Named and distinguished
lectures
Keynotes lectures
Invited lectures
Invited conference papers
Refereed conference papers
Named and distinguished
lectures
‘Slavery’s Rome’
Inaugural X Lecture
at Buffalo, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, April 19,
2023
‘Understanding economic inequality in the very long term: past, present
and future’
Sungdae Myeongnyun Special Lecture, Sungkyunkwan University,
Seoul (South Korea), April 13, 2022 (by
Zoom)
‘Disuguaglianza e violenza nella storia’
35th Lettura del Mulino, Università degli Studi di Bologna, Bologna (Italy), November 23, 2019
‘What have the Romans ever done for us?’
Newell Classics Event, St John’s College, Cambridge (UK), May 2, 2019
‘The great alternative?’
Harry W. Fowler Memorial Lecture, American Numismatic Society, New York, NY, June 12, 2018
‘What have the Romans ever done for us?
42nd Annual Procope Costas Memorial Lecture, Brooklyn College, New York, NY, May 8, 2018
‘Violence and the history of inequality’
Inaugural NIAS Lecture, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Amsterdam (NL), April 11, 2018
‘The first rise and fall of the one percent: ancient inequality in global context’
13th Annual Raoul Bertrand Lecture, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA, March 14, 2018
‘The great leveler: violence and economic inequality from the Stone Age to the future’
Science and Society Lecture, Institute of
Science and Technology Austria, Klosterneuburg
(Austria), March 29, 2017
‘Disease, medicine, and demography in the ancient Roman world’
Inaugural Distinguished Lecture, Center for the Social History of Medicine, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an (China), May 27, 2016
‘The Lives of the Twelve Hundred Caesars: Roman emperors, global comparisons’
First Annual Distinguished Lecture in Ancient History, California State University Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, May 5, 2015
Distinguished lecture, Institute for
Advanced Study in Toulouse, Toulouse (France), December 19, 2013
‘The first fall of the Roman empire’
Ronald Syme Lecture, Wolfson College, University of Oxford, Oxford (UK), October 31, 2013
‘The long reach of antiquity: Rome, China, and modernity’
‘Redrawing the map of the Roman world’
15th Annual Christopher Roberts Lecture, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA, September 21-22, 2012
‘The Lives of the Twelve Hundred Caesars: Roman emperors, global comparisons’
Hyde Lecture, Graduate Group in Ancient History, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, March 29, 2012
‘The impact of empire: Rome and (far) beyond’
2nd Impact of Empire Lecture, Nijmegen (The Netherlands), December 17, 2010
‘The wolf and the dragon: empire
in ancient
Settle-Cadenhead Memorial Lecture, Department of History, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, November 6, 2008
[with Richard Saller] ‘Biology or culture? Understanding the ancient family’
Harper Lecture, University of Chicago Alumni Association, San Francisco, CA, May 4, 2002, and Palo Alto, CA, May 5, 2002
Keynote lectures
‘Price and prejudice: the valuation and profitability
of enslavement in comparative perspective’
Keynote lecture, Conference Profitability and economic rationality of slavery in a historical
perspective, Università degli
Studi di Torino, Turin (Italy), March 20-22, 2024
‘Without Europe: a maximal counterfactual’
Keynote lecture, Conference Big counterfactuals of macro-political history, Arthur Lewis Lab
for Comparative Development, University of Manchester, Manchester (UK), March
24, 2023
‘Covid-19: effetti della pandemia su diseguaglianza e ingiustizia’
Lezione magistrale, Festivalfilosofia 2022, Sassuolo (Italy), September 17, 2022 (by Zoom)
‘War, growth, and another great divergence’
Keynote lecture, Conference The economic history of war, Center for Economic History, Northwestern
University, Evanston, IL, March 25, 2022 (by
Zoom)
‘War, hegemony and imperial peace: why did Rome succeed
where others failed?’
Keynote
lecture, 12th Korea-China-Japan Symposium
on European Ancient History, Seoul (Korea), October 23, 2021 (by
Zoom)
‘The
ancient historian of the tightrope’
Keynote
lecture, Annual Meeting of the Association of Ancient Historians, University of
Iowa, Iowa City, IA, April 24, 2020 (by Zoom)
‘The
great leveler’
Public
lecture, Social inequality: what has work
got to do with it?, International Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis,
Amsterdam (NL), November 21, 2019
‘A
brief history of inequality’
Keynote
address, Ranieri Colloquium on Ancient Studies Inequality ancient and modern, New York University, New York, NY,
March 7, 2019
‘Why,
throughout world history, only violence and catastrophes have consistently
reduced inequality and what this implies for our future’
16th Annual Global ARC, Boston, MA, October 22, 2018
‘The great leveler – the history of inequality’
Concluding plenary lecture, World Bank Human Development Forum 2017, World Bank, Washington, DC, May 11, 2017
‘The original one percent: classical antiquity and the global history
of inequality’
Keynote lecture, Annual conference of the Classical Association of
the Pacific Northwest, Olympia, WA, March 18, 2016
‘City-state,
republic, empire: what was the Roman Republic really like?’
