Dimensions of the Self in the Second Century CE,’ Erfurt, Germany (invited) |
2010 |
“Through thick and thin: health and illness in the pagan religion and philosophical communities of imperial Rome,” Department of Ancient History, ELTE, Budapest, Hungary (invited) |
2010 |
“The development of the worship of the genius Augusti in Italy in the early Roman empire.” Annual Meeting of the American Philological Association, Anaheim, CA |
2010 |
“Personae, individuals and selves: what are we talking about when we discuss ancient individuals?” With Thomas Habinek, Roundtable, Annual Meeting of the American Philological Association, Anaheim, CA |
2009 |
“Power and religion in the ‘pagan’ Roman empire.” Colloquium on Material Culture and Ancient Religion 2009, Rome |
2010 |
“Morality and religion in pagan, Jewish and Christian characters in recent cinematic visions of ancient Rome.” International Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, Rome |
2009 |
“Sexual selves in play: homoerotic poetry in imperial Rome,”
Annual Meeting of the American Philological Association, Philadelphia |
| 2008 | “The ‘graffiti habit’ in the early Roman Empire,”
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| 2008 | “Comparative mappings of (the study of) religion and of emotions in the ancient world,”
Annual Meeting of the American Philological Association, Chicago |
| 2007 | “’Family values’ in the first- and second-century Greek East of the Roman Empire,” Annual Meeting of the Society for Biblical Literature, San Diego |
| 2007 | “Power and Religion in the ‘pagan’ Roman Empire,” International Annual Meeting of the Society for Biblical Literature, Vienna, Austria |
| 2007 | “Finding the proper place for religion: between the Scylla of the Roman Empire and the Charybdis of Late Antiquity?” |
| 2006 | “Subverting narrative qualities in second-century retellings of ‘pagan’ myths” |
| 2006 | “The Religion of Roman Senators in the Empire: between Power and Belief” |
| 2006 | “Les ostraka de l’Antiquité tardive de l’Afrique du Nord : contextes d’interprétation” |
| 2005 | “Religion and Power in the Early Empire” |
| 2005 | “Social Mobility and the Renewal of the Senate in the Roman Empire” |
| 2004 | “Elite community, prayer and healing in the Roman Empire” |
| 2004 | “Aut Finis Aut Transitus: Death, Senatorial Style, in the Roman Empire” |
| 2004 | “Between public and private: elite dining and bathing in Late Republican and Early Imperial Italy” |
| 2003 | “Social history and archaeology: opportunities and problems” |
| 2002 | “Roman prosopography and microhistory: convergences and divergences” |
| 2002 | “The problem of dating change: the Stoic theory of incorporeal transformations” |
| 2002 | “Salus senatorum: pro salute inscriptions in the Roman Empire” (poster) |
| 2002 | “The oikos recalled: the Classical family in the Second Sophistic” |
| 2001 | “Revenge and forgiveness, gods and emperors in the Roman Empire” |
| 1999 | “Jews in civic life under the Empire” |
| 1998 | “The oracle of Claros and hymns in Imperial Asia Minor” |
| 1998 | “Ethnic markers in the religion of the Roman Empire: foreign cults and their personnel” |
| 1998 | “What good can be found in Pandora’s box? Electronic resources at Butler Library” |
| 1997 | “The live burial of Gauls and Greeks at Rome” |
| 1995 | “Menos stalas: The Greek literacy in the mirror of contemporary inscriptions” (in Hungarian) |
CONFERENCES AND COLLOQUIA ORGANIZED
| 2008 | “What the gods demand: blood sacrifice in the ancient Mediterranean” (with Jennifer Knust, BU, School of Theology) |
| 2003 | “Roman Social History and Archaeology: New Models and Material Evidence” (with David Hollander, Iowa State University) |
| 2002- | Annual Roman Studies Conference, Boston University (co-organizer with fellow Latinists in the Dept. of Classical Studies) |
RESEARCH PROJECT
| 2004-2008 | Study, publication and preservation of ostraka from Gigthis (Bu Grara) in association with Roger S. Bagnall (Columbia University) and Ali Drine (Institut National du Patrimoine, Tunisia) |
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Boston University:
| Lecture courses | Roman civilization |
| Roman history | |
| Greek and Roman religion | |
| The Roman Empire | |
| Public Virtues and Private Vices in Imperial Rome | |
| Seminars | Elementary Latin |
| Latin prose: Cicero and Pliny (second year) | |
| Intermediate Latin: Seneca's Moral Epistles and On Mercy | |
| Intermediate Latin: Petronius | |
| Intermediate Latin: Tacitus | |
| Advanced Latin: Apuleius, Metamorphoses | |
History of the Roman Empire (graduate) |
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Readings in ancient selfhood: Latin epistolography and biography (graduate) |
Columbia University:
| Proseminar (co-taught) | Latin paleography (with Roger Bagnall and Rodney Ast) |
Pázmány Péter University:
| Seminars | Reading Homer as historical evidence |
| Introduction into Greek history | |
| Asia Minor from Alexander to Constantine |
ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELDWORK EXPERIENCE
| 1998 | American Academy in Rome, Summer Program in Archaeology Archaeological survey and excavation in cooperation with the University of Pennsylvania, on the Island of Jerba (Tunisia). |
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
| 2009- | Member, Editorial Board, Acta Classica, Hungary |
| 2005- | External reviewer for Blackwell and NYU Press |
| 2010 | Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation Fellowship for research trip in Israel and Jordan. |
| 2009 | Grants for conference: “What the gods demand: blood sacrifice in the ancient Mediterranean” (with Jennifer Knust, BU, School of Theology) from Boston University, College of Arts and Sciences; Humanities Foundation; School of Theology; Center for Philosophy and History of Science. American Academy of Religion, New-England Maritimes Region. |
| 2003-04 | Junior Fellow, Humanities Foundation, Boston University |
| 2000-01 | Whiting Dissertation Completion Fellowship, Columbia University |
| 1998 | American Academy in Rome, Summer Program in Archaeology, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation |
| 1997-2000 | President's Fellowship, Columbia University |
| 1996-97 | Morton Smith Fellowship, Columbia University |
| 1996-97 | 3-month DAAD scholarship for graduate research in Germany |
| One month in Heidelberg (Prof. Geza Alfoldy, July 1997) | |
| Two months in Munich (Prof. Christian Meier, June-July 1996) | |
| 1993-94 | Tempus scholarship to study ancient history at the University of Heidelberg |
ADDITIONAL STUDIES
| 1998-2000 | Philosophy and Media Studies at The New School University, New York |
| 1990-96 | Latin at ELTE, Hungary |
| 1993-94 | Ancient History at the University of Heidelberg, Germany |
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
| 2003- | Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica |
| 2002- | Archaeological Institute of America |
| 1999- | American Historical Association |
| 1999- | American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature |
| 1997- | Association Internationale d'Epigraphie Grecque et Latine |
| 1996- | American Philological Association |
| 1996- | Association of Ancient Historians |
OTHER MUSINGS
| Personal essay | Histories, memories and a few videotapes (Weblink) in Immediacy 2/3 (2001) |
| Videos | Creating a past (Shot at the American Academy in Rome in 1998, completed in 2000) |
| (with Alan Rodgers) | Becoming angry with you (Shot in New York, 1998) |
| Kafka: Before the Law (Shot in New York, 1998) |
LANGUAGES
| Native | Hungarian |
| Fluent | English, German |
| Reading skills | French, Italian, Russian |
| Ancient languages | Greek, Latin, and basic Ancient Syriac |