鲍鱼tv

Jesse Obert

Assistant Professor

CONTACT information and cv

Office: TBD
Email: TBD
Curriculum Vitae

EDUCATION

Ph.D., University of California-Berkeley, 2023
M.A., University College London, 2013

TEACHING

I try to empower my students to take agency over their own education and formulate their own interpretations of the past. Rather than forcing students to memorize a single narrative, I strive to give them the tools that they need to situate themselves on the shoulders of giants. In all my classes, I lead students through different learning methodologies and build assessment systems that both reward creativity and forgive individual circumstance. In addition to imparting a solid grasp of the primary and secondary sources, my curricula seek to promote students' understanding of their educational goals and the pathways, beyond the classroom, to their long-term success. I anchor graduate seminars, on the other hand, around opportunities for students to exercise key academic skills, such as leading a discussion, making oral and written arguments, and presenting a well-researched thesis. My graduate courses aim to be both good practice for the job market (in whatever form that might be), as well as an opportunity to develop publishable journal and conference submissions.

If you ever have any questions, or simply want to meet, please feel free to email me or stop by my office hours.

RESEARCH

My research investigates the role of violence, broadly defined, in Ancient Greek poleis, or "city-states"; the history of Mediterranean warriorhood identities; and the broader influence of enslavement and inequality on the history of the Mediterranean. I am an interdisciplinary scholar, and I integrate archaeological material, textual evidence, disability theory, and digital humanities into all my research and pedagogy. I am also an active archaeometallurgist (metal specialist) at archaeological sites and museums in Greece, as well as an active developer for several Digital Humanities projects. 

My current book project explores the history of warriorhood on the Greek island of Crete in the Archaic and Classical periods, roughly 800-300 BCE, and the impact of these ideologies of violence on the development of Cretan poleis. Plato sets his Laws on Crete and praises the Cretans for their martial culture and resilient system of government, but careful analysis of our evidence indicates that Cretan warriorhood was a complex balancing act that created real fissures between warriors and combatants within Cretan society and politics. These systems of violence ultimately spread to the mainland in the Classical period, influencing many of the military innovations that culminated in Alexander the Great's conquest of Persia. 

Much of my work touches on the field of ancient warfare, or ancient hoplite studies, but I do not self-identify as a traditional military historian. I am not so interested in the (often hypothetical) moment-by-moment details of combat and would rather spend my time thinking through the social, economic, and political institutions that both informed and were impacted by ancient warfare, warriorhood, and structural violence in the Ancient Greek world.