About the Centre for Late Antiquity
Since 1996, the Centre for Late Antiquity has fostered an interdisciplinary community of scholars of diverse ages and backgrounds, dedicated to understanding how the Mediterranean-wide empire of the Romans gave way to a patchwork of rival kingdoms whose leadership cultivated ethnic and religious difference.
Since the nineteenth century Manchester has been a place where unexpected ways of seeing and understanding the past have been valued and encouraged. We are fortunate to have inherited an intellectual legacy based in the University’s long tradition of non-confessionalism and non-conformity, an enduring source of inspiration for our efforts to understand the multi-cultural world of the later Roman empire. At the same time, both students and staff have the opportunity to engage in hands-on study of the extraordinary collections of ancient material culture assembled by the cultural patrons of Victorian Manchester, from the Roman mummy portraits of Hawara to the legendary papyri collection assembled by Enriqueta Rylands.
We have been fortunate to have been sponsored by numerous externally funded research projects in recent years, thanks to the help of the British Academy, the Leverhulme and Wellcome Trusts, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and the Economic and Social Research Council. This has allowed us to develop a lively inter-generational research culture, allowing our students the chance to learn from—and contribute to—world-class research, and our staff the opportunity to benefit from fresh questions and perspectives.