Dr Michael Williams
Biography
Michael Williams was born in Cardiff and brought up in and around Bedford. He took degrees in History, Political Thought and Classics at the University of Cambridge, where he gained his Ph.D. in 2003. Since then he has taught in the UK, Ireland and the USA, before taking up a permanent position at NUI Maynooth in 2008. He is the author of Authorised Lives in Early Christian Biography: Between Eusebius and Augustine (Cambridge, 2008) and co-editor of Unclassical Traditions, vol. 1: Alternatives to the Classical Past in Late Antiquity (Cambridge, 2010) and Unclassical Traditions, vol. 2: Perspectives From East and West in Late Antiquity (Cambridge, 2011). A study of Ambrose of Milan is currently in preparation.
Research Interests
Michael Williams’ primary research interest is in the intellectual history of Christianity, and in particular the representation and performance of religious, social and cultural identities in late Antiquity. He has published on ancient biography and hagiography, and his current research focuses on the rhetorical construction of the status and role of Christian bishops and ascetics. Other interests include Roman religion, historiography, and the modern reception of daily life in ancient Rome.
Publications
Books
Authorised Lives in Early Christian Biography: Between Eusebius and Augustine (Cambridge University Press, 2008). Available for ordering or previewing on the Cambridge University Press website.
(ed., with C. Kelly and R. Flower) Unclassical Traditions, vol. I: Alternatives to the Classical Past in Late Antiquity (CCJ Supplementary Volume 34, Cambridge Philological Society, 2010). Available for ordering from Oxbow Books, the Cambridge Philological Society (members only) or Amazon.
(ed., with C. Kelly and R. Flower) Unclassical Traditions, vol. II: Perspectives from East and West in Late Antiquity (CCJ Supplementary Volume 35, Cambridge Philological Society, 2011). Available for ordering from Oxbow Books, the Cambridge Philological Society (members only) or Amazon.
(under contract)
Ambrose's People: Community and Consensus in Late Antique Milan. Under contract with Cambridge University Press for submission in September 2013.
Articles, Chapters etc.
'Hymns as Acclamations: The Case of Ambrose of Milan', under final revision for publication in Journal of Late Antiquity (forthcoming 2013).
'Auxentius of Milan: From Orthodoxy to Heresy', Studia Patristica (forthcoming 2013).
‘Augustine as a Reader of his Christian Contemporaries’, in M. Vessey (ed.) A Companion to Augustine (Blackwell, 2011).
‘Time and Authority in the Chronicle of Sulpicius Severus’, in A. Lianeri (ed.) The Western Time of Ancient History: Historiographical Encounters with the Greek and Roman Pasts (Cambridge University Press, 2011). Available for ordering or previewing on the Cambridge University Press website.
'‘‘Beloved lord and honourable brother’: the negotiation of status in Augustine, Letter 23’, in Kelly, Flower, Williams (eds) Unclassical Traditions, vol. 2: Perspectives from East and West in Late Antiquity (CCJ Supplementary Volume 35, Cambridge Philological Society, 2011).
‘sine numine nomina: Ausonius and the Oulipo’, in Kelly, Flower, Williams (eds) Unclassical Traditions, vol. 1: Alternatives to the Classical Past in Late Antiquity (CCJ Supplementary Volume 34, Cambridge Philological Society, 2010).
Reviews
David M. Gwynn, Athanasius of Alexandria: Bishop, Theologian, Ascetic, Father (Oxford: OUP, 2012), in Journal of Roman Studies 103 (forthcoming 2013).
Tomas Hägg, The Art of Biography in Antiquity (Cambridge: CUP, 2012), in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2013.01.60 (2013).
R. Price and M. Whitby (eds) Chalcedon in Context: Church Councils, 400-700 (Liverpool: Liverpool UP, 2009), in Classics Ireland (2012).
T. D. Barnes, Early Christian Hagiography and Roman History (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010), in Journal of Roman Studies 102 (2012).
S. McGill, C. Sogno and E. Watts (eds) From the Tetrarchs to the Theodosians: Later Roman History and Culture (Cambridge: CUP 2010), in Classical Review 61.2 (2011).
I. Malkin, C. Constantakopoulou and K. Panagopoulou (eds) Greek and Roman Networks in the Mediterranean (London: Routledge, 2009) in Journal of Mediterranean Studies 20:1 (2010).
R. J. Goodrich, Contextualizing Cassian: Aristocrats, Asceticism, and Reformation in Fifth-Century Gaul (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007) in Journal of Theological Studies 61:1 (2010) available online here.
F. M. Young, L. Ayres and A. Louth (eds) The Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005) in Journal of Theological Studies 60:2 (2009) available online here.
C. Ando, The Matter of the Gods: Religion and the Roman Empire (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008) in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2008-09-36 (2008).
David G. Hunter, Marriage, Celibacy, and Heresy in Ancient Christianity: The Jovinianist Controversy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007) in Journal of Ecclesiastical History 58:4 (2007).
Jason P. Davies, Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005) in Classics Ireland 13 (2006).
Lucy Grig, Making Martyrs in Late Antiquity (London: Duckworth, 2004) in Classical Review 56:1 (2006).
R. Ross Holloway, Constantine and Rome (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004) inClassical Review 55:2 (2005).