Academic interests
My research focuses on the cultural practices and political cultures of the Greek cities in the Roman period.
I completed my PhD in Ancient History at the University of Oslo in 2025 with the dissertation Remoulding Cultures: Issues of Continuity and Change in the Italiote Cities of Roman Italy. The thesis examined how the Italiote cities responded to new forms of government introduced by Rome from the third century BCE to the second century CE, with particular attention to local cults and institutions.
I am currently the principal investigator of the project The Goddess Roma: Agonistic Festivals and Political Cultures in the Roman Empire, funded by the Research Council of Norway (FRIPRO) and hosted by the University of Oslo and the University of Groningen. The project explores the Greek agonistic festivals held in honour of the goddess Roma and the emperors. It looks at their religious practices, the networks they created and the forms of political representation they involved. Its aim is to shed new light on the emergence of new forms of worship in the Greek cities, on religious exchange between cultures, and on relations between cities, individuals and Roman central power.
My work draws on Homi Bhabha’s postcolonial theory, especially his concept of “cultural translation”. This approach sees cultural exchange not as a one-way transfer from Romans to Greeks, or the other way round. Instead, it focuses on how local communities actively negotiated, reshaped and reinterpreted the changes brought about by Roman involvement.
Courses taught
- HIS4223 – Vold gjennom historien
- https://www.uio.no/studier/emner/hf/iakh/HIS4223/
- HIS2100 – Roma: By og imperium i antikken https://www.uio.no/studier/emner/hf/iakh/HIS2100/
- HIS4213 – Greek and Roman Gods and Goddesses https://www.uio.no/studier/emner/hf/iakh/HIS4213/
- HIS2118 – Rome and the Rise of Its Empire (509–31 BCE) https://www.uio.no/studier/emner/hf/iakh/HIS2118/
Background
- 2025 Completion Grant, University of Oslo, Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History (IAKH)
- 2025 Doctoral Research Fellowship in Ancient History, University of Oslo, Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History (IAKH)
- 2018 M.A., University of Bologna, History and Oriental Studies
- 2016 B.A., University of Naples Federico II, Archaeology and History of Arts
Publications
- 2026 ‘Roman-Italiote Alliances Before and After the Pyrrhic War’. In Pyrrhus’ Legacy: Socio-Political Interactions, Mobility, and Identity Formation in South Italy, edited by E. Bianchi, De Gruyter, pp. 35-59.
- 2026 ‘The Image of Magna Graecia after Pyrrhus: Lycophron and the Geography of Myth’. Frontière·s, revue d’archéologie, histoire & histoire de l’art, Supplément 4: 87– 101.
- 2025 ‘The Achaean Alphabet of Poseidonia-Paestum’. Arctos 58: 209–226.