Our people

Dr Michael Hanaghan

Senior Research Fellow
ARC DECRA Fellow
Biblical and Early Christian Studies

Areas of expertise: Latin Epistolography (Sidonius Apollinaris, Pliny the Younger, Seneca); Historiography (Ammianus Marcellinus, Rufinus of Aquileia, Eusebius); Panegyric (Sidonius Apollinaris, Panegyrici Latini); Philosophy (Epictetus, Augustine)

HDR Supervisor accreditation status: Provisional

ORCID ID:0000-0002-5055-703X

Phone: +613 9953 3147

Email:michael.hanaghan@acu.edu.au

Location:ACU Melbourne Campus

I completed my PhD in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Sydney, following a B.A (Advanced), B.A (Hons I), and Grad. Cert (Ancient World).

I then held posts at the University of Exeter nd University College Cork (IRC Postdoctoral Fellow) for IRC funded project 'Reading Sidonius' Epistles' at University College Cork which led to my first monograph published by Cambridge University Press in 2019.

I hold a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (Exeter), am a fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK), a Charlemont Scholar of the Royal Irish Academy, and a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt foundation.

I have published on epistolography, panegyric, and historiography with a particular focus on the Late Latin West.
I am an ARC DECRA fellow (DE230100573) for the project "Classical Traditions and Future Thinking in Late Antiquity" based at ACU and a chief investigator on the ARC funded Discovery Project (DP220100395) The Vandal Renaissance: Latin Literature in Post-Roman Africa (435-534CE) based at the University of Sydney.

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Select publications

Books

• Reading Sidonius' Epistles, Cambridge University Press, 2019.
• Ammianus Marcellinus, from Soldier to Author, w/D. Woods (eds), Brill, Historiography of Rome and its Empire 16, 2022.
• Future Knowledge and Imperial Acceptance in Late Antique Historiography and Epideixis from Constantine to Honorius, Historiography of Rome and Its Empire 21 (Brill, 2024).

Journal articles

• (2023) "Chromatius, Jerome, and the Origenist Controversy," The Journal of Theological Studies 74.1, 189-209.
• (2023) and S. Carlson, "Rufinus's Version of Eusebius's Origen and the Politics of Martyrdom," Journal of Early Christian Studies 31.2, 201-221.
• (2022) "Rufinus and the Reimagination of Pliny's Correspondence with Trajan (HE 3.33)," Vigiliae Christianae 76.2, 202-216.
• (2021) "Christian Visions and Sozomen's Julian," Studia Patristica CXXVIII (25), 167-181.
• (2021) "Rufinus' Bloody Pagan Tyrants," Vigiliae Christianae 75.1, 22-42.
• (2021) "Sidonius Apollinaris contra Claudianus Mamertus: Jerome, Julianus Pomerius, and the Subversion of Praise," Journal of Early Christian Studies 29.2, 215-236.
• (2021) and J.W.P. Wijnendaele, "Constantius heros (ILCV 66) - An elegiac testimony on the decline of the Late Roman West," Chiron 51, 257-276.
• (2020) "Competing at Otium? A Juxtaposed Reading of Sidonius' Baths," Journal of Late Antiquity 13.1, 117-136.
• (2019) "Ammianus Marcellinus' Future Signs, A Historiographical Study." Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 68.2, 233-255.
• (2018) "Pliny's Epistolary Directions," Arethusa 51.2, 137-62.
• (2018) "A Metaliterary Approach to Ursicinus' Outburst (Amm. Marc. 20.2.4)," Philologus,Zeitschrift für antike Literatur und ihre Rezeption 162.1, 115-136.
• (2017) "Note de lecture: The Temporality of Seneca's Epistles," Latomus 76.1, 203-6.
• (2017) "Avitus' Characterisation in Sidonius' Carm. 7." Mnemosyne 70.2, 262-280.
• (2017) "Micro Allusions to Pliny and Virgil in Sidonius' Programmatic Epistles." International Journal of the Classical Tradition 24.3, 249-61.
• (2017) "Ammianus' Rainbows and Constantius' Fate." Hermes. Zeitschrift für Klassische Philologie 145.4, 445-57.
• (2017) "Latent Criticism of Anthemius and Ricimer in Sidonius' Epistula 1.5." Classical Quarterly 67.2, 631-49.

