Alexander the Great and the Language of Elite Power in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds, Trinity College Dublin, fully-funded Ph.D. Project.

The Department of Classics at Trinity College Dublin seeks applicants for a fully-funded four-year Provost’s Ph.D. Project Award to begin a Ph.D. in September 2021 or March 2022 on a topic related to the research project ‘Alexander the Great and the Language of Elite Power in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds’. The successful applicant will be enrolled in the Structured Ph.D. Program and collaborate in an active research group with other Ph.D. students working on Hellenistic history. The award comprises the full Ph.D. tuition fees (at EU level) and an annual stipend of €17,316. Applicants from the UK for admission in the 2021/22 academic year are eligible so long as the applicant has lived in the UK for at least 36 months in the period between 2016 to 31 January 2020. Trinity’s Provost’s Ph.D. Project Awards are generously funded through alumni donations and Trinity’s Commercial Revenue Unit.

The research project ‘Alexander the Great and the Language of Elite Power in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds’ examines how Alexander’s model of personal, charismatic kingship was received by Hellenistic kings, diffused throughout the Mediterranean and Near-Eastern worlds, and how it influenced the Roman generals and commanders who unified the Mediterranean world. The project offers a new examination of how and why Hellenistic kings and Roman rulers used Alexander as a paradigm of personal power and a model of action and elite self-fashioning in their dealings with subject communities and elite rivals.

Within the project ‘Alexander the Great and the Language of Elite Power in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds’ possible areas for Ph.D. research include (but are not limited to):
– the reception of Alexander in the Hellenistic, Roman, and Near-Eastern worlds
– Alexander as a model for the relationship between rulers and subjects
ruler cult and divine monarchy
– the visualization of elite power
– oikoumenic conquest

Potential applicants are invited to contact Dr Shane Wallace ([email protected]) for full project and application information and to consult on their research proposal. Applications for the award must include a personal statement with a research proposal (max. 5 pages), a curriculum vitae with educational history, transcripts of degree results, and two academic references. Prospective students will need to send these documents to Eilís Dunne at [email protected] by the deadline on May 1st 2021.

Further details are available online:
https://histories-humanities.tcd.ie/postgraduate/funding.php
https://histories-humanities.tcd.ie/assets/pdf/research/alexander.pdf