Centre for Connectivity in the Roman World

Tabula Peutingeriana - By Conradi Millieri (Ulrich Harsch Bibliotheca Augustana) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

About the centre

This Centre examines in what ways connectivity contributed to the shaping of distinctive cultures, economies and societies across the breadth of the Roman world and its neighbours. Through the long-lens of deep history, Roman civilisation marked a sharp surge in global connectivity, in terms of human migration, the movement of objects, and the existence of cultural sharing and global consciousness - the extent of which was not surpassed in Eurasia until the modern era. The Centre aims to explore the implications for living in what was a truly globalised and interconnected Roman world, as well as to determine the underlying agency behind such processes. The Centre’s research focuses upon tracing pathways of motion – of people, objects, languages and ideas, from a variety of perspectives. In doing so, we aim to forge a radical departure from the methodological nationalism that has dominated research frameworks for the last century. In the place of these perspectives a new kind of history is proposed that takes mobility rather than states as its main point of departure. The Centre was created in 2015, and is directed by Martin Pitts, and co-directed by Claire Holleran and Elena Isayev.

Image: Tabula Peutingeriana - By Conradi Millieri (Ulrich Harsch Bibliotheca Augustana) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Centre Members

Core members
Professor Claire Holleran	Associate Professor
Professor Elena Isayev	Professor of Ancient History and Place
Dr Daniel King	Senior Lecturer
Professor Neville Morley	Professor in Classics and Ancient History
Professor Martin Pitts	Professor of Roman Archaeology

Members outside the department
Professor David Inglis	Director of Research, Professor (Sociology)
Professor Ioana Oltean	Associate Professor in Roman and Remote Sensing Archaeology
Dr Charlotte Tupman	Senior Research Fellow