Keynote lecture, Humanities West, San Francisco, CA, October 24, 2014
‘The long reach of the ancient past: China, Rome, and modernity’
Keynote lecture & Dean’s lecture, International forum Comparative studies of ancient Eurasian
empires: political, institutional and economic aspects, University of
Melbourne, Melbourne (Australia), August 22, 2014
‘Building for the state: a world-historical perspective’
Keynote lecture, Landscapes of empire: public building and labour organization in ancient states, Fourth International Conference of the National Research Network “Imperium & officium: comparative studies in ancient bureaucracy and officialdom”, University of Vienna, Vienna (Austria), November 27, 2013
‘Comparing ancient worlds: past, present and future’
Plenary lecture, Fourth International Conference on Ancient World History, Nankai University, Tianjin (China), June 18, 2012
‘The Roman emperor in the wider world’
Plenary lecture, Triennial conference of the Hellenic and Roman Societies, Cambridge (UK), July 26, 2011
‘Coin quality, coin
quantity, and coin value in early
Keynote lecture,
International numismatic conference Coinage from
Japan to the Mediterranean, Oriental Society of Australia,
‘Epigraphy and demography: birth, marriage, family, and death’
Plenary lecture, XIII International Congress of Greek and Latin Epigraphy, Oxford (UK), September 4, 2007
‘Contextualizing disease in the ancient world’
Keynote address, International
conference Disease in global environmental history,
Invited lectures
‘Gab es ein globales Altertum?’
Institut für Geschichte,
Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Würzburg (Germany), June 25, 2024
Zentrum Altertumswissenschaften,
Universität Zürich, Zurich (Switzerland), November 29, 2023
[with Peter Bang] ‘World history as the
future of Roman history? Prospects and challenges’
Departement Altertumswissenschaften,
Universität Basel, Basel (Switzerland), November 28, 2023
‘In the beginning: why ancient history
matters and how to make it new’
Department of History and Classical Studies,
University of Aarhus, Aarhus (Denmark), September 22, 2023
‘Was ist denn eigentlich Alte Geschichte?’
Historisches Seminar, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität
München, Munich (Germany), May 24, 2023
‘Inequality and the endless dance of technology and power’
Antwerp Interdisciplinary Platform for Research into Inequality, University of Antwerp, Antwerp (Belgium), April 23, 2021 (webinar)
Department of History, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI,
April 16, 2021 (webinar)
‘Does ancient history have a future?’
Department of Classics, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, February 19, 2021 (webinar)
‘Ungleichheit vor, während und nach Covid-19’
Carl-Schurz-Haus, Deutsch-Amerikanisches Institut, Freiburg (Germany), February 2, 2021 (webinar)
‘The great escape: how the fall of the Roman empire made the modern world possible’
Pakistan Institute of Development
Economics, Islamabad (Pakistan), February 24, 2023 (webinar)
Department of History, Chinese University of Hong Kong (China), September 22, 2022 (webinar)
Department of Political Science, Lund University, Lund (Sweden), December 9, 2020 (webinar)
‘Wie ermöglichte der Untergang des Römischen Reiches die Modernisierung der Welt?’
Universität Regensburg, Regensburg (Germany), June 3, 2020 (webinar)
‘Frisches Blut: die römischen Kaiser in globalhistorischer Sicht’
Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna (Austria), November 25, 2019
[with Gudula Walterskirchen] ‘Immigration und Krisen des gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalts’
Österreichischer Integrationsfonds, Vienna (Austria), May 6, 2019
‘Flucht aus Rom: der Bruch mit der Antike und die Entstehung der modernen Welt’
Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna (Austria), November 19, 2018
‘Economic inequality from the Stone Age to the future’
Center for Global Humanities, University of New England, Portland, ME, April 30, 2018
‘What have the Romans ever done for us?’
Department of Classics, New York University, New York, NY, April 25, 2018
‘The past and future of global inequality: the North vs the South’
Round table with Branko Milanovic, Department of Sociology, McGill University, Montreal (Canada), March 23, 2018
‘A few lessons on the role of violence in reducing inequality throughout the ages’
John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, February 26, 2018
‘Was Ungleichheit reduziert’
Bruno Kreisky Forum, Vienna (Austria), November 21, 2017
‘Modern globalization in pre-modern context’
Central Intelligence Agency, Langley, VA, October 5, 2017, September 13, 2018, February 15, 2019, September 16, 2019
‘Why (only) Rome?’
