Specialization:
Intellectual, Social, and Religious History of the Roman Empire; Early Byzantine Empire
Education:
Ph.D., Yale University (History)
B.A., Brown University (Classics)
B.A., Brown University (Ancient and Medieval Culture)
Bio:
Edward Watts received his PhD in History from Yale University in 2002. His research interests center on the intellectual, social, and religious history of the Roman and early Byzantine Empire. His first book, City and School in Late Antique Athens and Alexandria (University of California Press, 2006), details how the increasingly Christian upper class of the late antique world used a combination of economic and political pressures to neutralize pagan elements of the traditional educational system. His second book, Riot in Alexandria: Historical Debate in Pagan and Christian Communities (University of California Press, 2010), uses Greek, Latin, Coptic, and Syriac sources to reconstruct an Alexandrian riot that erupted in 486 AD. His third book, The Final Pagan Generation (University of California Press, 2015) offers a generational history of the men born in the 310s that traces the experience of living through the fourth century’s dramatic religious and political changes. Before coming to UCSD, Professor Watts taught for ten years at Indiana University.
Research:
Professor Watts is currently working on a biography of the female philosopher Hypatia (Oxford University Press, forthcoming), a monograph focused on The Social History of Platonism, an edited volume examining late antique letter collections, and a handbook to late antique literature. Before coming to UCSD, Professor Watts taught for ten years at Indiana University. Professor Watts teaches courses on Byzantine History, Roman History, Late Antique Christianity and paganism, and the history of the Medieval Mediterranean.
Publications:
Books
Hypatia: An Ordinary Life, (Oxford University Press, 2016).
The Last Pagan Generation, (University of California Press, 2015).
Riot in Alexandria: Tradition and Group Dynamics in Late Antique Pagan and Christian Communities, (University of California Press, 2010).
City and School in Late Antique Athens and Alexandria, Transformation of the Classical Heritage Series, (Vol. 41), University of California Press, 2006.
Edited Volumes
Collected Epistolography in Late Antiquity, (UC Press, forthcoming). (Co-edited with Brad Storin and Cristiana Sogno)
Handbook to Late Antique Literature, (Blackwell, forthcoming). (Co-edited with Scott McGill)
Freedom of Speech and Self-Censorship in Late Antiquity, (Revue Belge de Philosophie et d’Histoire, Vol. 92, 2014). (Co-edited with Lieve Van Hoof)
Shifting Cultural Frontiers in Late Antiquity, (Ashgate Publishing, 2012). (Co-edited with David Brakke and Deborah Deliyannis)
From the Tetrarchs to the Theodosians: Essays on Later Roman History and Culture, 284-450 CE, (Cambridge, 2010). (Co-edited with Cristiana Sogno and Scott McGill)
Courses:
Professor Watts teaches courses on Byzantine History, Roman History, Late Antique Christianity and paganism, and the history of the Medieval Mediterranean.