Dr Nigel Pollard

Dr Nigel Pollard
Associate Professor
Classics, Ancient History & Egyptology
Telephone: (01792) 604061
Room: Office - 123
First Floor
James Callaghan
Singleton Campus

Besides his current postgraduate and undergraduate teaching at Swansea, and past teaching at Oxford, Bowdoin College (Maine, USA) and the University of Michigan, Dr Pollard was 2008-2009 Professor-in-Charge of Duke University’s Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome and 2013 Benedict Distinguished Visiting Professor of Classics at Carleton College (Minnesota, USA). He has also co-directed summer schools in Rome and Pompeii for the British School at Rome.

Current Research

Dr Pollard is a Roman historian and archaeologist. His particular interests include cultural property protection in conflict zones, both historic and modern; all forms of interaction (culture, economy, administration, power and control) between the ruling elites of the Roman empire and its subjects. He works with all forms of evidence that sheds light on these issues, including art and archaeology, ancient texts and documents (inscriptions, papyri) and modern (20th century) archives. Much of his research focuses on the eastern part of the Roman empire (Syria and Egypt) and Italy, although his interests range beyond those areas.

At present Dr. Pollard is primarily working on a study of protection, damage and reception of archaeological sites and monuments in the Second World War, including the work of the Allied Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Sub-Commission (the ‘Monuments Men’), and as a board member of the UK National Committee of the Blue Shield, engages with governments, NGOs and military personnel to promote the protection of cultural sites in conflicts and natural disasters.

Publications

  1. Villas in Roman Italy. In Alison E. Cooley (Ed.), A Companion to Roman Italy. (pp. 330-354). Blackwell-Wiley.
  2. Soldiers, Cities, and Civilians in Roman Syria. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
  3. (2013). Imperatores castra dedicaverunt: Security, army bases and military dispositions in later Roman Egypt (late third – fourth century AD). The Journal of Late Antiquity 6, 3-36.
  4. (1998). The Chronology of Karanis. A Reappraisal. Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 35, 147-161.
  5. (1998). Art, Benefaction and Elites in Roman Etruria. Papers of the British School at Rome 66, 57-70.

See more...

Teaching

  • CL-M09 Dissertation in Ancient History and or Classical Literature

    Dissertation in Ancient History or an approved Classical subject.

  • CLD300 Classics, Ancient History, Egyptology Dissertation

    Dissertation module for students doing single honours or joint honours degrees in Classics, Classical Civilisation, Ancient History or Egyptology. The aim is for students to do detailed research, to work on a project for several months and to produce a scholarly study of c. 8000-10000 words. The dissertation topic can be chosen freely, in consultation with a member of academic staff and subject to compatibility with a student's degree scheme and availability of supervisors and library material. This is a chance for students to pursue an area in which they are especially interested, and to deal with it in depth. Students may choose to do museum-based research. There are two preparatory pieces of assessment: an abstract, outline and bibliography, and an analysis of crucial source material and/or secondary literature. Work on the dissertation itself takes up most of the two semesters. Students are expected to do research independently, but there is a series of lectures in the first semester to provide advice on research and scholarly writing, Every student will be assigned a supervisor who will be organising group sessions with his/her supervisees and who will also be available for one-to-one supervision sessions.

  • CLH145 Introduction to Greek and Roman Art and Architecture

    This module is an introduction to the art and architecture of ancient Greece and Rome from c. 800 BC to c. AD 500, examining technical and aesthetic developments in ancient art in their cultural, social and political contexts, and providing an introduction to their influences on later periods of western art and architecture. Media to be examined include sculpture in stone, bronze and terracotta, including portraits and relief sculpture as well as free-standing statues; painting, including painted pottery, tomb painting and domestic wall-painting; and the architecture of temples, secular public buildings and houses. Students will learn to engage with and discuss a range of visual materials in seminars, as well as reading both ancient and modern discussions of the material at which they will be looking.

  • CLH2001 Ancient and Historic Places (Study-Trip/Field project; Ancient History)

    This module is designed to enable students to examine the (primarily ancient) history of a region through a combination of study on site and in the classroom. The specific focus of the 2013-14 version of the module is on Campania in southern Italy, and the cultural impact of Greek colonisation and Roman control on that region c. 700 BC to AD 79, with case studies of sites such as Velia, Cumae, Poseidonia/Paestum, Pompeii, Herculaneum and Puteoli. The approach taken is an interdisciplinary one, using both written material (ancient texts and inscriptions) and visual/material evidence.

  • CLH216 Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome

    This module enables students to examine and analyse the development and structure of the Roman imperial army and its role both in war (foreign and domestic) and in policing the Roman empire. The main emphasis is on the period 31 BC to c. AD 300, although earlier and later periods will be considered as background. Much of the emphasis is on the organisation of the army and its war-fighting capabilities, considering weapons and equipment, tactics, and military technology. Using primary written and archaeological evidence, as well as modern scholarship, students will study the different external enemies and other security challenges (internal security, civil war) faced by legions in different parts of the empire.

  • CLH284 Writing Ancient History

    This module examines the writing and study of ancient history. It considers the range of available evidence (historical sources, epigraphy, biography, archaeology, numismatics) as well as modern approaches to the interpretation of the evidence.

  • CLH381 The History and Archaeology of Roman Britain

    This module examines the history and archaeology of Roman Britain from the initial contacts under Julius Caesar to the third century AD.

Supervision

  • Untitled (current)

    Student name:
    PhD
    Other supervisor: Prof Mark Humphries

  • Untitled (current)

    Student name:
    PhD
    Other supervisor: Dr Maria Pretzler

Principal archaeological fieldwork

Dr Pollard is an experienced field archaeologist and has worked in many parts of the Roman empire, ranging from the Roman colonia of Glevum (Gloucester) in England to sites on the eastern margins of the empire, such as Koptos (modern Qift) in Egypt and Androna (Andarin) in Syria, taling in sites like Carthage (Tunisia) and Pompeii along the way.

In addition, Dr. Pollard has worked on museum collections and archives including the University of Michigan’s Kelsey Museum of Archaeology (materials from Karanis and Terenouthis in Egypt, and Seleucia-on-the-Tigris in Iraq), the Yale University Art Gallery (Dura-Europos), the UK and US National Archives and the US Air Force Research Agency archive (on Second World War monuments protection). He has also published archaic and Republican pottery from Professor Margareta Steinby’s Lacus Iuturnae excavations in the Forum Romanum, and was heavily involved in the production of the later volumes (4-6) of the Lexicon Topographicum Urbis Romae, an international reference work on ancient Rome.

Calling from outside the UK?

+44 1792 604061