Jaclyn Maxwell received her Ph.D. in History and the Program in the Ancient World from Princeton University in 2000 and her B.A. in History and Classics from Tulane University.  She holds a joint appointment at Ohio University in the department of History and the department of Classics and World Religions.  

In History, she teaches courses in ancient Greek and Roman history, as well as a course in ancient and medieval Jewish history. In Classics and World Religions, she teaches a course on asceticism (the practice of self-denial) in Western religions, as well as a wide-ranging course on religion and violence, which includes theological as well as historical case-studies.   

Dr. Maxwell’s research is focused on the important religious and social changes that took place during the later Roman Empire (the fourth to sixth centuries C.E.), when Christianity gradually became the dominant religion of the Mediterranean world. She examined the impact of this change on ordinary people by studying sermons that survive from this period, which is the subject of her book, Christianization and Communication: John Chrysostom and Lay Christians in Antioch (Cambridge University Press, 2007).  Her current research is focused on the attitudes of the educated elite toward ordinary people and the extent to which the transition from a pagan to a Christian society affected this.

413 Bentley Annex
740-593-4352
maxwelj1@ohio.edu