Douglas is a researcher interested in the social history of the Eastern Roman (‘Byzantine’) Empire in the second half of the First Millennium AD. He completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2016, and is presently a visiting professor at the Institute for the History of Ancient History (IHAC) at Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China. He works on sources in Greek, Coptic and Syriac. His research interests include: ‘popular’ religious practices and beliefs; the interaction between Roman society and the environment; and the dynamics of social identities including political citizenship, religious affiliation, gender and family.

• historical source
• source criticism,
• medieval Greek literature
• saints' lives / hagiography
• miracle stories
• the cult of saints

BOOK

Roman Identity from the Arab Conquests to the Triumph of Orthodoxy. New Approaches to Byzantine History and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan: 2020.

PEER REVIEWED

‘Mountains and the holy in Late Antiquity,’ in Dawn Hollis, Jason König, eds. Mountain Dialogues from Antiquity to Modernity. Bloomsbury: 2021, pp. 89-107.

‘A note reconsidering the message of Heraclius’ silver hexagram, circa AD 615,’ Byzantinische Zeitschrift 112/1 (2019): 221-232.

‘Conquest of Jerusalem by the Sassanians (614);’ ‘Muslim invasion of Egypt (641) and the creation of the Coptic Church;’ and ‘Sixth Ecumenical Council (680-681)’ in Great Events in Religion: An Encyclopaedia of Pivotal Events in Religious History, Andrew Holt and Florin Curta ed. (Santa Barbara CA: ABC-CLIO Greenwood, 2016), vol. 2 pp.340-342; 355-358; 374-376.

‘Bede and the Syriac Chroniclers: Interactions of Subject and Genre in Contemporaneous Historiography,’ in Ilya Afanasyev, Juliana Dresvina and Erik Kooper, eds. The Medieval Chronicle X. (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2016): 203-221.

REVIEWS

Sadi Maréchal, Public baths and bathing habits in late antiquity: a study of the evidence from Italy, North Africa and Palestine A.D. 285-700. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2020. BMCR 2021.06.36.

David Frendo, Athanasios Fotiou, John Kaminiates: The Capture of Thessaloniki: Translation, Introduction and Notes. Byzantina Australiensia 12. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2017. BMCR 2018.06.36.

J.E. Cooper and M. Decker, Life and Society in Byzantine Cappadocia. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 38.2 (2014): 285–293.

Peter Bell, Social Conflict in the Age of Justinian: Its Nature, Management, and Mediation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Reviews in History (2014): 1660.