I am not accepting graduate students during this coming application cycle.

I’m interested in processes of transformation (political, religious, economic) in Late Roman Antiquity (3-5C). I’ve just finished a book exploring the role of local patronage and propaganda in consolidating the emperor Constantine’s hold on power and the rise of Christian autocracy, Constantine, the Once and Future King. I’m particularly interested in methodologies that integrate material culture with textual evidence as well as the reception of late ancient ideologies.  My new project explores gendered aspects of worship and the memory of that worship in what is now France before the Council of Chalcedon (451 CE). I’m especially interested in women’s leadership and beatification, the role of theology and conciliar legislation in shaping women’s practice, and how later authors and scholars contributed to the “masculinization” of Christian leadership.  I enjoy experimenting with different methodologies, thinking about historiographical trends, and learning about digital tools.

Research:

  • the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity as it involved political authority, elite and imperial ideology, and public policy
  • the social, political, cultural, and economic situation of late ancient Gaul as evidenced through material culture, transportation networks, and literary sources
  • ritual activity in sacred places over the longue durée, especially as concerns virginity, motherhood, and the Christian veneration of the Virgin Mother
  • the reception in later periods of late ancient ideology, especially within an American context

Teaching: 

  • Roman political change over time
  • Roman religious and philosophical culture
  • Roman law
  • Historiography and methodology

Constantine, the Once and Future King: The Construction of Apocalyptic Autocracy in  Late Antique Gaul (UC Press, 2027)–Though the rule of Constantine I from 306 to 337 CE represented a sea change in the ancient world, the emperor’s path to consolidating power and securing his legacy was hardly a straightforward one. In this book,  I use material culture and textual evidence to tell the story of Constantine’s rise to power and how his image and ideology developed into the foundation of Christian autocracy in late antiquity. Drawing on panegyrics, inscriptions, and archaeological evidence from cities such as Trier, Vienne, and Autun, each chapter reconstructs events through the perspectives of those who shaped and interpreted them—officials, propagandists, and clergy—to reveal how belief in Constantine’s divine favor emerged. The book tells a multifaceted, bottom-up story of everyday life in the late ancient Roman Empire, combining narrative reconstruction and close material and textual analysis to show how imperial image-making in Gaul forged an enduring synthesis of Christian autocracy with Roman imperial rule. (From the UC Press website, slightly modified)

Books

Global Rome: Shifting Frontiers in Late Antiquity, XV. Edipuglia Press, forthcoming.

A Threat to Public Piety: Christians, Platonists and the Great Persecution. Cornell University Press, 2012.

The Making of a Christian Empire: Lactantius and Rome. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000. Paperback, released 2012.

The Rhetoric of Power in Late Antiquity: Religion and Politics in Byzantium, Europe and the Early Islamic World, ed. with Justin Stephens, R. M. Frakes. London: I. B. Tauris, 2010; paperback, released 2020 (Bloomsbury).

Religious Identity in Late Antiquity, R. M. Frakes and Elizabeth Digeser, edd. Toronto: Edgar Kent, 2006.

 

Articles and Book Chapters (past two years)

“Shifting Economic Power in Autun: The Donation of Constantine,” Religion and Urbanity Online (De Gruyter, 2021).

 “Lactantius’ Euhemerism and Its Reception,” with Avery Barboza. For Euhemerism and Its Uses: The Mortal Gods, edited by Syrithe Pugh (Routledge, 2021), 78-103.

“The Violent Legacy of Constantine’s Militant Piety.” For Religious Violence in the Ancient World, edited by Jitse Dijkstra and Christian Raschle (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020), 228-248.

“Apollo, Christ, and Mithras: Constantine in Gallia Belgica.” In Reconsidering Roman Power: Roman, Greek, Jewish and Christian Perceptions and Reactions. Katell Berthelot, ed. Rome: Ecole Française de Rome Open Edition Books, 2020.

HIST 4A: The Ancient Mediterranean

HIST 112A: Roman Imperialism 

HIST 112C: Disaster & Reform (3-4C CE)

HIST 112D: Late Antiquity

HIST 112E: Roman Law

HIST 114A: History of Early Christianity to 800 CE

201E: Advanced Historical Literature (recent topics: Problems and Issues in Classical Reception)

213AB: Research Seminar in Roman History (recent topics: working with comparative history)

2026:                 Namesake of the Elizabeth Digeser best article prize for Studies in Late Antiquity

2015- 2021:      Founding Editor and then Co-Editor-in-Chief of Studies in Late Antiquity (UC Press)

since 2010:       Director of the California Consortium for the Study of Late Antiquity

since 2008:      Member, Advisory Board for the Journal of Early Christian Studies

2008:                Distinguished Teaching Award, UCSB Faculty Senate

Website:

Academia.edu

Google Scholar

 

Former PhD Students:

Ryan Abrecht, Department Chair and Associate Professor, University of San Diego Department of History

Evan Axel Andersson, Editorial Assistant, Elks Magazine, Chicago, IL

James Conrad†, Latin Instructor, Basis Charter Schools

Olivier Dufault, author of Early Greek Alchemy, Patronage, and Innovation in Late Antiquity (UC eScholarship)

Éric Fournier, Professor, Department of History West Chester University (with H. A. Drake)

Lisa Meyers Johnson, Training Design Manager, Bobcat Company

Jason Linn, Lecturer, Department of History, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (with J. W. I. Lee)

Kendall Lovely: Assistant Professor, Department of Native American Studies, and Curator of  Historic and Contemporary Indigenous Collections, Maxwell Museum, University of New Mexico

Heidi Marx, Professor, Department of Religion & Dean, Faculty of Arts, University of Manitoba (with H. A. Drake)

Misa Nguyen: Assistant Professor, Department of History, Baylor University.

Chris Nofziger, Client Delivery Manager, Spur Reply

Lindsey Scholl, Humanities Teacher & Latin Chair, Trinity Classical School of Houston

Alison Turtledove

Tracey Watts (with John W. I. Lee)

Peninah Wolpo, Assistant Professor , University of New Mexico, Los Alamos