Dr Kimberley Czajkowski (DPhil, MSt, MLitt, MA (Oxon))
Senior Lecturer in Ancient History; Classics Graduate Officer; Programme Co-Director MSc Ancient Worlds
Contact details
- Tel: +44 (0)131 650 4581
- Email: k.czajkowski@ed.ac.uk
Address
- Street
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Room 02M.22, William Robertson Wing, Old Medical School, Teviot Place
- City
- Post code
Availability
Please email directly to set up a meeting. Most of my teaching is online this semester, so individual appointments will allow me to adapt to your time-zone.
Background
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 (2012-15), 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.
Responsibilities & affiliations
External appointments
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).
Useful Links
Undergraduate teaching
Subhonours Courses 2023-2024:
Ancient History 2a: Past and Present in the Ancient World (Course Organiser; Team Taught)
Honours Teaching
Dispute Resolution in the Roman Empire (Semester 1)
Postgraduate teaching
Skills and Methods in Classics (Semester 1; Team Taught)
Dispute Resolution in the Roman Empire (Semester 1)
Roman Egypt (Semester 2; Online Course)
Open to PhD supervision enquiries?
Yes
Current PhD students supervised
NameDegreeThesis topicSupervision typeStart Date
Laura Donati PhDSlave crime and punishment at Rome [UoE HCA PhD Studentship, 2017-20]Secondary2017
Research summary
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.
Places:
- Europe
- Near East
Themes:
- Ancient Civilisations
- Culture
- Imperialism
- Religion
- Society
Periods:
- Antiquity
Current research interests
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.Books:
2021. Co-authored with B. Eckhardt. Herod in History: Nicolaus of Damascus and the Augustan Context. Oxford University Press.
2017. Localized Law: The Babatha and Salome Komaise Archives. Oxford Studies in Roman Society and Law. Oxford University Press.
Edited Books:
2024. With D. A. Friedman. Looking In, Looking Out: Jews and Non-Jews in Mutual Contemplation. Essays for Martin Goodman on His 70th Birthday. Leiden: Brill.
2020. With B. Eckhardt, in collaboration with M. Strothmann (eds).Law in the Roman Provinces. Oxford Studies in Roman Society and Law. Oxford University Press.
Articles and Chapters:
Forthcoming (in press), 2024. The Jews of Antioch between City and Empire. In: D. Schumann and T. Forderer, eds. Antioch I: Early Christian and Diaspora Jewish Identity Formation in the Sphere of Influence of an Ancient Metropolis. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck (page numbers not yet available).
Forthcoming (in press), 2024. The Jewish Wars, the Roman Emperors and their Impact. In: R. Raja, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Hellenistic and Roman Syria and the Near East. Oxford: Oxford University Press (page numbers not yet available).
2024. The Need for Rabbinic Nomikoi: A Response to Yair Furstenberg. Journal for the Study of Judaism 55:1, pp.65-75.
2022. The Parchments and Papyri. In: T. Kaizer, ed. Companion to the Hellenistic and Roman Near East. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 105-113.
2021. Legal Knowledge and its Transmission in Three Marriage Contracts from the Judaean Desert. In: K. Berthelot, N. B. Dohrmann and C. Nemo-Pekelman (eds.) Legal Engagement: The Reception of Roman Law and Tribunals by Jews and Other Inhabitants of the Empire. Rome: École Française de Rome, pp.251-269.
2021. Co-authored with S. Wackenier. Legal Strategies of Judaeans in Herakleopolis, Middle Egypt, according to the Archives of the Politeuma. Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 9:4, pp.415-434.
2020. “Synagogues” in Ptolemaic and Early Roman Egypt. In: Lutz Doering and Andrew R. Krause (eds.), in co-operation with Hermut Löhr. Synagogues in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods: Archaeological Finds, New Methods, New Theories. Ioudaioi 11. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, pp.295-312.
2020. Co-authored with B. Eckhardt. Introduction. In: K. Czajkowski and B. Eckhardt (eds.) Law in the Roman Provinces. Oxford: OUP, pp. 1-15.
2020. Law and Romanization in Judaea. In: K. Czajkowski and B. Eckhardt (eds.) Law in the Roman Provinces. Oxford: OUP, pp. 84-100.
2020. Law and Administration at the Edges of Empire: The Case of Dura-Europos. In: K. Czajkowski and B. Eckhardt (eds.) Law in the Roman Provinces. Oxford: OUP, pp. 115-133.
2019. The Limits of Legal Pluralism in the Roman Empire. The Journal of Legal History 40:2, pp.110-129.
2019. Jewish Associations at Alexandria? In: B. Eckhardt (ed.), Private Associations and Jewish Communities in the Hellenistic and Roman Cities. JSJSup. Leiden: Brill, pp. 76-96.
2019. Law in the Babatha and Salome Komaise Archives: A New Approach. In: J. Frey and N. Rupschus (eds.) Frauen im antiken Judentum und frühen Christentum. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, pp. 107-115.
2018. Co-authored with B. Eckhardt. Law, Status and Agency in the Roman Provinces. Past & Present 241, pp.3-31.
2017. Civil Strife, Power and Authority in the Judicial Sphere: A Case Study from Roman Palestine. Klio 99:2, pp.566-585.
2016. Justice in Client Kingdoms: The Many Trials of Herod’s Sons. Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 65:4, pp. 473–496
2016. Lost and Stolen Property at Qumran: The “Oath of Adjuration”. Journal for the Study of Judaism 47, pp. 88–103.
2015. Jewish Attitudes towards the Imperial Cult. Scripta Classica Israelica 34, pp. 181-94.
Encyclopaedia Articles:
2022. Naḥal Ḥever | Judaism. Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception.
2020. Babatha. Oxford Classical Dictionary.
2019. Senatus Consultum Tertullianum. Oxford Classical Dictionary.
2019. Senatus Consultum Orfitianum. Oxford Classical Dictionary.
Reviews:
2021. Hekster, O. and Verboven, K. (eds), The Impact of Justice on the Roman Empire: Proceedings of the Thirteenth Workshop of the International Network Impact of Empire (Gent, June 21–24, 2017). Impact of Empire: Roman Empire 34. Leiden: Brill, 2019. Journal of Roman Studies 110, pp.349-350
2020. Petersen, J. Recht bei Tacitus. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter, 2019. The Classical Review 70:1, pp. 126-128.