Chapters

• (2023) "Pliny's Seneca and the Intertextuality of Grief," in Absorbing Genres in Letters: Intertextuality and Interdiscursivity in Pliny's Epistles, S. Tzounakas and M. Neger (eds), Cambridge University Press, 149-163.
• (2023) "Precision and the limits of human autopsy in Augustine's critique of pagan divination," in The Intellectual World of Christian Late Antiquity: Reshaping Classical Traditions, L. Ayers, M. Champion and M. Crawford (eds), Cambridge University Press, 426-442.
• (2023) "Ammianus Marcellinus," in A History of Loss, Marnie Hughes-Warrington and Daniel Woolf (eds), Routledge, pp. 22-28.
• (2022) w/D. Woods "Introduction" in Ammianus Marcellinus, from Soldier to Author, w/D. Woods (eds), Brill, Historiography of Rome and its Empire 16, 1-16.
• (2018) "Sidonius Apollinaris and the Making of an Exile Persona" in Mobility and Exile at the End of Antiquity, D. Rohmann, J. Ulrich and M. Vallejo Girvés (eds), (Peter Lang), 259-272.

Reviews

• Rezension zu/Review of: Carson Bay, Biblical Heroes and Classical Culture in Christian Late Antiquity. The Historiography, Exemplarity, and Anti-Judaism of Pseudo-Hegesippus. Cambridge University Press 2023. Plekos 25, 2023, 699-705.
• Rezension zu/Review of: Nicholas Baker-Brian: The Reign of Constantius II. Routledge 2023. Plekos 25, 2023, 133-138.
• Rezension: Jonathan Price/Katell Berthelot (Eds.), The Future of Rome. Roman, Greek, Jewish and Christian Visions, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, Historische Zeitschrift 2023
• Christian Divination in Late Antiquity, BMCR 2021.12.13.
• Rezension: Hendrik Hess, Das Selbstverständnis der gallo-römischen Oberschicht, Historische Zeitschrift 311.3, 2020, 737-8.
• Review "The Specter of the Jews, Emperor Julian and the Rhetoric of Ethnicity in Syrian Antioch by Ari Finklestein." Journal of Early Christian Studies 27.4, 2019, 669-71.
• "The Conclusion of the Commentary on Ammianus Marcellinus." Classical Review 69.2 (2019), 478-480.
• "Review: R. Poignault and A. Stoehr-Monjou, Présence de Sidoine Apollinaire." Journal of Roman Studies 107, 2017, 466-8.
• "Papers on Sidonius Apollinaris." Classical Review 65.1, 2015, 163-165.

Projects

• 2023-2025 "Classical Traditions and Future Thinking in Late Antiquity," Australia Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award (DE230100573), $429, 000.
• 2022-202 "The Vandal Renaissance: Latin Literature in Post-Roman Africa (435-534CE)," Australian Research Council Discovery Project (DP220100395) w/ Assoc. Prof. Paul Roche (Sydney), Prof. Richard Miles (Sydney), Dr. Anne Rogerson (Sydney), $302,000.
• 2022 "Latin Teaching at ACU," Kudos Foundation Grants in Aid, w/ Dr Miles Pattenden (ACU), $15,000.
• 2020 "Dreams, Divination, and Daemons, The Contested Future of Late Antiquity (306-430 CE)", Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellowship, €20 000, Principal Investigator: Dr Michael Hanaghan; Project mentor: Prof. dr. Harmut Leppin.
• 2016-2018 "Finding Fiction: A Reading of Sidonius' Epistolary Narratives", Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme, €90 000, Principal Investigator: Dr Michael Hanaghan; Project Mentor: Dr Catherine Ware.

Accolades and awards

• Charlemont Award, Royal Irish Academy (2018)
• Dean's Citation for Teaching Excellence, University of Exeter (2016)
• Australian Postgraduate Award, University of Sydney (2011-2014)
• James Kentley Memorial Scholarship, University of Sydney (2013)

Appointments and affiliations

• Senior Research Fellow, (Latin Christianity in Late Antiquity), Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, Australian Catholic University (January 2023 - ongoing)
• Research Fellow (Latin Christianity in Late Antiquity), Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, Australian Catholic University (September 2018 - Dec 2022)
• Humboldt Research Fellowship, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt (2020)
• Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Classics and Ancient History, University College Cork (October 2016 to September 2018)
• Erasmus Teaching Exchange Fellow, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (March 2017)
• Associate Lecturer in Classics, Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Exeter (September 2015 to September 2016)
• Postdoctoral Research Assistant, Ancient North Africa Research Network, University of Sydney (July 2014-August 2015)

Editorial roles

• Co-editor w/D. Woods Ammianus Marcellinus: From Soldier to Author, Brill, 2020.
• Editorial Assistant: The Donatist Schism, Controversy and Contexts, R. Miles (ed.), Liverpool University Press, 2018.
• Editorial Assistant: The Intellectual World of Christian Late Antiquity: Reshaping Classical Traditions, L. Ayers, M. Champion and M. Crawford (eds), Cambridge University Press, 2023.