DoctorGary Morrison

I am a social historian. My interest and research is into the different peoples living in antiquity: who they were, how they lived, and their day-to-day reality. I am also interested in how different societies interact with one another, a theme at the heart of my PhD dissertation which was an investigation of cultural interactions and colonization in second century BCE Judaea. Today my focus is the Roman people. My teaching and research analyses, investigates and presents issues relating to Roman power, relationships, demography, status, households, living conditions, urban infrastructure, work, and so the list goes on — perhaps best summed up as the ‘realities of life’. I also consider further dimensions, such as the space that activities occur in and when activities happen with particular attention paid to nocturnal events, "Rome after Dark" is a features of my work in recent years.

Another important part of my work is an interest in how aspects of the ancient world have been interpreted, adapted and utilized by later peoples and societies, with a particular focus on 19th and early 20th century New Zealand. Here I look at the role of classical antiquity in framing identity and influencing memory. I am also interested in how we might understand more about Roman society by using comparative material from different societies across geographic regions and across time.