Dr Leah Lazar

leah lazar
Postdoctoral Researcher, CHANGE Project, The Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents
Research Associate, Corpus Christi College
leah.lazar@classics.ox.ac.uk

Qualifications: DPhil, MSt, BA (Oxford)

Link to college page: 
Link to academia page: https://oxford.academia.edu/LeahLazar

 

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Academic Background

Originally from London, I came to New College, Oxford for the BA in Classics (2011-2015), MSt in Greek and Roman History (2015-2016) and DPhil in Ancient History (2016-2019). My doctoral thesis, entitled ‘Athenian Power in the Fifth Century BC’ was supervised by Peter Thonemann and Lisa Kallet. After my DPhil, I was a stipendiary lecturer at Corpus Christi College in Oxford (2020), before moving to Cambridge to lecture at the Faculty of Classics, and teach at St John’s College (2020-2021). I’ve now returned to Oxford for full-time research on the CHANGE project at the Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents (2021-2025).

Research Interests

My research explores the political economy of the Greek world, especially at the interface of imperial power and the variable autonomy of smaller communities. While I am first and foremost a historian, and make use of a broad range of sources, I have specialist expertise in epigraphy and numismatics. 

My first monograph, forthcoming with Oxford University Press, is entitled Athenian Power in the Fifth Century BC. Challenging orthodox approaches, the monograph argues that Athenian imperial power was flexible and a matter of negotiation between the Athenians and their subjects. Additionally, it compares the operation of Athenian power in different Aegean regions. 

For the CHANGE project, funded by the European Research Council, I am in the process of writing a second monograph, with the working title Imperial and Civic Economies in Asia Minor. It will explore the impact of different imperial powers on the economies of cities in Anatolia from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period, offering an economic perspective on the complex interaction between cities and empires in the ancient world.

Research Keywords

Greek history, Athenian empire, Greek epigraphy, numismatics, ancient Anatolia, ancient economy.

Teaching

I have lectured on fifth-century Greek history and Thucydides, and I have given tutorials and seminars on a wide range of topics in Greek and Roman History. I also enjoy teaching papers beyond my research specialisms, especially social historical topics such as sexuality and gender, and slavery. In Oxford, I have taught: ‘Greek History 1 650-479 BC’; ‘Greek History 2 478-404 BC’; ‘Greek History 3 403-336 BC’; ‘Alexander the Great and his Early Successors’; ‘Athenian Democracy’; Thucydides’ Sicilian Expedition; ‘Aristophanes’ Political Comedy’; ‘Texts and Contents’; ‘Sexuality and Gender in Greece and Rome’ and ’The Achaemenid Empire’.

Publications

Full Publications: Dr Leah Lazar full list of publications July 2023

Selected Publications:
 

Athenian Power in the Fifth Century BC. Oxford University Press, Oxford (forthcoming 2024)
‘The Athenian Empire and Epigraphic Cultures’. The Journal of Hellenic Studies (forthcoming 2024)
‘Old Comedy and Athenian Power’. Polis (forthcoming 2024).
‘The Lechaena Hoard, 1979 (CH 8.417 and 8.358?)’. Numismatic Chronicle (forthcoming 2023).
'An imagined and imagining demos in Athenian public inscription', in: Clifford, E., Xavier, B. (Eds.), The Imagination of the Mind in Fifth-Century Athens: Forms of Thought. Routledge, London (2023), pp. 126–147. 
‘What causes a war? The Case of Thucydides’ Sicilian Expedition’. Omnibus 83 (2022), pp. 9-11. 
With Marcus Chin. ‘Antipatros of Derbe, Akmoneia and Rome in a notebook of William Mitchell Ramsay.’ Philia International Journal of Mediterranean Studies 6 (2020), pp. 42-52
‘Antipatros of Derbe, Akmoneia and Rome in a notebook of William Mitchell Ramsay.’ Philia International Journal of Mediterranean Studies 6 (2020), pp. 42-52.
With Marcus Chin. https://doi.org/10.36991/PHILIA.202003