PhD Position History: Behind Villa Labour, and Death in Roman Italy

PhD Position in Ancient History:
The People Behind the Villa:
Life, Labour, and Death in Roman Italy

The Department of Ancient Civilizations at the University of Basel invites applications for a fully funded PhD position, tenable from October 2026 (negotiable), within the SNSF‑funded project “The Roman Villa as Ecosystem:
Climate, Production, and Society in the Sabina Tiberina” (PI: Prof. Dr. Sabine Huebner).

The position is specifically directed at candidates interested in Roman social and economic history, ancient demography, or Roman archaeology, and offers the opportunity to investigate the lives of the men, women, and children who formed the labour force of the Roman countryside.

Deadline for application:
August 1, 2026
Beginning of the position:
October 1, 2026 (negotiable).

Roman villas have traditionally been studied as centers of elite residence and agricultural production. Much less attention has been paid to the populations who lived and worked on these estates and whose labour sustained the rural economy of Roman Italy. This doctoral project investigates the life histories, health, mortality, mobility, ancestry, and social organization of the land‑working population of the Roman hinterland between the first century BCE and the third century CE.

The successful candidate will work with an exceptional interdisciplinary dataset comprising literary and epigraphic sources, archaeological evidence, cemetery populations, osteological analyses, stable isotope data, and archaeogenetic data from the Sabina Tiberina, a rural region north of Rome. The project forms part of a broader investigation of Roman villas as socio‑ecological systems linking environment, production, nutrition, health, and demographic behaviour.

The doctoral project centers on the reconstruction of the lived experiences of rural populations associated with Roman villa landscapes.

Particular emphasis will be placed on questions of daily life, health and disease, mortality patterns, kinship structures, migration and mobility, ancestry, childhood, labour, and social inequality. The doctoral researcher will engage critically with broader debates concerning rural populations, family, slavery, dependency, labour organization, and demographic behaviour in the Roman world.

The position includes participation in fieldwork, summer schools, project workshops, and international conferences. The candidate will contribute to the project's publication strategy and will prepare a doctoral dissertation.

Applicants should hold a Master's degree in Ancient History or a closely related field.

A strong interest in Roman social and economic history and in interdisciplinary collaboration between the humanities and natural sciences is essential. Very good command of English is required.

A stimulating research environment at the Department of Ancient Civilizations, housing one of the world's leading research libraries in Classical Studies and numerous international collaborations and large‑scale interdisciplinary research projects.

The position offers integration into a highly collaborative international research team and provides the opportunity to develop an innovative doctoral project at the intersection of ancient history, archaeology, bioarchaeology, and archaeogenetics. The candidate will receive advanced training in interdisciplinary approaches to the study of past populations and participate in ongoing field and laboratory research in central Italy.

Employment conditions follow the regulations of the Swiss National Science Foundation and the University of Basel.

Applications should include a motivation letter, CV, copies of academic degrees, a writing sample (e.g., MA thesis chapter, seminar paper, or publication), and the contact details of two referees.

Applications should be submitted via the University of Basel online portal by August 1, 2026
. Applications that are not submitted via the University's online application portal will not be considered.

Questions about the position can be addressed to Prof. Dr. Sabine Huebner, Department of Ancient Civilizations, University of Basel, Petersgraben 51, CH - 4051 Basel (sabine.huebner).