Center for the Ancient Mediterranean, Columbia University, New York, NY, September 29, 2017
‘The great leveler: economic inequality from the Stone Age to the future’
Hewlett Foundation, Stanford, CA, November 29, 2017
London School of Economics, November 27, 2017
Università Bocconi, Milan (Italy), November 20, 2017
Central Intelligence Agency, Langley, VA, October 5, 2017 and September 13, 2018
Center for Study of Public Choice, George Mason University, George Mason, VA, October 4, 2017
Skeptics Society, Altadena, CA, June 11, 2017
‘Escape from Rome: the failure of empire and the making of the modern world’
Legal History Forum, Law School, Yale University, New Haven, CT, February 27, 2018
Yale-NUS College, National University of Singapore (Singapore), September 7, 2017
Gravensteen Lecture Series, University of Leiden, Leiden (Netherlands), March 31, 2017
‘Was reduziert Ungleichheit? Eine pessimistische Weltgeschichte von Arm und Reich von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart’
Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna (Austria), March 27, 2017
‘Verletzliche Allmacht: das römische Kaisertum im weltgeschichtlichen Vergleich’
Zentrum für rechtsgeschichtliche Forschung, Universität Zürich, Zürich (Switzerland), March 21, 2017
‘The history of inequality’
Berkeley Population Center and Department of Demography, University of California – Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, March 2, 2017
‘The great leveler: violence and economic inequality from the Stone Age to the present’
Institute for Public Knowledge, New York University, New York, NY, February 15, 2017
‘Ancient demography’
Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima (Peru), October 31, 2016 (online)
‘Violence and the global history of inequality’
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing (China), May 31, 2016
Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen (Denmark), April 20, 2016
‘China, Rome, and the First Great Divergence’
Renmin University Distinguished History Lecture series, Renmin University, Beijing (China), May 30, 2016
‘The Stanford ancient Chinese and Mediterranean empires comparative history project’
Capital Normal University Jointly Sponsored Comparative Workshop ‘Ancient Rome and China’, Capital Normal University, Beijing (China), May 30, 2016
‘The science of ancient history’
GICS-Stanford-Fudan Seminar, Fudan University, Shanghai (China), May 26, 2016
‘Stanford ORBIS: creation, use, and prospects’
Shanghai Normal University Guangqui International Center for Scholars, Shanghai (China), May 25, 2016
‘Wealth and income inequality from prehistory to the present’
School of Economics and Management, Lund University, Lund (Sweden), May 3, 2016
‘Roman emperors in global context’
Department of Greek and Roman Studies, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC (Canada), March 17, 2016
‘Rule from the margins: Rome’s Illyrican borderlands emperors, AD 235-610’
Department of Greek and Roman Studies, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC (Canada), March 16, 2016
‘The First Great Divergence: ancient empires and the path to modernity in East and West’
Institute for the Study of Western Civilization, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, December 1, 2015
‘Rom, Europa und Asien vor und nach der Spätantike: die “First Great Divergence” als zentraler Wendepunkt der Weltgeschichte’
Applied History Lecture,
Universität Zürich, Zürich (Switzerland), March 26, 2015
‘The (ancient) ‘West’ and the rest: early labor regimes in global perspective’
Neubauer Collegium Working Group on Comparative Economics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, October 10, 2014
‘The long reach of antiquity:
China, Rome, and modernity’
Kaplan Institute for the Humanities and Chabraja Center for Historical Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, October 9, 2014
‘Quantitative models for ancient historians’
Institute for Quantitative Theory and
Methods, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, October 6, 2014
‘Roms Grenzlandkaiser: wie, warum und wozu?’
Departement Altertumswissenschaften, Universität Basel, Basel
(Switzerland), September 23, 2014
‘Ungleichheit beseitigen: eine gewaltsame Geschichte’
Zentrales Kolloquium des Doktoratsprogramms Geschichte, Universität Zürich, Zürich (Switzerland), October 22, 2014
‘The first fall of the Roman empire’
Classical Lecture Society, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, February 25, 2014
‘Borderlands emperors: how, why, and what for?’
