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Joshua D. Sosin

Associate Professor of Classical Studies
Classical Studies
Box 90103, 233 Allen Bldg, Durham, NC 27708-0103
229A Allen Bldg, Dept. of Classical Studies, Durham, NC 27708

Overview


Pronouns: he/him.

One of the things that I like best about Classics is the wide range of intellectual opportunities it offers. As an undergraduate I was interested in early Christianity and Latin love elegy, which are about as far from my current work as you can get! But our discipline is built for roaming and many of its earliest practitioners would not fit neatly into the boxes that we use today.

The 'traditional' part of my work lies at what I like to call the intersection of law, economics, and religion. Under that broad rubric I have written on currency standards and exchange, ancient charitable foundations, funding of eponymous festivals, grain supply, land leasing, taxation and tax shelter, diplomacy, and other subjects. I have long tended to pursue these subjects with a special focus on their representation in documentary sources (inscriptions, papyri, and coins). But lately, I've grown increasingly interested in Athenian law and so not only in the orators but also in the lexicographic, encyclopedic, and scholiastic traditions that preserve such a wealth of information on the subject (see Harpokration On Line). I have been especially drawn to what the law has to say about personal status (citizens, enslaved people, freedpersons, metics, non-citizens).

I am also part of the Duke Collaboratory for Classics Computing (DC3), which is embedded in the Libraries. We developed and maintain papyri.info. We are working on a variety of projects to do with crowd-curation of papyrological and epigraphic texts (text, translation, metadata, commentary, bibliography, and images), geo-spatial data, prosopographical information, medieval manuscript witnesses and apparatus criticus data, image recognition and text-image alignment, and more. 

When I am not on the clock I am often on my bike (er, bikes), on pavement, on dirt, around town, in the middle of nowhere, for a few minutes, for a few days (punk still in the earbuds [first 6 sec.]; for ramblings on how punk, cycling, and classics are somehow the same experience for me listen to Mirror of Antiquity ep.5). Maybe it's that same freedom to roam that draws me.

Office Hours


M 0900-1000, Th 1500-1545, by appt, and any time you find me free on campus. I read email periodically throughout the day, M-F ca.0600-ca.1600e. I do not have a phone.

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Associate Professor of Classical Studies · 2006 - Present Classical Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Classical Studies · 2023 - Present Classical Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Associate Professor in the Department of History · 2015 - Present History, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Education, Training & Certifications


Duke University · 2000 Ph.D.
University of Mary Washington · 1994 B.A.