DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS AND ANCIENT HISTORY
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About the department
Research
Bella Sandwell
Senior Lecturer in Ancient History
Phone: +44 (0)117 928 9020
Email: bella.sandwell@bristol.ac.uk
Research
Dr Sandwell’s main research interest is the religious history of the Roman period, particularly religious interaction between Christians and non-Christians in late antiquity. In 2007 she published her Religious Identity in Late Antiquity: Greeks, Jews and Christians in Antioch which used the work of Pierre Bourdieu and the writings of Libanius and John Chrysostom to develop a new model for understanding religious interaction in late antiquity. She has also published numerous articles on Libanius, Chrysostom and the fourth century religious situation. She is currently working on a monograph on audience understanding and reception of preaching and is carrying out research on the emperor Julian and approaches to the study of ritual in antiquity. Dr Sandwell also has broader interests in Greek and Roman social history, the Greek world under Roman rule and the use of anthropology and psychology for studying ancient history.
She would be happy to supervise PhD students working on Libanius or John Chrysostom and on any aspect of third and fourth century religious history.
Teaching
Dr Sandwell is on research leave in 2010-11. She teaches a range of courses on general Roman history as well as courses more closely connected to her own research interests in religion and late antiquity. She also teaches some Greek history.
Selected publications
- Sandwell, I. and Huskinson, J. (eds.) (2004) Culture and Society in Late Roman Antioch, Oxbow Books (introduced by I. Sandwell), including: I. Sandwell, ‘Christian Self-Definition in the Fourth Century AD: John Chrysostom on Christianity, Imperial Rule and the City’,
- Sandwell, (2005) ‘Outlawing Magic or Outlawing Religion?: Libanius and the Theodosian Code as Evidence for Legislation against Pagan Practices in the Fourth Century AD’, in V. W. Harris (ed.) Understanding the Spread of Christianity in the First Four Centuries, Brill.
- Sandwell, I. (2007), Religious Identity in Late Antiquity: Greeks, Jews and Christians in Antioch, Cambridge University Press.
- I. Sandwell (2007) ‘Libanius’ Social Networks and the Social Structure of the Later Roman Empire’ in Mediterranean Historical Review 22: 133-147.