Ancient Mediterranean Studies Program, University of California – Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, February 4, 2014
‘The Orbis project: reconstructing communication networks in the Roman empire’
Université Toulouse II – Le Mirail, Toulouse (France), December 18, 2013
‘Always follow the money: what public
revenue and expenditure tell us about the nature of the Roman empire’
Classical Lecture Society, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, February 26, 2014
Department of Classics, University of Reading, Reading (UK), October 30, 2013
Economic and Social History Seminar, All Souls College, Oxford (UK), October 29, 2013
‘Slavery and forced labor in early China and the ancient Mediterranean’
Ancient Mediterranean Studies Group, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, October 6, 2014
School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh (UK), June 3, 2013
‘Redrawing the map of the Roman world’
Sciences, Humanities and Arts Network of Technological Initiatives, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, March 25, 2013
‘Des Kaisers neue Kleider: 1500 Jahre römischer Monarchie im globalen Vergleich’
Institut für Geschichtswissenschaften, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin (Germany), December 5, 2012
Historisches Institut, Universität zu Köln, Cologne (Germany), June 28, 2012
Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg (Germany), June 26, 2012
‘Orbis: ein Netzwerkmodell der römischen Welt’
Institut für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, Linz (Austria), December 3, 2012
Historisches Seminar, Universität Zürich, Zürich (Switzerland), November 30, 2012
Seminar für Alte Geschichte, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg (Germany), June 27, 2012
‘ORBIS: The Stanford geospatial network model of the Roman world’
Annual Antony and Isabel Raubitschek Stanford AIA memorial lecture, Stanford, CA, May 24, 2013
Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown University, Providence, RI, April 16, 2012
Graduate Group in Ancient History, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, March 28, 2012
‘The Lives of the Twelve Hundred Caesars: Roman emperors, global comparisons’
Corcoran Department of History, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, March 26, 2013
Center for the Ancient Mediterranean, Columbia University, New York, NY, September 23, 2011
‘Early demography’
Social Science Research Workshop, New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi (UAE), March 1, 2011
‘The quality of life in classical antiquity’
‘Does ancient
history matter? The rise and demise of universal empire in Rome, Europe and
China’
Ancient Mediterranean Colloquium, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, November 2, 2010
Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown University, Providence, RI, October 26, 2010
Classical Studies, McGill University, Montreal (Canada), October 7, 2010
‘The rise and demise of universal empire: Rome, Europe, and China’
Marian
Miner Cook Athenaeum,
‘The two Great Divergences:
Eastern and Western
Onderzoekinstituut
voor Geschiedenis en Cultuur, Universiteit Utrecht, Utrecht (NL), October 14,
2009
‘The wolf and the dragon: empire
in ancient
Istituto Italiano per la Storia Antica, Rome (
Department of Classics, University of Texas, Austin, TX, March 12, 2009
Ancient Borderlands Research Focus Group, University of California – Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, February 5, 2009
‘No laughing matter either: income, growth and inequality in the Roman economy, or why the Romans needed a sense of humor’
Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology Graduate
Group,
‘Sex and empire, monogamy and polygyny’
Department of Classics,
‘New currents in the study of the ancient economy’
Department of Economic
History,
‘Ancient demography and
human wellbeing’
Department of Economics,
‘Imperial state formation in
eastern and western
Santa Fe Institute,
‘The relative durability of
the Roman and Chinese empires’
School of Global Studies,
‘Continuity and change in
human demography: the contribution of ancient history’
Morrison Institute for Population and Resource Studies,
‘
Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences,
Department of Classics,
Department of Classics,
‘The ‘Golden Age’ of Roman
Italy’
Departement
Klassieke Studies, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven (Belgium), February
13, 2006
Instituut voor
Geschiedenis, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, Leiden (NL), February 10, 2006
‘The nature of money in
ancient
Department of History,
Department of History, Peking University, Beijing (China), August 24, 2005
‘Brother-sister and
parent-child marriage in world history’
College of History and Culture,
Department of History,
‘Disease and demography in
the ancient world’
College of History and Culture,
Department of History,
‘Death on the Tiber’
Department of Classics,
Department of History,
‘How to be incestuous’
Human Genetics Society of
Australasia,
Community and Identity in
Greco-Roman Egypt, Annual colloquium of the Chicago Consortium in Ancient History,
University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, October 6, 2001
‘Sex and empire: a Darwinian
view’
Ancient Societies Workshop, Department of Classics,
‘Continuity and change in
Mediterranean demography from antiquity to the modern period’
Department of Demography,
Demography Workshop,
‘“The most excellent thing
of all“: brother-sister and parent-child marriage in the ancient world’
Stanford
Classical Society of Otago,
Department of Classics,
Departments of History,
Classics, and Sociology, and Initiative in Population Research,
‘Modelling Roman slavery’
Ancient Societies Workshop:
Ancient slavery,
‘Demography and statistics
in ancient history’
Department of Classics,
‘Death on the Tiber, death
on the
Department of Classical
Studies,
Department of Classics,
Department of History,
Departments of Classics and
History, University of
‘Komparative
und interdisziplinäre Ansätze in der Alten Geschichte’
Habilitationskolloquium
Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, Graz (Austria), April 30, 1998
‘Future, what future?
