Rafał Matuszewski is an assistant professor at the Institute for History.

More information about Rafal Matuszewski

Fields of interest

Ancient social and cultural history; Greek religion and magic; material culture and epigraphy; gender and sexuality; history of ancient mentalities; ancient environmental and urban history; ancient medicine and science; ancient slavery; historical anthropology

CV

Matuszewski is an ancient historian and classicist who specializes in the social, cultural, environmental and religious history of the ancient Greek Mediterranean. Trained as a historian, classical philologist and archaeologist in Poland, Germany and France, he received his PhD in Ancient History from the University of Heidelberg in 2017. Prior to joining the faculty at Leiden University, he held a Junior Fellowship at the Walter Benjamin Kolleg of the University of Bern (Switzerland) and was assistant professor at the University of Salzburg (Austria) from 2017 until 2023.

Research

His research focuses primarily on the historical anthropology of the ancient Mediterranean, especially on Greek religion, social and cultural history, epigraphy and material culture. His most recent book publications include the monograph Räume der Reputation: Zur bürgerlichen Kommunikation im Athen des 4. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. (Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2019) and the edited volume Being Alone in Antiquity. Greco-Roman Ideas and Experiences of Misanthropy, Isolation and Solitude (De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston 2021). Currently, he is working on a monograph on religion in Artemidorus’ Oneirocritica. Together with Brigitte Steger (University of Cambridge) he is general editor of Bloomsbury’s forthcoming six-volume Cultural History of Sleep and Dreaming and the editor of its first volume dedicated to Antiquity. 

Grants and awards

• 2024: Stanley J. Seeger Visiting Research Fellow in Hellenic Studies, Princeton University (declined).
• 2024: KNAW Early Career Partnership Award, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
• 2022: The 2022 Paul Rehak Award (USA).
• 2022: French Government Research Fellowship, École pratique des hautes études, Paris.
• 2021–2022: Junior Fellowship, The Polish Institute of Advanced Studies.
• 2019: Sterling Dow Fellowship in Greek Epigraphy and History, The Ohio State University.
• 2017: FFG/BMVIT Career Grant (Austria).
• 2017: Junior Fellowship at the Walter Benjamin Kolleg, University of Bern.
• 2017: Research Fellowship, Fondation Hardt, Vandœuvres–Genève.
• 2016: Visiting Research Fellowship, Université de Fribourg. 
• 2013–2016: Research Grant from the National Science Centre (PI).
• 2013–2015: Postgraduate Award of the State of Baden-Württemberg.
• 2010–2012: DAAD Graduate Fellowship.
• 2008–2009: Herbert Quandt Foundation’s Fellowship.
• 2006: 1st Prize Winner of the 36th Polish Olympiad in History. 

Selected publications

A Cultural History of Sleep and Dreaming in Antiquity (Bloomsbury, London; forthcoming).

Räume der Reputation: Zur bürgerlichen Kommunikation im Athen des 4. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. (Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2019)

Being Alone in Antiquity. Greco-Roman Ideas and Experiences of Misanthropy, Isolation and Solitude (De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston 2021).

Somatotes. Cielesnosc w ujeciu historycznym (Warsaw University Press, Warsaw 2012).

Eros and sophrosyne. Morality, social behaviour and paiderastia in 4th-century B.C. Athens (IH UW: Warsaw 2011).

"Deutungskämpfe in Artemidors Oneirokritika," in C. Schliephake, G. Weber (eds.), Deutungskämpfe um die antike Divination im Spiegel spätrepublikanischer und kaiserzeitlicher Texte (Historische Zeitschrift – Beiheft 81), Berlin/Boston 2024, 177–209.

"Same-Sex Relations between Free and Slave in Democratic Athens," in D. Kamen, C.W. Marshall (eds.), Slavery and Sexuality in Classical Antiquity (University of Wisconsin Press, Madison 2021), 104–123.

"Kult ohne Altar? Überlegungen zur Relevanz des bomos bei griechischen Opferriten," in F. Beutler, N. F. Riegler (eds.), Akten des 17. Österreichischen Althistorikerinnen- und Althistorikertages (WBAGon 2; Vienna 2020), 53–65.

"(Un)edle Vergnügungen? Freizeitbeschäftigungen als Spiegel moralischen Wandels im spätklassischen Athen," in E. Hartmann, S. Page, A. Thurn (eds.), Moral als Kapital im antiken Athen und Rom (Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2018), 45–73.

"Dice, Cockfights and the Limits of Decency: Athenian Gambling Houses as lieux de sociabilité," in PHum 437/2 (2013) 65–77.

"Orphania: Zum Inhalt des Begriffs," in PHist CIII/4 (2012) 877–883.

Publications

Activities