Kathryn Welch is an Australian historian. She is an honorary associate professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

, and a specialist in Roman Republican and early Imperial History.

Career

Kathryn Welch studied for her BA and MA at the

, before moving to the

University of Queensland The University of Queensland is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone ...

for her PhD. Her PhD thesis, titled "Caesar and Rome: a study of Roman politics and administration, 49-44 B.C." was completed in 1990. She worked for six years as a teacher at Kogarah High School. In 1991, she joined the

. She has been awarded various research fellowships: including between 1993 and 1996 a

Leverhulme Trust The Leverhulme Trust () is a large national grant-making organisation in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1925 under the will of the 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), with the instruction that its resources should be used to cover ...

postdoctoral research fellowship at the

University of Exeter The University of Exeter is a research university in the West Country of England, with its main campus in Exeter, Devon. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School of ...

, and in 1999 a Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences Writing Fellowship. She has also held visiting research fellowships. In 2003, she was a senior visiting fellow at the Australian Centre for Numismatic Studies,

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a Public university, public research university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the Sydney metropolitan area. ...

, in 2016 a visiting scholar at

Merton College Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, chancellor ...

, and in 2017 at the

University of Heidelberg Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is List ...

. She also held the Thompson Fellowship at the University of Sydney in 2017. Between 2013 and 2017, she served as honorary secretary of the Australasian Society for Classical Studies. She retired from her university post in 2021, and remains a co-director of the Pompeii Cast Project, a project which focuses on analysis of plaster casts from

Pompeii Pompeii ( ; ) was a city in what is now the municipality of Pompei, near Naples, in the Campania region of Italy. Along with Herculaneum, Stabiae, and Villa Boscoreale, many surrounding villas, the city was buried under of volcanic ash and p ...

Research

Welch's research focuses on the politics and historiography of the late

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( ) was the era of Ancient Rome, classical Roman civilisation beginning with Overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establis ...

and early empire. Her 2012 book on

Sextus Pompeius Sextus Pompeius Magnus Pius ( 67 – 35 BC), also known in English as Sextus Pompey, was a Roman military leader who, throughout his life, upheld the cause of his father, Pompey the Great, against Julius Caesar and his supporters during the la ...

has been described as an "important contribution" and a "welcome reassessment" of the late Republican period, and her chapter in the volume ''The alternative Augustan age'' was described as a "

prosopographical Prosopography is an investigation of the common characteristics of a group of people, whose individual biographies may be largely untraceable. Research subjects are analysed by means of a collective study of their lives, in multiple career-line a ...

gem". Her work on

Appian Appian of Alexandria (; ; ; ) was a Greek historian with Roman citizenship who prospered during the reigns of the Roman Emperors Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius. He was born c. 95 in Alexandria. After holding the senior offices in the pr ...

has similarly been described as "important" for adjusting modern assessments of the ancient historian.

Selected publications

* Welch, K., Powel, A. (2002). ''Sextus Pompeius.'' United Kingdom: Gerald Duckworth & Co and The Classical Press of Wales. * Welch, K., Hillard, T. (2005). ''Roman Crossings: Theory and Practice in the Roman Republic.'' Swansea: The Classical Press of Wales. * Welch, K. (2012). ''Magnus Pius: Sextus Pompeius and the Transformation of the Roman Republic.'' Swansea, UK: The Classical Press of Wales. * Welch, K. (2015). ''Appian's Roman History: Empire and Civil War.'' Swansea: The Classical Press of Wales. * Welch, K. (2019). Shields of Virtue(s). In K. Morrell, J. Osgood, K. Welch (Eds.), ''The Alternative Augustan Age,'' (pp. 282–304). New York: Oxford University Press.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Welch, Kathryn Australian classical scholars Women classical scholars University of Sydney alumni University of Queensland alumni Historians of ancient Rome Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Australian schoolteachers Academic staff of the University of Sydney