Aims of the Centre
- To organize and fund colloquia and lectures, inviting senior scholars to present their work in Oxford to audiences from inside and outside the University.
- To publicise, through an effective web-site, all public research-seminars and special lectures held in Oxford, that cover, or touch on, Late Antiquity.
- To publicise, again electronically, the research being done in Oxford on Late Antiquity by senior scholars and by graduate students.
- To provide details of the graduate courses and doctoral opportunities within Late Antiquity, that are available within Oxford University.
- To run an effective electronic mailing-list, for graduates and scholars within the University, and for interested outsiders, publicising both the special events and the regular seminars held within Oxford.
- To make small grants for late-antique events in Oxford not directly run by the Centre, to both established scholars and graduate students, primarily for the travel-costs of speakers; and to help with the publicity of these events.
- To foster a sense of community amongst ‘late-antique’ scholars and graduates, and to encourage links across disciplines, primarily through the special lectures and colloquia, at which speakers are encouraged to present their work in a manner that reaches beyond their own disciplinary boundaries.
Structure and Organization of the Centre
The Centre is managed by a committee, chaired by Phil Booth, whose members are chosen to represent different faculties and the various broad areas of Late Antiquity: Mark Edwards (Theology: history of Christianity), Jaś Elsner (Classics: late-antique art history), Helena Hamerow (Archaeology: Archaeology of the post-Roman West), Martin Goodman (Oriental Studies: Jewish studies), Neil McLynn (Classics: late-antique history), Nicolai Sinai (Oriental Studies: early Islam), and Phil Booth (History and Theology: eastern Christianity). All invitations to speakers, and all grants, are agreed by circulation electronically to all committee members.
Please contact a member of the Committee if you have an idea or firm suggestion for an event or special lecture in Oxford. OCLA can also help fund and publicise academic events that are autonomously organized. See Available Grants.
The Committee meets at the end of each academic year to review the year’s activities, to scrutinise and approve the Centre’s accounts, to discuss broader policy, and to discuss possible invitees for the following year.
The Centre’s web-site (hosted by the History Faculty), design of booklets and mailings are managed by Vendi Jukić Buča.
