Dr. Molly Jones-Lewis is a social and cultural historian of ancient medicine. Her research focuses on physicians and their working conditions in the Roman Empire, and she is especially fond of Pliny the Elder, who features prominently in her scholarly publications and public history activities. She is a board member of the ReMeDHe working group for Religion, Medicine, Disease, and Healthcare in Late Antiquity as well as the UMBC Faculty Working Group for Disability Studies.
She contributed to and co-edited The Routledge Companion to Identity and the Environment in the Classical and Medieval Worlds with Rebecca Kennedy. She has also translated authors including Soranos of Ephesos, Pliny the Elder, Nikander of Kolophon as part of sourcebook projects, most recently Medicine, Health, and Healing in the Ancient Mediterranean. She is now preparing a monograph titled The Doctor in Roman Law and Society which is the first work to focus on that topic since Below’s 1953 Der Artzt im römischen Recht.
She has taught on a wide range of topics in the culture of the ancient Mediterranean: gender and sexuality, imperialism, warfare, science and medicine, religion, and magic. At UMBC, she regularly teaches Ancient Medicine (ANCS 375), Warfare in the Ancient World (ANCS 305), Magic and Witchcraft in the Ancient World (Winter), and The Ancient World in Modern Film (Summer). She is an avid fiber artist and, with Lindsay Johnson in the Music department, is the recipient of a 2023 Hrabowski Seed Grant to develop a course in experimental archaeology (using physical projects to address questions about the ancient world) at UMBC. You can find her latest historical fiber activities on Instagram.
She earned her B.A. from Swarthmore College and her M.A. & Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. In her spare time, she stays at home, works in wool, plays baroque recorder, spoils her cats, and indulges her love of science fiction and fantasy literature. She categorically denies that she is Athena in mortal guise.
