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Dr Dylan James

Dylan James standing beside a stone column with a brick and stone wall in the background

Specialism

Marie Skłodowska-Curie European Postdoctoral Fellow (2025-2027)

Areas of interest

Ancient Greek and Roman historiography; the history and historiography of Alexander the Great; multilingualism; ethnic and cultural identity; reception of Classical Greece in the Roman era; postcolonial and decolonial approaches to Classics; comparative history and its application to antiquity; classical reception, especially in colonial New Zealand and Australia.

I'm an ancient Greek historian, working at the intersection of historiography, identity, geography, and cultural interaction.

In February 2025, I started at the Department of Classics as Marie Skłodowska-Curie European Postdoctoral Fellow. My project here is entitledWriting Imperialism and Local Knowledge: Indigenous Guides in Greek and Roman Historiography, and it explores cultural interaction in the early stages of imperialist endeavours through the representation of local guides in ancient historiography. These neglected figures could make or break a campaign, shape imperial designs, or avert disaster in their own communities, but have never been studied together. Beyond philological and postcolonial/decolonial approaches to the topic, I also employ comparative settings from (Early) Modern European imperialism to help generate new questions about local guides and indigeneity in the ancient texts. One of the products of this strand of my work is a recently published co-edited volume entitledTheorising Comparative History for the Ancient Mediterranean: Asking New Questions of Old Evidence(Liverpool, 2025).

I am also completing a monograph entitledBilingual Individuals in Greco-Roman Historiography, based on my doctoral research. It is concerned with how ancient historians represented bilingualism as an element of cultural identity and as a characterising trait. Several articles have emerged from the project to date.

I am also developing a new project that explores the reception of classical texts and ideas in colonial New Zealand and Australia.

Please feel free to contact me about my publications or research projects, or just to chat about ideas!

Teaching

In 2025/6, I am contributing to CL2CGH: Greek History: Persian Wars to Alexander.

Background

Prior to taking up the Marie Curie at 91, I was Fellow at Harvard's Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington D.C., Postdoctoral Fellow at the Haifa Center for Mediterranean History at the University of Haifa, Lady Davis/Golda Meir Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Classical Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Margo Tytus Summer Residency Fellow at the University of Cincinnati. Before that I taught Greek history at Oxford for a year after my DPhil.

Academic qualifications

I hold a DPhil in Ancient History from the University of Oxford, an MPhil from Macquarie University in Australia, and a BA (Hons) from the University of Canterbury in my home country of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Websites/blogs

Selected publications

  1. (2025): Theorising Comparative History for the Ancient Mediterranean: Asking New Questions of Old Evidence.;Co-edited with Stephen Harrison (Swansea). Published October 28, 2025 with Liverpool University Press. (Edited volume)
  2. (2025): “‘Soft’ Comparative History: Theories and Methods”, co-written with Stephen Harrison (Swansea). In D. James & S. Harrison (eds.),TheorisingComparative History for the Ancient Mediterranean: Asking New Questions of Old Evidence, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1-29. (Book chapter)
  3. (2025): “‘Soft’Local Guides and Comparative History: Reflections on Alexander and Columbus”. In D. James & S. Harrison (eds.),TheorisingComparative History for the Ancient Mediterranean: Asking New Questions of Old Evidence, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 205-225.(Book chapter)
  4. (2024): “Bilingualism and Greek Identity in the Fifth Century BCE”.Classical Quarterly(74.1), 32-49.(Article)
  5. (2023): “Translatio Fortunae: Curtius Rufus’ Alexander, Livy’s Hannibal, and Intertextuality”.Classical Philology(118.2), 210-231. (Article)
  6. (2020): “Nearchus, Guides, and Place Names on Alexander’s Expedition: Arrian’sIndica27.1 (FGrH133 F 1 III).”Mnemosyne(73.4), 553-576. (Article)
  7. (2018): "Diodoros the Bilingual Provincial: Greek Language and Multilingualism inBibliothekeBook XVII." In L.I. Hau, A. Meeus & B. Sheridan (eds.)Diodoros of Sicily: Historiographical Theory and Practice in the Bibliotheke (Studia Hellenistica 58), Leuven: Peeters, 429-446. (Book chapter)

Publications

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