Jill Diana Harries is

Professor Emerita ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

Ancient History Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cove ...

at the

University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

. She is known for her work on

late antiquity Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English h ...

, particularly aspects of Roman legal culture and society.

Career

Jill Harries studied Literae Humaniores at

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Iri ...

(1969–73) and completed her PhD in 1981. Harries was appointed Lecturer in Ancient History at St Andrews in 1976, and Professor in 1997. She served as the head of the School of Classics 2000-2003. Harries retired in 2013 and her retirement was marked by a conference in her honour. Harries was a

Kennedy Scholar Kennedy Scholarships provide full funding for up to ten British post-graduate students to study at either Harvard University or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Susan Hockfield, the sixteenth president of MIT, described the schol ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1973-74, a

Visiting Fellow In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic for which the visitor ...

All Souls College, Oxford All Souls College (official name: College of the Souls of All the Faithful Departed) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full members of t ...

in 1996-97, and Bird Fellow at

Emory University Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of h ...

in 2003. Known for her work on

, Harries has been invited to deliver a number of key lectures at international conferences, including the 2003 lecture ''Violence, Victims, and the Roman Legal Tradition'' at the ''Violence, Victims, and Vindication in Late Antiquity'' conference at

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

, and the 2014 public lecture ''East versus West: Sidonius, Anthemius, and the Empire of the Dawn'' at the

Edinburgh University The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 158 ...

conference, ''Sidonius, his words, and his world: an international conference''. Harries also serves on the board of editors of the journal ''Roman Legal Tradition''. Harries' book on

Sidonius Apollinaris Gaius Sollius Modestus Apollinaris Sidonius, better known as Sidonius Apollinaris (5 November of an unknown year, 430 – 481/490 AD), was a poet, diplomat, and bishop. Sidonius is "the single most important surviving author from 5th-century Gaul ...

was the first in English since the 1930s and sought to embed his biography firmly in the history of 5th century Gaul. Her work on late antiquity in general has been widely read and reviewed, and forms a seminal part of the study of late Roman society particularly in regard to law and political structures. Harries was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 1986 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2010. Harries contributed to the 2001 episode on Attila the Hun for the documentary series ''The Most Evil Men and Women in History.''

Select publications

* with C Humfress, J Duindam, & N Hurvitz (eds) ''Law and Empire: Ideas, Practices, Actors'' (Brill 2013) * ''Imperial Rome AD 284 to 363: The New Empire'' (Edinburgh University Press 2012) * ''Law and Crime in the Roman World'' (Cambridge University Press 2007) * ''Cicero and the Jurists: from Citizens' Law to the Lawful State'' (Duckworth 2006) * ''Law and Empire in Late Antiquity'' (Cambridge University Press 1998) * ''Sidonius Apollinaris'' ''and the Fall of Rome'' (Oxford University Press 1994)

External links

St Andrews researcher portal

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harries, Jill Living people Historians of antiquity British classical scholars Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford Academics of the University of St Andrews Fellows of the Royal Historical Society Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Year of birth missing (living people) Kennedy Scholarships