Susanna Elm
Professor of History and Classics

Late Antiquity, Later Roman Empire, Early Christianity
D.Phil. 1986 Oxford University

Group: Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology

Contact information

Office: 2310 Dwinelle
Email: elm@berkeley.edu
Office phone: (510) 642-2238

Mailing address:
Department of History
3229 Dwinelle #2550
Berkeley, CA 94720-2550

Selected publications

Virgins of God. The Making of Asceticism In Late Antiquity. Oxford Classical Monograph Series. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994; Paperback, 1996, re-ed. 1999, 2003; The “Holy Man” Revisited (1971-1997): Charisma, Texts, and Communities in Late Antiquity. Edited by S. Elm and N. Janowitz. [Special Issue Journal of Early Christian Studies 6:3] 1998; Orthodoxie, christianisme, histoire - Orthodoxy, Christianity, History. Ed. Susanna Elm, Éric Rebillard and Antonella Romano. Collection de l’École française de Rome 270. Rome: École française de Rome, 2000; Medical Challenges for the New Millennium - An Interdisciplinary Task. Ed. Stefan N. Willich and Susanna Elm. New York/Amsterdam: Kluver, 2001; Violence in Late Antiquity: Perceptions and Practices. Ed. H. Drake and co-ed. E. Albu, S. Elm, M. Maas, C. Rapp, M. Salzman. London: Ashgate, 2006; Sons of Hellenism, Fathers of the Church: Gregory of Nazianzus, Emperor Julian, and  the Christianization of the Late Roman Elites. In preparation; Quo Vadis - Medical Healing. Past Concepts and New Approaches. Ed. Susanna Elm and Stefan Willich. New York: Springer, forthcoming.

Personal statement

My research interests are the Later Roman Empire and its transformation into a Christian Empire. Aspects of my research might be called intellectual history, but firmly anchored in social history, i.e. administration, law, economics, material culture. My next "big" project (aside from a History of Early Christianity with Professor Rebecca Lyman, commissioned by Cambridge University Press) will be on the role of slavery and tattoos in the formation of Christianity. I will also continue to pursue my interests in contemporary medicine and its relation (if any) to ancient medicine - our next conference will be on patient autonomy. I am also part of the faculty of the graduate program in ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY, AHMA. Of course, I continue to be on the executive committee of the wonderful Multicampus Research Group on the History and Culture of Late Antiquity: our theme is From POLIS to OIKOUMENE, see the link http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/lateantique/. There you can also find a link to LARES, our Northern California group on Late Antique Religions et Society.

Full CV