Andrew McNey
DPhil Student
Research Topic: The Eastern Mediterranean in the Long Late Antiquity: Studying Rural Communities from an Interdisciplinary Perspective
Supervisors: Phil Booth & Ine Jacobs
I am a historian of Late Antiquity with a special interest in human-environment relationships. My research seeks to explore the decision making of rural groups and individuals in times of ecological, economic and political stress.
My DPhil project examines the fourth to eighth century CE in the Negev as a time of increased unpredictability and volatility. Those living through this period witnessed immense climate disruption, successive outbreaks of bubonic plague and repeated military conflict. The resilience of these communities has rarely been explored outside of wider imperial systems. I seek to explore how rural populations used community networks and the natural world to build resilience.
My work is interdisciplinary and brings the textual archive into conversation with archaeological evidence, and data from the natural sciences. I draw methodological tools from the fields of history, landscape archaeology, ecology and paleoclimatology.
I recently completed a stipendiary lectureship in History at Trinity College, Oxford. I have worked as a field supervisor at Ancient Corinth and as a field excavator at Tel Azekah.
Publications
Andrew McNey. “Ecocide in Late Antiquity: Environmental Spoliation and Human Resilience in the Negev.” New Classicists, no. 9 (December 1, 2023): 27–59.
Prizes and Funding
- Clarendon Fund Award
- AHRC OOC DTP Studentship Award
- Reuben College Dawn Barkby Bequest 2026
