Dr Meaghan McEvoy

BA (Hons) (Adelaide), MPhil, DPhil (Oxon.) FRHistS
Senior Lecturer in History
ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences

Areas of expertise

  • Classical Greek And Roman History 430305
  • European History (Excl. British, Classical Greek And Roman) 430308
  • Gender History 430309
  • History Of Religion 430314

Research interests

  • Rulership in the late antique, early medieval, and Byzantine periods (c. AD 400-800)
  • Roman and Byzantine generals, officials, and court politics
  • Empresses, elite women, and gender history
  • Ecclesiastical politics, patronage and benefaction in Rome and Byzantium

Biography

Dr Meaghan McEvoy is a Senior Lecturer in History at the Australian National University. She is a graduate of the University of Adelaide, where she received the University Medal, and the University of Oxford, where her research was supported by a John Crampton Travelling Scholarship. She has held several funded research fellowships, including the Rome Scholarship at the British School at Rome; a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship at Corpus Christi College, Oxford; a Fellowship and Summer Fellowship at the Dumbarton Oaks Centre for Byzantine Studies, Washington DC; and an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship at the Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt am Main. Prior to joining the ANU in July 2022, she worked as Senior Lecturer in Byzantine Studies at Macquarie University.

Researcher's projects

Dr McEvoy is the author of Child Emperor Rule in the Late Roman West, AD 367-455, published by Oxford University Press in 2013. It has been praised as 'a major contribution to our understanding of one of the great transitional periods in European and world history' (English Historical Review),  'a definitive account for years to come' (Classical Journal), an 'impressive analysis' (Early Medieval Europe) and 'a fine, clearly-written study which advances our understanding of the exercise of political power' (Journal of Roman Studies).

She is the co-editor of two thematic journal issues, Imperial Presence in Late Antique Rome (2nd-7th centuries) for Antiquité Tardive (with S. Corcoran and M. Moser, 2017) and Envisioning the Roman Emperor in Speech and Word in Late Antiquity for the Journal of Late Antiquity (with J.-W. Drijvers, 2021). Her research has appeared in journals such as Papers of the British School at Rome and Antichthon and in edited collections on Old St Peter's Basilica in Rome, The Emperor in the Byzantine World, The Sons of Constantine, Leadership, Ideology and Crowds in the Roman Empire of the Fourth Century, and The Fifth Century: An Age of Transformation?

Dr McEvoy is currently working on the following projects:

  • A biography of the fifth century empress Licinia Eudoxia, for the Oxford University Press Women in Antiquity Series
  • An edited volume, The Roman Imperial Court in the Principate and Late Antiquity, under contract with Oxford University Press, together with Caillan Davenport (ANU)
  • A series of conferences, a co-edited journal issue, and a co-edited volume on Christian Political Cultures in Late Antiquity, with Robin Whelan (Liverpool) and Richard Flower (Exeter)

Available student projects

I welcome enquries from students wishing to undertake Honours, MPhil or PhD theses in my areas of research interest (see above).

Return to top

Updated:  29 November 2023 / Responsible Officer:  Director (Research Services Division) / Page Contact:  Researchers