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Lewis Webb

Associate Senior Lecturer

Department of Historical Studies
Mail
lewis.webb@gu.se
Visiting address
Renströmsgatan 6
41255 Göteborg
Postal address
Box 200
40530 Göteborg

About Lewis Webb

Academic Background

Lewis Webb is an Associate Professor and Lecturer in Ancient History at the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Gothenburg, and a Pro Futura Scientia XIX Fellow at the Swedish Collegium of Advanced Studies (2025-2030).

He received a BMedSci in Neurology and Physiology (2009) from Flinders University, a BA (Hons) in Classical Studies and Psychology (2011) and an MPhil in Classical Studies (2014) from the University of Adelaide, and a PhD in Classical Archaeology and Ancient History (2019) from the University of Gothenburg. His PhD thesis examined competitions for status among senatorial women in Mid-Republican Rome with a focus on competitive domains, resources, and regulation.

He has held research and teaching positions at the University of Gothenburg and the University of Oxford, notably a Fulford Junior Research Fellowship in Classics at Somerville College. He was promoted to Docent (Associate Professor) at the University of Gothenburg in 2025. 

He has also won three major research grants: two from the Swedish Research Council (2019-06370; 2022-02444) and one from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (PF25-0007).

Research Interests

Lewis Webb is an ancient historian specializing in the Roman Republic, with an emphasis on gender and religion. His research aims at diversifying historical narratives, recovering marginalized voices, and using innovative theoretical perspectives to break new ground.

His three main research foci are: 1) women and politics; 2) civic religion and crisis management; and 3) the archaeology of ancient Etruria and Thessaly.

His publications include the edited volumes Beyond the Romans: Posthuman Perspectives in Roman Archaeology (Oxbow, 2020), Gender and Status Competition in Premodern Societies (Brepols, 2021), Female Agency in the Ancient Mediterranean World (Liverpool, 2024), and Women, Wealth, and Power in the Roman Republic (Cambridge University Press, in press), as well as multiple articles and chapters in diverse venues including the American Journal of Philology.

His current research project is entitled 'Crisis rituals: Civic religion and crisis management in the Roman Republic' and is funded by the Swedish Research Council. This project investigates the interactions between, and transformative effects of, community crises and the official religious responses of male and female leaders in Republican Rome.

His recent postdoctoral research project was entitled ‘(In)visible women: Female spatial practices and visibility in urban spaces in Republican Rome (509–27 BCE)’ and was funded by the Swedish Research Council (2020–2022). This project aimed to challenge and resolve some ancient and contemporary misconceptions about women in Republican Rome, especially their purported invisibility and association with domestic spaces and practices.

Additionally, he is a researcher within two archaeological projects in Italy and Greece, namely the Swedish research project Understanding Urban Identities from the Bronze Age to the Roman time: The case of Vulci in the context of southern Etruria in Viterbo, Italy, which is investigating the ancient city of Vulci, and the Greek-Swedish Palamas Archaeological Project in the municipality of Palamas, Greece, which is investigating the ancient cities at Vlochos and Metamorfosi.

He is also a series editor for the book series Women in Ancient Cultures for Liverpool University Press: https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/topic/book-series/women-in-ancient-cultures

Enduring Uncertain Futures: Constant Crisis, Religious Coping Practices, and Social Resilience in Roman Republican Italy (Riksbankens Jubileumsfond/Pro Futura Scientia: PF25-0007)

Past and present societies frequently turn to religion to cope with crisis, even though religion itself is a source of conflict. The dynamics and mechanisms of religious coping practices are still poorly understood. By studying the long-term effects of these coping practices, we can better understand their impacts on social resilience, improve our knowledge of the past, historicize our current calamities, and offer context for current debates on crisis management.

This project focuses on Roman Republican Italy (c. 399–27 BCE), a particularly crisis-ridden period and region, whose communities regularly turned to religion during crises, and where religion was fundamentally political.

The project aims 1) to determine how ancient Italian communities coped with constant crisis via religious activity in Roman Republican Italy and 2) to evaluate the impact of religious coping practices on their social resilience. To do so, it will analyze a novel combination of ancient texts—religious inscriptions (inscribed objects), drama (comedies, tragedies, historical plays), and historical narratives—and interpret them through theoretical perspectives from anthropology, complexity science, and sociology. The findings will provide key insights into whether, and how, religion helps people endure uncertain futures.

Crisis rituals: Civic religion and crisis management in Republican Rome (Swedish Research Council: 2022-02444)

How do leaders manage community crises? Which roles might religion play in crisis management? This project's purpose is to investigate the interactions between, and transformative effects of, community crises and the official religious responses of political and religious leaders in Republican Rome (509–27 BCE), a city characterized by crises, wherein civic religion was a focal point for crisis management. Previous studies seldom treat civic religion as crisis management, or include women, and scholarship on crisis and religion is rarely in dialogue. This project aims at a) investigating and systematizing the official religious responses of male and female leaders to community crises; b) investigating and outlining how crises and leaders' religious responses physically and religiously transformed Rome; and c) broadening our knowledge of Roman leaders' crisis management strategies and religion's roles therein. This project will generate a more comprehensive and integrated image of crisis management in Republican Rome, encourage reflection on the entanglement of religion and politics, and offer a lens on leaders’ responses to contemporary crises.