About our staff

Classics Graduate Officer

Programme Director: PhD Classics, MSc by Research Classics

I was first sucked in to the ancient world when I studied Latin at school, and my interests soon broadened from there. During my undergraduate degree (Literae Humaniores, Oxford, 2006-10) I became more interested in religions in the ancient world and the intersection of Jewish and Roman history. I developed this further during a MLitt in Ancient History at St Andrews (2010-11), which then led to my taking a MSt in Jewish Studies (2011-12) back at Oxford. I stayed on for my DPhil Ancient History (2012-14), before moving to Germany for a couple of years, where I was a post-doc at the University of Muenster (2014-16). I joined the department at Edinburgh in 2016.

AHRC Peer Review College Member (2022-2025)

SGSAH Catalyst Member, Archaeology and Classics (2021-2024)

External Examiner (UG and PG taught programmes in Ancient History, Archaeology, and Classical Studies), University of St Andrews (2018-2021)

Review Editor of STRATA (2017-2020)

Corresponding Member of the Institute of Legal and Constitutional Research, University of St Andrews

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Member of the Steering Committee for the Society of Biblical Literature Hellenistic Judaism Section.

I am on the editorial boards of the book series Roman Relations. Connected Histories in an Age of (R)evolution(De Gruyter) and Edinburgh Studies in Religion in Antiquity (Edinburgh University Press). 

https://edinburgh.academia.edu/KimCzajkowski

Summary of research interests

• Europe
• Near East

• Ancient Civilisations
• Culture
• Imperialism
• Religion
• Society

• Antiquity

My research interests lie in the history of the Near Eastern provinces under the Roman Empire. I often focus on the legal culture of this region, though I also have broader interests in related themes, including the history of the Jewish people, Roman law and ‘Romanization’. 

At base, what I am interested in is how provincial agents interact with the Roman imperial order, and what those interactions tell us about both parties. Legal transactions often provide a fascinating way into this: different rules and understandings of them meet, are negotiated, and can be recognised or discarded in this process of interaction.

My first book was published with OUP in 2017, on the Babatha and Salome Komaise archives: the legal and administrative documents that belonged to two women who lived in the early second century CE. The monograph draws on legal-pluralism theories to reinterpret the practicalities of getting one’s legal business done in the early days of the new province of Roman Arabia. 

I have since published on aspects of the operation of law in the Roman empire more broadly. A volume co-edited with my colleague at Edinburgh, Benedikt Eckhardt, Law in the Roman Provinces, was published with Oxford University Press in 2020, and brings together contributions on the operation of law in every region of the empire. We have also published a short co-authored monograph on Nicolaus of Damascus and Herod the Great, again with OUP.

I am currently researching Alternative Dispute Resolution across the Roman Empire, examining how imperial inhabitants solved their disputes beyond official avenues and how these various mechanisms transformed (or not) in light of the imperial presence. 

Subhonours Courses 2020-2021:

Ancient History 2a: Past and Present in the Ancient World (Course Organiser)

Roman World 1a

Roman World 1b

Honours Teaching

Roman Judaea (Semester 2; with Prof. Helen Bond)

Skills and Methods in Classics (Semester 1; Team Taught)

The Jewish Diaspora in the Roman Empire (Semester 1; Online Course)

Judaea under Roman Rule (Semester 2; with Prof. Helen Bond)