Dr. Melissa Kutner

Melissa Bailey Kutner earned her B.A. from Rice University in 2004 and her Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2012, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University from 2012 to 2014. Her research addresses Roman numeracy; money, measurement, and calculation in the Roman economy; standardization; the economy of the eastern Roman Empire in Late Antiquity; and bodily practice, including gesture and dress. She has published on the links between Roman money and numeracy and on how calculation shaped ancient notions of value. Recently published or forthcoming articles include “Revealed and Concealed: Carrying and the Sinus in Ancient Rome” in American Journal of Philology, which addresses Roman carrying practices and the use of folds in clothing as “pockets”; “Public Granaries and Private Transactions: Infrastructure and Standardization” in Ancient Society, which investigates the impact of the public granary infrastructure on measurement in private transactions in Roman Egypt and argues for a qualitative, not simply quantitative, approach to evaluating standardization; and “Numeracy” in J. Coogan, J. Howley, C. Moss (eds.), Writing, Enslavement, and Power in the Roman Mediterranean (Oxford), which addresses the intersections between slavery and Roman numeracy. Other current projects include additional work on numeracy and slavery, as well as her book project, which examines value circulation in the Roman Empire from the angle of practice (calculation, numeracy, and knowledge through coins, accounts, and measuring). She also works on the economic, religious, and cultural transition from Rome to Byzantium in the Near East, especially in Jordan, where she is a co-director of the Dhiban Excavation and Development Project. She has taught on a wide range of topics, including Roman art and archaeology, ancient cities, Egyptian archaeology, and Latin literature.

Dr. Kutner’s CV