Eliza Gettel

I am a PhD candidate in ancient history at Harvard University, and my dissertation investigates the legacy of the koinon during the Roman imperial period in Achaea. As part of this research, I am interested in how reading back and forth between the koinon and more modern federal institutions has shaped how we study koina in the ancient world and how we think about federalism in the modern world. This interest builds on previous work that has considered moments of political transition or state formation in which aspects of antiquity have served as models or formed narratives for contemporary society. In the realm of the post-classical, I have also conducted research into the relationship between Classics and anthropology in the early 20th century, especially concerning how early theories of ‘culture’ drew on antiquity and how they, in turn, shaped the emerging Romanization debate.

I completed my BA in Classics at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, where I wrote a junior and senior thesis on antiquity in the national imagination and political aesthetics of 20th century Greece. Afterwards, I spent a year at the University of Southampton as a US-UK Fulbright Postgraduate Scholar earning an MA in Social Archaeology and developing a deep interest in engaging with work in anthropology and the social sciences more broadly.