Evidence and models, fashions and choice’
Ancient Societies Workshop:
The ancient economy, Stanford Humanities Center, Stanford University, Stanford, CA,
November 11, 1999
Dutch National Seminar in
Ancient History, De toekomst
van de antieke economie –
The future of the ancient economy, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, Leiden (NL), September 22, 1997
‘Brother-sister and parent-child
marriage in Roman Egypt and Zoroastrian
Bloomsbury Summer School,
Department of History,
Cambridge Group for the
History of Population and Social Structure,
‘Incest in biology and
history’
PCT Society,
‘Sexualität,
Ehe und Sklaverei: zu einem zentralen Aspekt persönlicher Unfreiheit’
Akademie
der Wissenschaften und der Literatur in Mainz, Mainz (Germany), Kommission für
Geschichte des Altertums, October 9, 1996
‘Darwinian history, or
History as sex’
Humanities and Social
Sciences Group,
‘Papyri, Magi, and genes: an
interdisciplinary view of brother-sister and parent-child marriage in the
ancient world’
Department of History,
Centre for Research in East
Roman Studies, University of
Department of History,
Department of Classical
Studies,
Departments of Classics and
History,
‘Rural labour
and the stereotype of women’s life in the Graeco-Roman world’
Department of History,
Department of History,
‘Die
wirtschaftlichen Funktionen von Sklavinnen’
Institut
für Alte Geschichte, Universität Salzburg (Austria), June 6, 1994
‘Die
Stellung der Frau in der antiken Landwirtschaft’
Department of History,
Invited conference papers
‘Equalization between politics and disaster’
International conference The evolution of wealth inequality: debates on the role of culture, institutions and technology, and lessons for today, James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Centre on Wealth Concentration, Inequality, and the Economy, University College London, London (UK), June 27, 2024.
Video presentation
Global Leaders Forum 2023, TV Chosun, Seoul (Korea), November 20, 2023 (remotely)
‘Escape from Europe?’
Wenner-Gren
symposium Global history and the modern
world, Wenner-Gren Center, Stockholm (Sweden),
August 18, 2022
‘Why wait for Columbus?’
Annual Meeting of the Association of Ancient Historians, University
of California – San Diego, San Diego, CA, April 28, 2022 (by Zoom)
‘Roman economic performance and inequality: in defense of the big
picture’
Langford conference Socio-economic
inequalities of the Roman world, Department of Classics, Florida State
University, Tallahassee, FL, February 25, 2022
Presentation for the opening panel
Ethos conference 2021, Instituto Ethos (Brazil), May 2021 (on YouTube channel)
‘Rede anlässlich der Verleihung
des Oswald Spengler-Preises’
International conference From
Herodotus to Spengler: comparing civilisations
throughout time and space, Oswald Spengler Society, Blankenheimerdorf
(Germany), November 13, 2020 (by Zoom)
‘Building up slaveries in ancient Italy and the African savanna’
International conference The
Roman republic in the long fourth century, Princeton University, Princeton,
NJ, May 18, 2019
‘The end of “peak empire:” Chinese and Roman unravelings’
Workshop on historical systemic collapse, Princeton University,
Princeton, NJ, April 26, 2019 (read by John Haldon)
‘Status construction, opportunity hoarding and material inequality in
ancient Rome: the view from sociology’
International conference Ancient
inequalities: economy, culture, and society in the Middle East and the
Mediterranean, Buenos Aires (Argentina), March 27, 2019
‘The measure and mismeasure of inequality’
Ranieri Colloquium on Ancient Studies Inequality ancient and modern, New York University, New York, NY,
March 8, 2019
‘Rising inequality: the dire lessons of history’
BCA Research Investment Conference 2018, Toronto (Canada), September
25, 2018
‘Roman wealth and wealth inequality in comparative perspective’
Workshop Capital in classical
antiquity, Berlin (Germany), April 10, 2018
‘Income and wealth inequality in the ancient Greco-Roman world: what
can we know?’
