Associate Professor, Cultural Studies and Ancient Greek and Roman Studies
BA (York), MA (McMaster), PhD (Toronto)
richardlast@trentu.ca
Lady Eaton College
705-748-1011 x. 7276
Research Interests: religion and magic in antiquity; voluntary associations; politics and the preternatural in the United States.
Richard Last holds degrees in religion and ancient history. Prior to arriving at Trent University in 2017, he was a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow in York University’s Department of Humanities and Department of History (2015-2017). He is currently completing a study examining perceptions of non-normative speech in antiquity (e.g., frenzied speech, disembodied voices, disfluency, demon possession, recitation of magical formulas, speaking visions). This project is supported by a two-year SSHRC Insight Development grant. He is also finishing the fourth volume of Greco-Roman Associations, which covers Italy and North Africa, and is co-authored by John Kloppenborg.
He has published two books on Christian origins and voluntary associations, and several journal articles.
Recent Publications
‘Turning to Christ, Communicating with the Roman Gods: Interpretatio Christiana and “Christian Polytheism” in the Early Roman Empire.’ Harvard Theological Review (2025): forthcoming.
‘Abraham and the Jerusalem Collection: Kinship Diplomacy in Paul’s Letters.’ Journal of Biblical Literature 144.2 (2025): 347-474.
‘Conflict, Contact, and Collegia: The Bridging and Bonding Associations of Roman Antiquity, and their Effects on Social Capital.’ Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 74.2 (2025): 205-229.
‘Houses and Meeting Places.’ Pages 94-100 in T.J. Lang, Bruce W. Longenecker, and Elizabeth E. Shively (eds.). Behind the Scenes of the New Testament: Cultural, Social, and Historical Contexts. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2024.
‘Paul Among the Fluent in Corinth: Introducing Paul and the “Associated Behaviours” of Stuttering into the Study of Dysfluency in Antiquity.’ Novum Testamentum 64.1 (2022): 54-78.
‘A First-Century Christian Inscription? The Nobilis Funerary Altar (CIL 13.1820) and a Return to Alphonse De Boissieu.’ Journal of Epigraphic Studies 5 (2022): 29-49.
‘Christ Worship in the Neighbourhood: Corinth’s Ekklēsia and its Vicinity (1 Cor. 14.22-25).’ New Testament Studies 68.3 (2022): 310-325.
‘Julian Christ Worshippers and their Connection to a Collegium in First-Century Lyon: Reintroducing the Epitaph of Julia Adepta.’ Pages 377-396 in Bruce W. Longenecker (ed.). Associations, Deities, and Early Christianity. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2022.
‘A Fictive Membership Rush and Curatorial Fraud in the Lex of the Collegium of Ivory and Citrus-Wood Merchants (CIL VI 33885 = ILS 7214).’ Classical Quarterly 71 (2021): 347-358.
‘The Silence of a God-Fearer: Anonymous Dedication in CIL 6.390a = 30752.’ Religion in the Roman Empire 6 (2020): 75-103.
with Philip A. Harland. Group Survival in the Ancient Mediterranean: Rethinking Material Conditions in the Landscape of Jews and Christians. Bloomsbury T & T Clark. 2020.