Dr. Easton specializes in Roman social history, Latin language and literature, and Latin epigraphy, and he also maintains a passion for teaching courses in material culture and Greek history and language. One of the most rewarding parts of his pedagogy is helping students of all disciplines learn to take an interdisciplinary approach to the rich variety of evidence from the Classical World.

He is currently teaching Introductory Latin, Introductory Greek, a reading course on Cicero in his sociopolitical context, and a course on sub-elite populations in the Roman world.

Dr. Easton holds a PhD in Classics from the University of Toronto and MAs in Classics from the University of Kansas and in History from Northwest Missouri State University. Before coming to Southwestern he was a Lecturer in Classics at the University of Toronto and held the Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in Classics at Washington and Lee University. He has also conducted research at the American Academy in Rome and at the British School at Rome and participated in archaeological excavations in Pompeii.

Dr. Easton has also co-directed faculty-led study abroad trips to Italy, and in this role he has taught units on Roman social history and material culture and led students in museum and archaeological site visits in Rome and the surrounding area.

Select Publications

Monographs

• (2024) Municipal Freedmen and Intergenerational Social Mobility in Roman Italy (Brill Studies in Greek and Roman Epigraphy, Volume 21). Brill. https://brill.com/display/title/69339

Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals

• (2019) ‘The Elusive libertina nobilitas: A Case-Study of Roman Municipal Freedmen in the *Augustales,’ Phoenix 73: 333-357.                                                
• (2021) ‘Mostly Work and Some Play: Assessing the Associative Behaviors of the Roman Municipal familia publica.’ Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 70: 242-266.

Book Chapters

• (2023) ‘Servi empticii and Manumission in the Roman Municipal familia publica,’ in R. Benefiel and C. Keesling, eds., Inscriptions and the Epigraphic Habit: The Epigraphic Cultures of Greece, Rome, and Beyond, pp. 212-31. Brill. https://brill.com/display/title/69091

Book Reviews in Peer-Reviewed Journals

• (2021) ‘Review of Mark B. Wilson, Dictator: The Evolution of the Roman Dictatorship (Ann Arbor, 2021).’ Phoenix 75: 171-174.

Dr. Easton’s research focuses on Roman social history, and in particular on identifying the avenues through which subaltern families achieved social and economic mobility and the institutions that linked them to the elite.

The study of epigraphy is essential to these themes, and therefore Dr. Easton also works on editing inscriptions and analyzing their meaning within their wider public and private contexts.

He also maintains a strong interest in Greek and Roman historiography and prose literature.

Monographs

• (2024) Municipal Freedmen and Intergenerational Social Mobility in Roman Italy (Brill Studies in Greek and Roman Epigraphy, Volume 21). Brill. https://brill.com/display/title/69339

Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals

• (2019) ‘The Elusive libertina nobilitas: A Case-Study of Roman Municipal Freedmen in the *Augustales,’ Phoenix 73: 333-357.
• (2021) ‘Mostly Work and Some Play: Assessing the Associative Behaviors of the Roman Municipal familia publica.’ Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 70: 242-266.

Book Chapters

• (2023) ‘Servi empticii and Manumission in the Roman Municipal familia publica,’ in R. Benefiel and C. Keesling, eds., Inscriptions and the Epigraphic Habit: The Epigraphic Cultures of Greece, Rome, and Beyond, pp. 212-31. Brill. https://brill.com/display/title/69091

Book Reviews in Peer-Reviewed Journals

• (2021) ‘Review of Mark B. Wilson, Dictator: The Evolution of the Roman Dictatorship (Ann Arbor, 2021).’ Phoenix 75: 171-174.

Invited Talks

Junior Faculty Work-in-Progress Brown Bag Paper Series                                     Southwestern University, Georgetown, TX (2021)

‘Going Somewhere?: Migration and Geographical Mobility in the Roman West’                                 Canadian Institute for Mediterranean Studies Public Lecture Series, Toronto, ON (2020)

‘Disney’s Hercules and the Reception of the Myth of Hercules’                                                      Historical Studies Society Movie Night, University of Toronto, Mississauga, Toronto, ON (2018)

‘Roman Municipal Freedmen and the *Augustales’                                                                            Ancient History Proseminar, Department of Classics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON (2018)

‘The Status of Municipal Freedmen in Roman Towns: A Case-study of the *Augustales’                Epigraphy Colloquium: Epigraphy and History in Italy and the Western Provinces York University, Toronto, ON (2018)

‘Family Groups in the Roman Municipal familia publica’                                                                    ColPAH Work in Progress Seminar, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON (2016)

Conference Presentations

‘An (Almost) Unspeakable Office: Augustus, the Column of Duilius, and the Roman Dictatorship in the Fourth Century BCE’                                                                                                                                  Fourth North American Congress of Greek and Latin Epigraphy: Epigraphy and Public Life in the Graeco-Roman World, Chicago, IL (2024)

‘What’s in a Name: The Ferrarii and Roman Occupational Associations in the Bay of Baratii and Central and Southern Spain’                                                                                                            Archaeological Institute of America Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2023)

‘The Early Roman Dictatorship: A Dangerous Institution?’                                                            Classical Association of the Middle West and South Annual Meeting, Winston-Salem, NC (2022)

‘Creating familiaritas: Cicero’s Letters of Recommendation of 46-45 BCE’                                       Society for Classical Studies Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2020)

‘Servi empticii and Manumission in the Roman Municipal familia publica’                                          Third North American Congress of Greek and Latin Epigraphy, Washington, DC (2020)

‘A Case-study of Intergenerational Participation in Roman Professional Associations’                              Society for Classical Studies Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA (2019)

‘The Descendants of Roman Municipal Freedmen in the ordo decurionum and the Limits of the  macula servitutis’                                                                                                                              Society for Classical Studies Annual Meeting, Boston, MA (2018)

‘The Associative Features of the Roman Municipal familia publica’                                                  Classical Association of Canada Annual Conference, Quebec City, QC (2016)

‘Private lectisternia and Roman Religious Practice: A Study in Pluralism in Roman Religion’                  New Frontiers in Graduate History Conference, York University, Toronto, ON (2013)

‘Plautus’ lectisterniator and Roman dies natales’                                                                              Classical Association of the Middle West and South Annual Meeting, Oklahoma City, OK (2010)

‘Io triumphe: Ovid’s Metamorphoses 3.511-733 and Augustus’ Triumph of 29 B.C.’                              Conference on Ovid’s Metamorphoses, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS (2008)

Panel Presider at Academic Conferences

‘Roman Law and Politics’                                                                                                               Classical Association of the Middle West and South Annual Meeting, Winston-Salem, NC (2022)

‘Epigraphic Logistics: Editing, Editions, and Errors’                                                                             Third North American Congress of Greek and Latin Epigraphy, Washington, DC (2020)