Greg Woolf - Biography#

My research concerns the cultural history of the ancient world at the very large scale. I have published on European prehistory, on literacy, on cultural change in the Roman provinces, on library and knowledge cultures, on gender relations and on Roman religion. My latest book was a natural history of ancient urbanism. I am currently revising my Townsend Lectures (originally given at Cornell University) on Roman notions of civilization, and writing a short book on human mobility in antiquity.

Main Employments

• 2025 - present Leon Levy Director and Professor of Ancient Mediterranean Studies
• 2021 - 2024 Ronald J. Mellor Distinguished Professor of Ancient History, UCLA
• 2015 - 2021 Professor of Classics and Director of the ICS, University of London
  
• 1998 - 2014 Professor of Ancient History, University of St. Andrews
  
• 1993 - 1998 University Lecturer and Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford
  
• 1990 - 1993 Tutorial Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford
  
• 1989 - 1990 Research Fellow, Christ’s College, Cambridge

Education

• 1985 - 1990 PhD in Classics, Trinity College, Cambridge
  
• 1981 - 1985 BA in Ancient and Modern History, Christ Church, Oxford