University of Gothenburg
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Lewis Webb

Researcher

Department of Historical Studies
Mail
lewis.webb@gu.se
Visiting address
Renströmsgatan 6
41255 Göteborg
Postal address
Box 200
40530 Göteborg

About Lewis Webb

Academic Background

I am a Researcher in Classical Archaeology and Ancient History at the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Gothenburg, a Departmental Lecturer in Classical Sexuality and Gender Studies at the Faculty of Classics at the University of Oxford, and a Fulford Junior Research Fellow and Stipendiary Lecturer in Classics at Somerville College.

I received a BMedSci in Neurology and Physiology (2009) from Flinders University, a BA (Hons) in Classical Studies and Psychology (2011) and an MPhil in Classical Studies (2014) from the University of Adelaide, and a PhD in Classical Archaeology and Ancient History (2019) from the University of Gothenburg. My PhD thesis examined competitions for status among senatorial women in Mid-Republican Rome with a focus on competitive domains, resources, and regulation.

Research Interests

I am a Roman historian, specializing in gender, law, religion, and space in Republican Rome. Much of my recent work has focused on Roman women, particularly their public roles and visibility.

My research interests extend in additional directions, including crises and crisis management in the Roman Republic, theoretical approaches to Roman archaeology and history, and the material culture of ancient Etruria and Thessaly.

My current research project is entitled ‘Crisis rituals: Civic religion and crisis management in Republican Rome’ and is funded by the Swedish Research Council (2023–2025). This project investigates the dynamics and impacts of religious crisis management in Republican Rome, particularly the official religious responses of male and female leaders to community crises and the ways in which these crises and responses transformed the city.

My recent postdoctoral research project was entitled ‘(In)visible women: Female spatial practices and visibility in urban spaces in Republican Rome (509–27 BCE)’ and was funded by the Swedish Research Council (2020–2022). This project aimed to challenge and resolve some ancient and contemporary misconceptions about women in Republican Rome, especially their purported invisibility and association with domestic spaces and practices.

Additionally, I am a researcher within two archaeological projects in Italy and Greece, namely the Swedish research project Understanding Urban Identities from the Bronze Age to the Roman time: The case of Vulci in the context of southern Etruria in Viterbo, Italy, which is investigating the ancient city of Vulci, and the Greek-Swedish Palamas Archaeological Project in the municipality of Palamas, Greece, which is investigating the ancient city at Vlochos.

I am also a series editor for book series Women in Ancient Cultures for Liverpool University Press.

Crisis rituals: Civic religion and crisis management in Republican Rome

How do leaders manage community crises? Which roles might religion play in crisis management? This project's purpose is to investigate the interactions between, and transformative effects of, community crises and the official religious responses of political and religious leaders in Republican Rome (509–27 BCE), a city characterized by crises, wherein civic religion was a focal point for crisis management. Previous studies seldom treat civic religion as crisis management, or include women, and scholarship on crisis and religion is rarely in dialogue. This project aims at a) investigating and systematizing the official religious responses of male and female leaders to community crises; b) investigating and outlining how crises and leaders' religious responses physically and religiously transformed Rome; and c) broadening our knowledge of Roman leaders' crisis management strategies and religion's roles therein. This project will generate a more comprehensive and integrated image of crisis management in Republican Rome, encourage reflection on the entanglement of religion and politics, and offer a lens on leaders’ responses to contemporary crises.

(In)visible women: Female spatial practices and visibility in urban spaces in Republican Rome (509–27 BCE)

A woman’s place was at home in Republican Rome (509–27 BCE). To appear in public was ‘abnormal’ or ‘transgressive’. Such is the status quo in the traditional scholarship. This project will challenge this status quo by comprehensively examining and visualizing all the available ancient evidence for female spatial practices and visibility in urban spaces in Republican Rome. To do so it will adopt an interdisciplinary, intersectional approach, combining Roman Republican history, spatial history, and gender history with intersectional feminist theory, a spatial database, and digital mapping. Traditional scholarship links women in Rome with private spaces and practices, but recent scholarship highlights their public lives and practices. So how (in)visible were they? The project aims to challenge and resolve misconceptions about these women and to shed light on their lives. This novel project will expand our knowledge of women’s lives, enhance the visibility of past women, and offer an interdisciplinary model for reconsidering female spatial practices and visibility in other periods and cultures.