12th European Social Science History Conference, Belfast
(UK), April 4, 2018
‘Understanding the dynamics of economic inequality in the very long
run’
24th Annual CLSA Investors’ Forum, Hong Kong (China),
September 11, 2017
‘History of inequality, Stone Age to today’
Workshop Inequality by the numbers, Stone Center for Socio-Economic Inequality, Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY, June 7, 2017
‘The great leveler: violence and the global history of inequality’
International conference The haves and the have-nots: exploring the global history of wealth and income inequality, Stanford Europe Center and University of Vienna, Vienna (Austria), September 11, 2015
‘Comparative approaches to ancient history’
International conference Globalized Classics, Humboldt Universität, Berlin (Germany), September 5, 2015
‘Autocracy without legitimation? The peculiar case of the Roman monarchy’
International conference The legitimation of autocracy in the ancient world, NYU Abu Dhabi Institute, Abu Dhabi (UAE), November 3, 2014
‘The (ancient) West and the rest: labor regimes in global perspectives’
International conference Doing things with history: a conference in honor of Paul Cartledge, Cambridge University, Cambridge (UK), September 27, 2014
‘Death in the city: ancient Rome and beyond’
International conference on the 50th anniversary of the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure, Downing College, Cambridge (UK), September 17, 2014
‘Geospatial network modeling of the Roman empire’
Workshop on Computational
history: teaching computers history so they can calculate the future,
Dublin (Ireland), June 27, 2014
‘From Niebuhr to Harris: environmental factors and the study of Roman
history’
Workshop on ancient environmental history, Columbia University, New
York, NY, May 17, 2014
‘Unmaking inequality: a history of violence’
Working group on the coevolution of institutions and behaviors, Santa
Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, January 14, 2014
[with Jonathan Hall] ‘Humanistic versus social scientific approaches
to ancient history: a methodological debate’
Annual meeting of the American Philological Association, Chicago, IL,
January 3, 2014
‘Herding cats: the challenge on collaborative comparative history’
International workshop New perspectives on comparative medieval history: China and Europe, 800-1600, Pembroke College, Oxford (UK), September 30, 2013 (online)
‘Roman society’
International conference What is a slave society?, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, September 27, 2013
‘Slavery and forced labor in ancient China and the ancient Mediterranean’
International conference Work, labor and professions in the Roman world, Ghent (Belgium), May 30 – June 1, 2013
‘Ancient world history and/as comparative history’
Workshop on the study of antiquity in the context of world history, University of California – Irvine, Irvine, CA, April 19, 2013
‘Redrawing the map of the Roman world’
Word, space, time: digital perspectives on the classical world: an interdisciplinary conference organized by the Digital Classics Association, University of Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, April 5, 2013
‘Germs for Rome 10 years after’
International conference How bodies matter: the intersection of science, religion, and the humanities in the study of the ancient Mediterranean world, Divinity School, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, March 15-16, 2013
‘Comparing comparisons’
International conference Comparing ancient worlds: Greece and China, Cambridge (UK), January 24, 2013
‘The future of the Roman economy’
International conference Crossing boundaries: ancient history explores its future, Cambridge University, Cambridge (UK), December 13, 2012
‘Sex, slavery, and the cultural evolution of normative monogamy’
International conference Sex and slavery, Nottingham Institute for the Study of Slavery, Nottingham (UK), September 13, 2012 (read in absentia)
Panels on ‘Smart art’, ‘The art of influence’
Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2012 (“Summer Davos”), World Economic Forum, Tianjin (China), September 11-13, 2012
‘Evolutionary psychology and the historian’
Workshop on biology and history, University of California – Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, August 10, 2012
‘The Roman economy: past, present and future’
International workshop Towards an economic archaeology: state of the art, questions, problems, perspectives, Ägyptisches Museum, Bonn (Germany), June 29, 2012
‘Measuring Finley’s impact’
Finley centenary conference, Cambridge (UK), May 31, 2012
‘Ancient monogamy’
Working group Cultural processes that give rise to social monogamy, Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, February 25, 2012
‘Centralized authority systems’
Workshop An evolutionary approach to the twin problems of failed states and nation-building, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, December 3, 2011
‘Ancient quality of life’
Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, San Francisco, CA, November 19, 2011
‘Economic theory and biblical studies’ (panel)
Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, San Francisco, CA, November 19, 2011
‘Human development and quality of life in the long run: the case of Greece’
International conference The Athens Dialogues, Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, Athens (Greece), November 27, 2010
‘Comparing empires across space and time’
Altera Roma: art and empire from the Aztecs to New Spain, Getty Villa, Malibu, CA, May 1, 2010
[with Peter Bang] ‘Imperial
comparisons:
Roman Archaeology Conference 2010,
‘Ancient sex ratios and femicide in comparative perspective’
