I graduated from the University of Sheffield in 2000 with a degree in Archaeology and Prehistory, swiftly followed by an MA in European Historical Archaeology and a PhD examining the burial of the urban poor in Roman Italy. After this I was Rome Fellow at the British School at Rome (2005-2006), during which I conducted further research into Roman mortuary customs with a project concerning the rite of os resectum. Subsequently I spent some time as a project officer with an archaeological consultancy, held an early career lectureship at Cardiff University (2007-2008), two teaching fellow positions in the School of Classics at the University of St. Andrews (2008-09 and 2010-2011) and a further teaching fellowship at the University of Leicester (2011-2012). I joined the Department of Classical Studies as Baron Thyssen Lecturer in September 2012.
Contact: emma-jayne.graham@open.ac.uk
My research is focused primarily on the archaeology of Roman Italy and the ways in which it informs us about the construction of ancient identities and experiences. Mortuary practices and the treatment of the human body lie at the heart of much of my work and I have written several articles which explore themes such as personhood and manipulation of the corpse, funerary commemoration and memory, as well as sensory interactions with man-made and natural environments. I am particularly interested in how bodily experiences of the material world gave meaning to people’s sense of self and how the body and its representation in material culture served as a locus for the construction and expression of these identities. I am currently working on a project which aims to address these issues by exploring the intersection of divergent experiences of ‘the Roman body’.
Recent work has also taken me into the realm of infant health and ritual practice in Hellenistic Italy, including a project which looks at terracotta votive offerings modelled in the form of infants wrapped in swaddling bands. This has led to an interest in votive practice more generally, especially anatomical ex-votos, and in June 2012 I organised a conference on this subject at the British School at Rome (Bodies of Evidence). I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students who would like to work in any of these areas.
In addition to the history and archaeology of the Roman world I have experience of teaching a wide range of subjects, from Etruscan Italy to Viking Scandinavia, and from Greek temples to early Christian art. At the Open University my teaching contributions include a new third-level course on Roman history and archaeology and involvement in the development of new MA level modules.
Graham, E-J. 2006. Death, disposal and the destitute: The burial of the urban poor in Italy in the late Roman Republic and early Empire. BAR Int. Series 1565. Oxford, Archaeopress.
Graham, E-J. 2011. Memory and materiality: re-embodying the Roman funeral. In V. M. Hope and J. Huskinson (eds.). Memory and Mourning: Studies on Roman Death. Oxford, Oxbow, 21–39.
Graham, E-J. 2011. From fragments to ancestors: re-defining os resectum and its role in rituals of purification and commemoration in Republican Rome. In M. Carroll and J. Rempel (eds.) Living through the Dead: Burial and Commemoration in the Classical World. Oxford, Oxbow, 91-109.
Graham, E-J. 2009. Becoming persons, becoming ancestors: personhood, memory and the corpse in Roman rituals of social remembrance. Archaeological Dialogues 16(1), 51–74.
Graham, E-J. 2006. Discarding the destitute: Ancient and modern attitudes towards burial practices and memory preservation amongst the lower classes of Rome. In B. Croxford et al. (eds). TRAC 2005. Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference. Birmingham 2005. Oxford, Oxbow, 57–71.
Graham, E-J. 2005. The Quick and the Dead in the extra-urban landscape: the Roman cemetery at Ostia/Portus as a lived environment. In J. Bruhn, B. Croxford and D. Grigoropoulos (eds.). TRAC 2004. Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference. Durham 2004. Oxford, Oxbow, 133–143.
Carroll, M. and Graham, E-J. (eds.). Infant health and death in Roman Italy and beyond. Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplementary series.
Devlin, Z.L. and Graham, E-J. (eds.). Death Embodied: Archaeological Approaches to the Treatment of the Corpse. Oxford, Oxbow.
Draycott, J.L. and Graham, E-J. (eds.). Bodies of Evidence: Re-defining the Anatomical Votive.
Graham, E-J. Infant votives and swaddling in Hellenistic Italy. In M. Carroll and E-J. Graham (eds.). Infant health and death in Roman Italy and beyond. Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplementary series.
Graham, E-J and Hope, V.M. Funerary Practices. In A. Cooley (ed.). A Companion to Roman Italy. Wiley-Blackwell.
Graham, E-J. ‘There buds the laurel’: Approaching nature and place in the cemeteries of Roman Italy. In B. Croxford and J. Lucas (eds.). Experiencing Space and Place in the Roman World. Oxford, Oxbow.
Graham, E.-J. Disparate lives or disparate deaths? Post-mortem treatment of the body and the articulation of difference. In P. Baker and C. Laes (eds.). Disparate Bodies ‘A Capite ad Calcem’ in Roman Antiquity. Leiden, Brill.
Graham, E-J. Corporeal concerns: the role of the body in the transformation of Roman mortuary practices. In Z.L. Devlin and E-J. Graham (eds.). Death Embodied: Archaeological Approaches to the Treatment of the Corpse. Oxford, Oxbow.
See also Open Research Online for further details of Emma-Jayne Graham’s research publications.
