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Dr. Rebecca Usherwood

Assistant Professor (Classics)

 usherwor@tcd.ie

 


Representations

Details Date
Reviewer, Oxford University Press
External Reviewer, European Research Council
Reviews Editor, Hermathena 2019

Memberships

Membership of Professional Institutions, Associations, Societies

Details Date From Date To
Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, member 2014 ongoing
Rebecca Usherwood, Becca Grose, Guy Walker, Kay Boers, Erasure in Late Antiquity, Budapest, Trivent Medieval, 2024, 1 - 298pp, Book, PUBLISHED
Praising Constantine's Rivals in, B. Gibson & R. Rees , Praising Constantine, Leiden, Brill, 2024, [Rebecca Usherwood], Book Chapter, ACCEPTED
Fracturing the Collective: Political Disgrace and Tetrarchic Commemoration in, editor(s)F. Carla-Uhink & C. Rollinger , The Tetrarchy as Ideology. (Re)Presentations and (Re)Figurations of an Imperial Power, Stuttgart , Franz Steiner Verlag (Habes), 2023, pp301 - 315, [Rebecca Usherwood], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Rebecca Usherwood, "First Fragments: Biblical Papyrus from Roman Egypt (Exhibit Review Article)", by Chester Beatty Collection , Near Eastern Archaeology, (85.5), 2023, p166-169 , Review, PUBLISHED
Rebecca Usherwood, Political Memory and the Constantinian Dynasty: Fashioning Disgrace, Palgrave Macmillan: New Approaches to Byzantine History and Culture, 2022, 1 - 350pp, Book, PUBLISHED
Rebecca Usherwood , Where are the names of the Iovii and Herculii? Exploring Christian responses to Tetrarchic material culture, Journal of Late Antiquity, 15.2, 2022, p402 - 422, Notes: [Special edition 'Shaping Christian Politics', edited by R. Whealan, R. Flower and M. McEvoy.], Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Rebecca Usherwood , Review of Imagining Emperors in the Late Roman Empire, by D. W. P. Burgersdijk and A. J. Ross , Journal of Roman Studies, 111, 2021, p333-334 , Review, PUBLISHED
Rebecca Usherwood , Finding Clarity in Chaos, Review of Image and Reality of Roman Imperial Power in the Third Century AD. The Impact of War., by L. de Blois , Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 132.4, 2019, p669-670 , Review, PUBLISHED
Rebecca Usherwood, Review of The Last Pagan Emperor. Julian the Apostate and the War against Christianity, by H. C. Teitler , Classics Ireland, 25, 2018, Review, PUBLISHED
Rebecca Usherwood, Review of Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity (2016); Cultural Memories in the Roman Empire (2016, by Karl Galinsky; K. Lapatin , Journal of Roman Studies, 107, 2017, p396-399 , Review, PUBLISHED
  

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Introduction in, editor(s)Rebecca Usherwood, Kay Boers, Becca Grose, Guy Walker , Erasure in Late Antiquity, Budapest, Trivent Medieval, 2024, pp8 - 24, [Rebecca Usherwood, Kay Boers, Becca Grose, Guy Walker], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Rebecca Usherwood, Constantine and 'Propaganda'. Redressing the Difference, Constantinian Propaganda, Exeter University, 06.09.22, 2022, Conference Paper, PRESENTED
Rebecca Usherwood, Egypt in the Roman Empire: From Augustus to Diocletian, Out of Egypt lecture series, Chester Beatty Collection, 16.11.22, 2022, Oral Presentation, PRESENTED
Rebecca Usherwood, "Could we do this? Did they do that?" Negotiating the Ancient World on Screen, Utrecht University (virtual), 10th June, 2021, New Discoveries Seminar, Utrecht University, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
Rebecca Usherwood, How to retire (if you're a Roman emperor), University College Dublin (virtual), 27th April, 2021, Classical Association of Ireland, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
Rebecca Usherwood, Scratching the Surface. Inscriptions and Cancel Culture in the Roman World., Galway University, 4th May , 2021, Classics Society, Galway University, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
Rebecca Usherwood, The Invisible Chisel. Political Disgrace and Agency in Epigraphic Erasures., International Medieval Congress 2021, University of Leeds (virtual), 8th July, 2021, Postgraduate and Early Career Late Antiquity Network, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
Rebecca Usherwood, What's in a name? The consulate and political communication in the fourth century. , University of Oxford (virtual), 5th November, 2020, Oxford Late Antiquity Seminar Series, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
Rebecca Usherwood, Becca Grose, Kay Boers, Guy Walker , Erasure in Late Antiquity, 12th - 13th November, 2020, Trinity College Dublin (held virtually), Meetings /Conferences Organised, PRESENTED
Rebecca Usherwood, Constantine and Crispus. Between modern myths and ancient monuments., Universiteit Utrecht, 26th November, 2019, Invited Talk, PRESENTED

  

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Awards and Honours

Award Date
Trinity Innovation Awards: 'Ones to Watch' (nominee) 2021
Trinity Innovation Awards: Consultancy award (winner) 2023

Research Interests

Description Of Research Interests

My research is concerned with the political and cultural history of the transitional period from the 'high' to 'late' Roman empire, especially the late third to fourth centuries CE (the Tetrarchy and its breakdown; the emperor Constantine and his sons). I am primarily interested in emperors and imperial ideology, but aim to approach these topics in ways which de-prioritise the traditional focus on the agency and actions of rulers. Instead, I am drawn to the challenge of finding methodologies where we can identify the ways in which 'normal' people living in the ancient world defined their identities through their attitudes and behaviours towards often distant emperors. My first monograph, Political Memory and the Constantinian Dynasty (Palgrave-Macmillan 2022), challenges the common assumption that the destruction of traces of fallen or disgraced rulers (so-called 'damnatio memoriae') was a standardised procedure imposed by governments. Using erasures of imperial names from inscriptions, I reveal how these actions relied on the willing participation of individuals who chose to engage (or not engage) in such behaviours for their own reasons, thus allowing us to trace the ways in which news of political change was received and interpreted. This and my wider research taps into theories of cultural and political memory, the collective shaping of public and private space, and the ways in which ancient communities processed the legacies of earlier rulers in the transition to the late antique world.