Sex, death and bones: paleodemography and gender differentials in the Mediterranean world, American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Athens (Greece), March 16, 2010
‘Teaching ancient world history as comparative history’
International conference Teaching the ancient world, NYU Abu Dhabi Institute, Abu Dhabi (UAE), November 23, 2009
‘4,000 years of wages and wellbeing’
Francqui
Foundation conference Long-term
quantification in ancient Mediterranean history,
‘State formation and belief
systems in eastern and western
Introductory colloquium,
Mellon-Sawyer Seminar About turns:
conversion in late antique Christianity, Islam, and beyond, Oxford (UK),
October 9, 2009
‘A comparative perspective
on the determinants of the scale and productivity of maritime trade in the
Roman Mediterranean’
International conference Maritime technology and the ancient economy:
ship design and navigation,
‘Comparing Rome and Han
China’
International conference Tributary empire – comparative histories,
‘Why and how to compare
ancient empires’
Presidential
panel Comparative and crossdisciplinary histories
of the ancient world: promises and pitfalls, Annual Meeting of the
American Philological Association,
‘Interaction and peripheries: response’
International conference on Xiongnu archaeology,
‘The economic consequences of the Antonine Plague: further considerations’
International conference L’impatto della “peste antonina”, Rome and Anacapri (Italy), October 10, 2008 (read by Yan Zelener)
‘Agriculture, settlement systems, and urban studies: comments on economic performance’
International conference Too
much data? Generalizations and model-building in ancient economic history on
the basis of large corpora of documentary evidence,
‘
International seminar Perspectives
on empire: local power and global comparisons, Saxo Institute, University
of
‘Monogamy and polygyny in
International conference Cross-cultural
approaches to family and household structures in the ancient world,
Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University,
‘Cultural evolution and the historian’
Workshop The role of variation in cultural change: updates in cultural
evolution, Santa Fe Institute,
‘The ancient economy since Moses Finley’
Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature,
‘Demography and human development in the Roman world’
Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature,
‘Empire and the Great Divergence’
Ancient and modern
imperialisms: Workshop II,
‘Roman population size: the logic of the debate’
International conference Peasants, citizens and soldiers: the social, economic and demographic background to the Gracchan land reforms, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, Leiden (NL), June 29, 2007
‘Rome and China: From the Great Convergence to the First Great Divergence’
Berkeley-Stanford colloquium New approaches to ancient imperialism, University of California – Berkeley, CA, November 18, 2006
International conference Universal
empire and historical sociology,
‘Introduction: wages and costs’
International conference Approaches
to quantifying the Roman economy,
‘Estimating population sizes’
International Studies Association
workshop Measuring and modeling cycles of state formation, decline and
upward sweeps since the Bronze Age,
Conference Imperial republics? Ancient
‘Towards a comparative study of monarchical succession and dynastic continuity’
International conference Royal
courts and capitals,
‘The monetary systems of the Han and Roman empires’
Third International Conference
on Ancient History,
International conference Institutions
of empire: comparative perspectives on ancient Chinese and Mediterranean
history,
International conference The nature of ancient money, Center for the Ancient Mediterranean, Columbia University, New York, NY, April 8, 2005
‘Military commitments and political bargaining in ancient Greece’
Workshop on Military organization and political regimes in classical Greece, Yale University, New Haven, CT, December 5, 2004
‘The economics of slavery in the Greco-Roman world: a comparative approach’
International conference Slave
systems, ancient and modern, Centre for the Study of Human Settlement and Historical
Change, National University of Ireland, Galway (
‘The demography of Roman state formation and culture change in Italy’
International conference Herrschaft
ohne Integration? Rom und Italien
in republikanischer Zeit, Technical University of
Dresden (
‘Coercion,
capital, and ancient Mediterranean states’
European Social Science
History Conference,
‘War-making and state-making
in the ancient
International workshop on ‘Cosmic’
empire and the sociology of heterogeneous power, Department of History,
‘Stratification, deprivation
and quality of life’
International conference Poverty
in the Roman world, Cambridge (UK), July 24, 2003
‘Creating a metropolis: a
comparative demographic perspective’
International conference Ancient Alexandria: between Greece and Egypt, Center for
the Ancient Mediterranean, Columbia University, New York, NY, October 11, 2002
‘Demography’
International conference The
‘The scale of mobility’
Symposium on The
corrupting sea,
‘The demographic background
of the Greek expansion’
International
workshop Griechische Archaik zwischen Ost und West: interne und externe
Impulse, Innsbruck (Austria), November 9, 2001
‘The demography of the
Spartan helots’
International workshop Helots
and their masters in
‘Brother-sister and
parent-child marriage in pre-modern societies’
International conference Human mate choice and prehistoric marital
networks,
‘Ancient empires and sexual
exploitation: a Darwinian perspective’
