My current research addresses the materiality of Christian experience in the Middle Ages. I am concerned with ‘things which do things’, and use an ethnographic approach to exploring how, why and in what social contexts a wide range of material substances acquired a sacred aura, serving as mediators between humans and the divinity. The result will be a book on the emergence and development of the cult of relics from the 4th to the 11th centuries. This research draws heavily on approaches and methodologies derived from my earlier publications on the history of women and gender in the early Middle Ages (a field in which I retain a strong interest) but also has a strong cross-cultural dimension. Beyond that, I am interested in developing interdisciplinary approaches to studying the abundant material remains of late antique and early medieval relic-objects which I have discovered while undertaking field work in the treasuries of some of Europe’s oldest churches.

Much of my recent research has focused on the state’s pursuit of crime prevention and public protection. My future research plans will explore the state-citizen relationship to ask what grounds the authority of the state to exercise coercive power over its citizens; what are the legitimacy conditions of its policing function; and what protections are due to the individual against the arbitrary exercise of state power? The historical assumption that these questions relate only to the sovereign state’s prosecution of domestic criminal law is challenged by emerging practices of cross-border law enforcement, resort to immigration law as crime control, and the policing of non-citizens. These developments raise complex legal and political issues beyond the state-citizen relation and invite fresh theorising of the grounds of state authority to police both citizens and non-citizens, to enforce law at and beyond its borders, and to tackle the risks posed by citizens recruited to terrorism overseas by curtailing or depriving them of the rights of citizenship.

I am studying global spiritual renewal between approximately 1880 and 1950 by examining the impact of South Asian spiritual figures on Europe and America. The work will concentrate on three themes: the global debate regarding science and religion; the tension between universal spiritual systems and spiritualised nationalism; and the collaborations between South Asian men and their western female adherents. I will be giving the Trevelyan lectures in Cambridge in early 2017 where I will talk about the ‘global idealist moment’ at the turn of the twentieth century.

I am interested in a range of topics in public law and legal philosophy, as well as related areas of moral and political philosophy. 

My research focuses on the future in Greco-Roman Antiquity. I look at how ideas about the future were articulated in philosophical, literary, and religious texts – and at how technical disciplines such as medicine, astronomy, and divination framed their claims to provide accurate knowledge of the future. My current book project, Knowing the Future in the Greco-Roman World, explores how a new concept of the future – as a predictable, mappable space – emerged in the first two centuries AD in Greco-Roman thought.

My first book, Origen and Prophecy (2021), examined the concept of prophecy in the work of the Christian philosopher Origen of Alexandria (c.180-250 AD). I set Origen’s work against the backdrop of Classical and Hellenistic Greek philosophy as well as against ancient Jewish ideas about prophets and prophecy. In doing so, I showed how Origen synthesised ideas about fate, free will, divine foreknowledge and moral authority in a complex framework of textual readings. I’ve also written on a number of other Greek authors, including Ptolemy, Vettius Valens, Galen, and Artemidorus. I teach history and philosophy across all areas of Greco-Roman antiquity, including courses on Greek Science and Greek Religion. I also enjoy teaching both Greek and Latin language.

My research concerns religious and philosophical traditions of South Asia. I study ancient and medieval texts, inscriptions, and other historical documents significant for the cultural history of the Indian sub-continent. I am also interested in the critical examination of rites, rituals, and customs of the Indian religions. I am a keen reader of various genres of Sanskrit literature, starting from the Vedas.

My research interests concern topics of Roman (private) law, both as products of Roman lawyers and as building blocks of civilian legal doctrine from the high middle ages onwards. Topics recently worked on include money in the western legal tradition and the legal history of ‘social choice’, with a specific focus on rules for decision-making in collegiate courts and multi-arbiter proceedings. Other current areas of interest: reciprocity v. altruism in contract law; history and theory of default rules in contract law.