Visiting Fellow Mariana Bodnaruk from Ukraine Researching Forthcoming Monograph at Ghent University

Mariana Bodnaruk is a postdoctoral researcher at the university of Fribourg, Switzerland, and specializing in epigraphy, art, and the cultural history of the Later Roman Empire. Their main research interests include historical materialism, history of pre-capitalist modes of production, and Marxist intersectional feminism, with their recent work focusing on queer studies and transfeminist theory in its application to gender and sexuality in late antiquity and the Medieval Roman Empire.

They’re currently also working on a monograph titled An Empire of Elites: The Self-Representation of the Senatorial Aristocracy in the Later Roman State in the Fourth Century AD (London: Routledge, forthcoming). Here, they use epigraphic evidence to study the cultural, social, and political contexts of the empire that produced it, offering a new interpretation of the relationship between the imperial state and the ruling elite. 

Dr. Bodnaruk was drawn to Ghent University by the expertise of our history department’s Centre for Late Antiquity. During their stay in December 2023, they worked closely together with Prof. Dr. Peter Van Nuffelen and Prof. Dr. Lieve Van Hoof, also delivering a public lecture titled Titulus loquens: The Speaking Inscriptions of the Senatorial Office-Holders in the Later Roman Empire. Dr. Bodnaruk’s lecture was broadly attended by professors, researchers and students from the departments of history, literature, archaeology, and linguistics.

Interested in our short-term fellowships programme?  More information!