International conference Empire and exploitation in the ancient
Mediterranean,
‘Death and disease in
pre-modern
Médecine et démographie
dans le monde antique: colloque international d’Arras, Université d’Artois,
‘The slave population of
Roman Italy: speculation and constraints’
International conference Comparative approaches to ancient slavery,
Cambridge (UK), July 17, 1999
Journée d’Etude:
Rôle des dépendants dans l’économie romaine antique, Université de Lille 3,
‘Agriculture, health and
population size in
Incontro internazionale di studio: Demografia,
sistemi agrari, regimi alimentari nel mondo antico, Università degli studi di
‘When a free labourer is like a slave:
International conference Kerdos: the economics of gain in the ancient Greek
world, Cambridge (UK), May 30, 1997
[with Peter Garnsey] ‘The
demography of some ancient cemetery populations near
International conference Population size and demographic structure in
the ancient world, Cambridge (UK), May 24, 1997
‘The demography of Roman
slavery and manumission’
International conference Population size and demographic structure in
the ancient world, Cambridge (UK), May 24, 1997
Premier
colloque international de démographie historique antique, Université d’Artois,
‘Grain cultivation in the
villa economy of Roman Italy’
International conference Landuse in the Roman empire,
Invited discussant/panelist: Aspen Institute Socrates Program, October 27-28, 2023; Historical Psychology Project workshop, Harvard University, October 6-7, 2023; Foundations Institute workshop, Santa Barbara, November 11-12, 2022; Tax policy colloquium, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, September 13, 2021 (by Zoom); Cambridge Union, February 11, 2021 (by Zoom); Webinar on historical collapse, Princeton University, December 4-5, 2020; European social science history conference, Belfast (UK), April 5, 2018; XVth international congress of Greek and Latin epigraphy, Vienna (Austria), August 28, 2017; International conference Metodi statistici e analisi quantitativa della produzione di monete nel mondo antico: tendenze e prospettive della ricerca, British School in Rome (Italy), October 11, 1997; International conference Mercati permanenti e mercati periodici nel mondo antico, Capri (Italy), October 13-15, 1997; Workshop Agrarian change in late antiquity, Princeton University, March 6, 2005; Seminar Jewish demography in antiquity, Columbia University, November 11, 2010; Colloquium The resource curse in historical perspective, Yale University, November 17, 2010; XVIth world economic history congress, Stellenbosch (South Africa), July 12, 2012; Roundtable, Conference Cultures of research and inquiry, Western Humanities Alliance, University of California – Merced, October 26, 2012; Workshop So you’ve chosen your topic – what now? Best practices in data collection, management, and analysis, AIA and SCS Joint Annual Meeting, Toronto (Canada), January 7, 2017; Symposium Chinese and Greco-Roman pasts, Brown University, March 13, 2017
Refereed conference papers
‘What can we say about ancient Roman inequality?’
World Economic History Congress, Boston, MA, August 1, 2018
‘When did mass mobilization warfare act as a violent leveler of economic inequality? A global long-term perspective’
Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, San Francisco, CA, September 2, 2017
‘Connectivity and predictive modeling: challenges of simulating the development of the Roman world’
116th Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, New Orleans, LA, January 10, 2015
‘The shape of the ancient world’
Annual Meeting of the Association of Ancient Historians, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, May 4, 2012
‘How to make ancient history programs less ancient’
Panel on Graduate
training for the ancient historian: or how best to study ancient history in the
21st century?, Annual Meeting of the American Philological Association,
‘The monetary economies of the Roman and Han empires’
Annual
Meeting of the Association of Ancient Historians,
‘Rome and China: From the Great Convergence to the First Great Divergence’
Golden Jubilee Conference Aspects of empire, Classical Association of South Africa, University of Cape Town, Cape Town (South Africa), July 3, 2007
[with Vegard Skirbekk and Hans-Peter Kohler] ‘From large, wealthy families to childless success?’
Annual Meeting of the Social
Science History Association,
European population conference 2006, Liverpool (UK), June 22, 2006
‘Is Darwinian history possible?’
Annual Meeting of the Human
Behavior and Evolution Society,
[with Brett Rogers] ‘“Actually, no-wheeling is more my specialty:” why Buffy doesn’t drive’
Slayage
Conference on Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
‘The
interdependence of demographic and economic development in the Greco-Roman
world’
Annual Meeting of the American
Philological Association,
‘How to be
incestuous: the emotional context of sibling marriage in Roman Egypt’
Annual Meeting of the
American Philological Association,
‘How to be
incestuous: towards an explanation of full sibling marriage in Roman Egypt’
Annual meeting of the Human
Behavior and Evolution Society, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, June 20,
2002
Annual Meeting of the
Association of Ancient Historians,
‘Demographic change and
economic development: the case of Roman Egypt after the ‘Antonine plague’’
26th Annual Meeting of the
Social Science History Association,
‘Money and finance in the
Greco-Roman world: views and controversies’
25th Anniversary Meeting of
the Social Science History Association,
‘Feldarbeit
von Frauen in der antiken Landwirtschaft’
Meeting of Austrian Ancient Historians, Vienna (Austria), October 26, 1989