Christopher Kelly (historian)

Christopher Kelly (born 1964) is an Australian classicist and historian, who specializes in the later Roman Empire and the classical tradition.[1] He has been Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge since 2018.

Early life and education

He studied history and law at the University of Sydney as an undergraduate.[2] He earned a doctorate at Trinity College, Cambridge.[3] His doctoral thesis was titled "Corruption and bureaucracy in the later Roman Empire", and was submitted in 1993.[4]

Academic career

Kelly is Professor of Classics and Ancient History in the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge.[5] He is a previous chairman of the faculty.[6] From 2006 to 2008, he held a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship.[1] On 12 July 2017, he was elected Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.[6] His term as Master began in Michaelmas 2018. His appointment follows his tenure as senior tutor in the early 2000s, when he was strongly criticised by some members of the student body for his policies,[7] and the college JCR threatened to refuse to acknowledge his plans to assign rooms based on exam results.[8]

Kelly was editor of the Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society and Cambridge Classical Journal from 2000 to 2006.[1] He is currently editor of the Journal of Roman Studies and President of the Cambridge Philological Society.[6]

Author

Kelly's first major work was Ruling the Later Roman Empire (2006). In The End of Empire (2009), characterized as a "semi-popular work",[9] he took a revisionist view of Attila the Hun as a "thoughtful and effective political and military leader."[10]

Kelly contributed to The Cambridge Ancient History and to Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World, edited by G.W. Bowersock, Peter Brown, and Oleg Grabar.[11] He is an occasional reviewer for publications such as London Review of Books,[12] Literary Review, and History Today.

Selected works
  • Ruling the Later Roman Empire (Harvard University Press, 2004)
  • The Roman Empire: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2006), from the Very Short Introductions series
  • The End of Empire: Attila the Hun and the Fall of Rome (Norton, New York, 2009)
  • Editor, Unclassical Traditions I (Alternatives to the Classical Past in late Antiquity) and II (Perspectives from East and West in late Antiquity) (Cambridge University Press, 2010 and 2011)

References
  1. Corpus Christi College faculty bio Archived 2012-11-18 at the Wayback Machine
  2. "Master". Corpus Christi College. University of Cambridge. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
  3. Random House author's biography
  4. Kelly, Christopher Mark (1993). "Corruption and bureaucracy in the later Roman Empire". E-Thesis Online Service. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
  5. "Professor Christopher Kelly". Faculty of Classics. University of Cambridge. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
  6. "Corpus Christi College elects a new Master". Corpus Christi College. University of Cambridge. 24 July 2017. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
  7. Elizabeth Howcroft. "Old conflicts resurface as Corpus Christi appoints new Master". Varsity.
  8. Mark Inglefield. "Diary: Seeing red". The Times. Archived from the original on 2001-05-27.
  9. Edward Luttwak, "The Best and the Brightest," The New Republic (August 31, 2009), review
  10. Bryan Ward-Perkins, "The Decline and Fall Industry," Standpoint (September 2009) features
  11. Michael Kulikowski, review of Kelly's Ruling the Roman Empire, in Bryn Mawr Classical Review (February 12, 2005)
  12. London Review of Books contributor's note
Academic offices
Preceded by
Stuart Laing		 Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
2018-present		 Incumbent
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