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Dr Matthew Cobb BA, MA, PhD

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Lecturer in Classics

Institute of Education and Humanities

Tel: +44 (0) 1570 424806
Email: m.cobb@uwtsd.ac.uk

Role in the University

  • Programme Manager for BA Ancient History, BA Ancient History and Archaeology, and BA Ancient Civilisations

Background

I am a researcher and lecturer with interests in cultural and economic relationships between the Graeco-Roman Mediterranean and the wider Indian Ocean world. My research focuses on a range of interrelated themes, including cross-cultural exchange, diaspora, Graeco-Roman conceptions of the East, and the consumption of Indian Ocean goods within Roman society. I have also engaged in debates on the theoretical utility of concepts linked to globalization and glocalization and their application to the study of the ancient world.

I obtained my PhD from Swansea University and have since that time published a number of books, edited chapters and articles. Notable works include the monograph Rome and the Indian Ocean Trade: From Augustus to the Early Third Century CE (2018) and the edited books: The Indian Ocean Trade in Antiquity: Political, Cultural and Economic Impacts (2019); and Globalization and Transculturality from Antiquity to the Pre-Modern World (2022).

Academic Interests

In addition to research supervision (MRes, MPhil and PhD), I have lectured on a wide range of campus based and distance learning modules at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. While primarily a Roman historian, I have taught on a variety of historical, literary, archaeological and social themes centred on the Ancient world. The modules taught on include the following:

Undergraduate Modules (modules currently taught, or taught in previous years):

  • From Village to Empire (first year survey course of Roman political and military history, including the Republican, Imperial and Late Antique periods)
  • Everyday Life in Athens and Rome (first year – Roman and Athenian social history module)
  • Literature and Culture in the Reign of Nero (second/third year – literary, cultural and biographical history of the reign of Nero).
  • The Life and Times of Caesar and Cicero (second/third year module – historical, biographical and cultural themes linked to the Late Republic).
  • Macedon and the Macedonians (second/third year module – focusing on the Hellenistic world)
  • Classics Project (second year – independent, but supported, study project/proto-dissertation)
  • Regional Archaeology and History fieldtrip module (second/third module – organised and ran a fieldtrip to Sicily – spring 2017; and to Provence – spring 2019).
  • City of Rome (third year – historical and social history, art history, and material culture).
  • West meets East: At the Borders of the Oikoumene and Beyond (second/third year – social, religious, political, military and economic history and material culture – interaction of the Graeco-Roman world with India, Central Asia, East Africa, Southern Arabia and the Far East).

Postgraduate modules (modules currently taught, or taught in previous years):

  • Julius Caesar and his Times (late Republican history with a biographic focus on Caesar)
  • Writing History in the Ancient World: Between Narrative and Interpretation (Greek and Roman historiography)
  • Life in the Eastern Desert of Egypt (political, religious, social, military and economic history and material culture)
  • Rome and the Indian Ocean: The Classical World in a Global Context (political, religious, social, military and economic history and material culture)
  • Theory and Methodology for the Study of Classics
  • Aspects of Greek and Roman Religion and Cult

Language modules:

  • Advanced Greek (texts including Herodotus’ Histories, Xenophon’s Anabasis, and selections of speeches from the corpus of Lysias)
  • Intermediate Greek (advanced grammar and translating un-adapted Greek texts – e.g. Lysias and Lucian’s True History)

Research Interests

My research examines the cultural and economic interaction between the Mediterranean and Indian spheres. In particular, I am interested in the Indian Ocean as a conduit for trade and exchange between West and East, focusing on the Augustan period up to the third century AD.

This research encompasses a number of areas including economic issues relating to the cost, conduct, and operations of the trade; cultural and social issues concerning the identity and status of the merchants and the creation of diaspora and temporary merchant communities in foreign lands; as well as examining the social and economic impact of this trade on the elite at Rome, particularly the consumption of eastern goods.

Enterprise, Commercial & Consultancy Activities

Among my public engagement activities, I was a guest contributor to an episode of BBC Radio 4’s Making History Programme. This was an episode on Food which originally aired at 15:30 on Tuesday 7th of January, 2020. While in 2017, I appeared as an expert contributor in episode 6 of the second season of Finding Jesus: Fact, Faith, Forgery. The episode is entitled ‘Doubting Thomas’. This aired on CNN in America in the spring of 2017. I was consulted for my knowledge of Indian Ocean trade in the first century CE.

I have been involved in outreach initiatives designed to facilitate access to classics and ancient history in the wider community. These activities include participating in the South West Wales Reaching Wider Partnership programmes which is designed to get local school children interested in HE, as well as the Swansea University / South West Wales Classical Association / Iris Project ‘Latin in the Park’ project.