Connecting Classics
Global History
Global History is a popular and expanding field, which seeks both to understand better the connectivity between human cultures, and to understand better individual human cultures through comparison with others. The connective and comparative global study of ancient cultures has, however, traditionally been focused on the dynamics of empires (e.g. the Roman and Chinese Han empires); the economics of connective trade routes (most famously the Silk Roads); and the comparative study of particular disciplines within different cultures (e.g. philosophy and science in ancient Greece and China).
Prof Scott is the first ancient historian to join the Warwick University’s Global History and Culture Centre, marking an expansion of the remit of Warwick’s Global History agenda and a new connection between the Department of Classics and Ancient History and the Department of History. His research combines one of the hallmarks of the Warwick approach to global study – the analysis of the socio-cultural and political impacts of global trade – with the ancient historical evidence for developing trade networks. His current research project examines the socio-cultural and political meaning and impact of the trade in luxury goods across the Mediterranean, Asia, India and China in the period 100 BC – 300 CE (when the permanent connective arteries of trade were being formulated across these communities). His research is the basis of a new UG teaching module (From Confucius to Constantine: Ancient Global History), as well as of a new public engagement tool (oiko.world), which allows users to investigate connections across the ancient world.
