Staff profile

Dr Monica Hellström received her PhD in Classical Studies at Columbia Unversity in 2014, an interdisciplinary program which combines Classics, Ancient History, History of Art, and Archaeology. After this, she was awarded the Fondazione Famiglila Rausing postdoctoral fellowship for 2014-2015, which was spent at the Swedish Institute in Rome. She has taught Latin and Greek at Columbia University, and has participated in archaeological excavations at Villa Magna (Lazio, Italy) and Amheida (Dahkleh oasis, Egypt). Monica has a background in graphic design and illustration, with a degree from Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm, and visuals play a large part in her work.

Her research interests include the literature and art of the High and Later Roman Empire, Greek and Latin documentary sources, urban topography and sociology, and state formation and communication. At present, she is working on articles on aspects of Roman urban topography, the communications and monumental output of the imperial government, and methodological approaches to inscriptions from Roman North Africa.

Current projects:

• Building for romanis suis: a monograph on the relation between state and subject under emperor Diocletian, traced through the urban built environment of Rome.
• The social dynamics of ideology formation in the Roman Empire: a collaboration with Dr Amy Russell which involves two workshops and an edited volume.
• Regionalism and integration in the Later Roman Empire (270-305): a biennal project based at S. Andrews including workshops and an edited volume.

Chapter in book

• Hellstrom, M (2020). Local aspirations and statues of emperors in Roman North Africa. In The Social Dynamics of Roman Imperial Imagery. Hellstrom, M & Russell, A Cambridge University Press.
• Hellström, Monica (2018). Model Servant, Model Master: The Temple of the Sun at Erddig Hall. In Frusna ögonblick Essäer tillägnade Anne-Marie Leander Touati. Gerding, H., Brännstedt, L. & Forsell, R. Humanistiska och teologiska fakulteterna, Lunds universitet. 4: 105-118.
• Salzman, M. R., Lizzi Testa, R. & Sághy, M. (2016). On the The Form and Function of Constantine's Funerary Basilicas in Rome. In Pagans and Christians in Late Antique Rome. Cambridge University Press. 291-313.
• Östenberg, I., Malmberg, S. & Bjørnebye, J. (2015). Fast Movement through the City: Ideals, Stereotypes and City Planning. In The Moving City. Processions, Passages and Promenades in Ancient Rome. Bloomsbury Academics. 47-57.

Doctoral Thesis

• (2014). Public Construction under Diocletian. A Study of State Involvement in Construction in Roman Era Towns in Present Day Tunisia and Eastern Algeria. PhD: 343.

Journal Article

• Hellstrom, Monica (2020). Epigraphy and Ambitions: Building Inscriptions in the Hinterland of Carthage. Journal of Roman Studies 110: 57-90.
• (2013). Den romerska curian. Singulär, oförstörd och evig? Romhorisont (59).