Dr Lewis Webb

I am a social and cultural historian of the Roman Republican and imperial periods, specializing in gender, law, religion, and space in Republican Rome. Much of my recent work has focused on Roman women, particularly their public roles and visibility.

My research interests extend in various additional directions, including comparative approaches to sexuality and shame in Rome, northern alterities in Roman literature, early Roman legislation, theoretical approaches to Roman archaeology, the Anthropocene, and the material culture of Etruria and Thessaly.

My current research project is entitled ‘(In)visible women: Female spatial practices and visibility in urban spaces in Republican Rome (509–27 BCE)’ and is funded by the Swedish Research Council (2020–2022). This project aims to challenge and resolve some ancient and contemporary misconceptions about women in Republican Rome, especially their purported invisibility and association with domestic spaces and practices. As part of this project, I am preparing a monograph on senatorial women in Mid-Republican Rome for Bloomsbury.

Additionally, I am a researcher within two archaeological projects in Italy and Greece, namely the Swedish research project Understanding Urban Identities from the Bronze Age to the Roman time: The case of Vulci in the context of southern Etruria in Viterbo, Italy, which is investigating the ancient city of Vulci, and the Greek-Swedish Palamas Archaeological Project in the municipality of Palamas, Greece, which is investigating the ancient city at Vlochos.

I am also a series editor for the newly launched book series Women in Ancient Cultures for Liverpool University Press: https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/pages/women-in-ancient-cultures

Roman history; Roman archaeology; Roman material culture; Roman urbanism; Roman Republic; Roman women; senatorial women; female visibility; gender history

Full Publications:dr_lewis_webb_cv.pdf

Selected Publications:

“lex Canuleia,” in Oxford Classical Dictionary (OUP, in press).

L. Webb and I. Selsvold, “Introduction: Posthuman perspectives in Roman archaeology,” in I. Selsvold and L. Webb (eds), Beyond the Romans: Posthuman Perspectives in Roman Archaeology (Oxbow, 2020), 1–10.

I. Selsvold and L. Webb, “The Romans and the Anthropocene: Posthuman provocations,” in I. Selsvold and L. Webb (eds), Beyond the Romans: Posthuman Perspectives in Roman Archaeology (Oxbow, 2020), 109– 124.

“Mihi es aemula: Elite female status competition in Mid-Republican Rome and the example of Tertia Aemilia,” in C. Damon and C. Pieper (eds), Eris vs. Aemulatio. Valuing Competition in the Ancient World (Brill, 2019), 251–80.

“Inter imperium sine fine: Thule and Hyperborea in Roman literature,” in D. Jørgensen and V. Langum (eds), Visions of North in Premodern Europe (Brepols, 2018), 35–58.

“Gendering the Roman imago,” EuGeStA 7 (2017), 140–183, https://eugesta-revue.univ-lille3.fr/pdf/2017/5.Webb-Eugesta-7_2017.pdf  

“Shame transfigured: Slut-shaming from Rome to cyberspace,” First Monday 20.4 (2015), http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/5464/4419

Under Contract:

Senatorial women in Mid-Republican Rome (Bloomsbury).

M. Bayless, J. Liliequist, and L. Webb (eds), Gender and Status Competition in Premodern Societies (Brepols).

K. Frank, G. Gilles, C. Plastow, and L. Webb (eds), Female Agency in the Ancient Mediterranean (Liverpool University Press).

“ordo matronarum,” in Oxford Classical Dictionary (OUP).