Susanna Elm

Professor

Sidney Hellman Ehrman Chair and Distinguished Professor of European History, FBA

Education

DPhil Oxon, Literae Humaniores (Ancient History) St. Hilda's College, 1986

Research Interests

Ancient History with a focus on the political, economic, religious and cultural history of the later Roman Empire, East and West. Current projects include Augustine of Hippo as economist, with a focus on enslavement, war and community in Late Antiquity, elite display, and aspects of ancient medicine.

Books and recent co-edited Volumes

The Importance of Being Gorgeous: Gender and Christian Imperial Rule in Late Antiquity, UC Press 2026 (open access).

Sons of Hellenism, Fathers of the Church: Emperor Julian, Gregory of Nazianzus, and the Vision of Rome. Berkeley: UC Press, 2012; paperback 2015. Winner 2013 C. J. Goodwin Award of Merit, American Philological Association.

Virgins of God. The Making of Asceticism in Late Antiquity. Oxford Classical Monograph Series. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994; Paperback, 1996, re-ed. 1999, 2003; e-book 2006). Fecioarele lui Dumnezeu: Întemeierea ascetismului în Antichitatea Târzie, Romanian trans. Eva Darmian, Iasi: Editura Doxologia, 2020.

War and Community in late Antiquity, edited by Susanna Elm and Kristina Sessa. Cambridge University Press, 2026.

The Late (Wild) Augustine, edited by Susanna Elm and Christopher M. Blunda. Leiden: Brill/Schoeningh, 2020.

Material Christianity, ed. Christopher Ocker and Susanna Elm. Springer Nature, 2020.

Antioch: The Many Faces of Antioch: Intellectual Exchange and Religious Diversity (CE 350-450). Ed. Silke-Petra Bergjan and Susanna Elm, COMES, Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 2018.

Employment

2022 - present, Distinguished Professor of History and Ancient Greek and Roman Studies

2015–2022, Sidney H. Ehrman Professor of European History, UC Berkeley

2002–Present, Professor of History and Classics, UC Berkeley

1999–2004, Director, Undergraduate Program in Religious Studies

1997–2004, Chair, Graduate Program in Ancient Mediterranean History and Archaeology

Recent Awards & Honors

2021 - Corresponding Fellow, The British Academy

2020-2021 ACLS and Loeb Foundation grants

2018, Visiting Professor, Sonderforschungsbereich Bedrohte Ordnungen, at the Lehrstuhl Professor Irmgard Männlein-Robert, Klassische Philologie, Universität Tübingen, May-July

2018, Hyde Lecturer in Ancient History, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, March 19-23

2017, Hedi-Fritz-Niggli University Professor, Universität Zürich, Spring semester