Body and Body Politic: Health, Illness, and Wellbeing in Ancient Greece and Rome

About the research project

Health and wellbeing were central concerns of individuals and communities throughout the ancient world. This project explores how ancient Greek and Roman societies understood the body, sought to maintain wellbeing, and responded to disease, injury, ageing, and death. How did people seek to live healthy and fulfilling lives, and what did a ‘good life’ look like when life expectancy was short, medical knowledge limited, and death ubiquitous? How were health and illness explained, experienced, and treated? And how were concepts of vitality, decline, sickness, and bodily integrity used to think about individuals, communities, and states?

The project draws on a wide range of ancient sources such as medical and philosophical treatises, literary and rhetorical texts, biography, historiography, and material culture, to examine both the lived realities and the cultural imaginaries of health in antiquity. Topics may include ancient theories of bodily management; philosophical reflections on ageing, mortality, and the good life across traditions; the social and political dimensions of disease, disability, and bodily difference; the spectacle of the body in public life; and literary representations of old age, sickness, and death.

The figurative power of health and illness as cultural categories runs through many of these topics. Ancient writers employed bodily health and disease as metaphors for moral character, social order, political stability, and civic decline. The ailing body could stand for a corrupted republic; the vigorous body for virtuous leadership; and the ageing body for the passage from strength to decadence. Narratives of healing, contagion, and decay articulated broader anxieties about justice, identity, power, and the human condition. This project asks how the body functioned as a vehicle for thinking about ethics, politics, and what it meant to live and age well.

Today’s societies face urgent challenges around health equity, chronic disease, regional disparity in life expectancy, and the meaning of wellbeing in ageing populations. The ancient world’s sustained engagement with the relationship between bodily health, individual flourishing, and collective welfare provides a rich comparative frame for reflecting on how ancient and modern societies define and pursue the conditions of a good life.

Primary supervisor

Meet Doctor Jayne Knight

Funding

Applicants will be considered for a Research Training Program (RTP) scholarship or Tasmania Graduate Research Scholarship (TGRS) which, if successful, provides:

• a living allowance stipend funded by University of Tasmania of $34,315 per annum for 3.5 years
• a relocation allowance of up to $2,000
• a tuition fees offset covering the cost of tuition fees for up to four years (domestic applicants only)

As part of the application process you may indicate if you do not wish to be considered for scholarship funding.

Other funding opportunities and fees

For further information regarding other scholarships on offer, and the various fees for undertaking a research degree, please visit our Scholarships and fees on research degrees page.

Eligibility

Applicants should review the Higher Degree by Research minimum entry requirements.

Ensure your eligibility for the scholarship round by referring to our Key Dates.

Additional eligibility criteria specific to this project/scholarship:

Honours in Classics or closely related field

Selection criteria

The project is competitively assessed and awarded. Selection is based on academic merit and suitability to the project as determined by the College.

Additional essential selection criteria specific to this project:

Excellent written expression in English

Ability to work with ancient Greek and/or Roman texts in translation

Additional desirable selection criteria specific to this project:

Latin and/or Ancient Greek reading ability

Application process

1. Select your project, and check that you meet the eligibility and selection criteria, including citizenship;
2. Contact Doctor Jayne Knight to discuss your suitability and the project's requirements; and
3. In your application:
   • Copy and paste the title of the project from this advertisement into your application. If you don’t correctly do this your application may be rejected.
   • Submit a signed supervisory support form, a CV including contact details of 2 referees and your project research proposal.
4. Apply prior to 1 October 2026.

Full details of the application process can be found under the ' How to apply ' section of the Research Degrees website.

Following the closing date applications will be assessed within the College. Applicants should expect to receive notification of the outcome by email by the advertised outcome date.

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