Learning Cities in Late Antiquity: The Local Dimension of Education

Education in the Graeco-Roman world was a hallmark of the polis. Yet the complex ways in which pedagogical theory and practice intersected with their local environments has not been much explored in recent scholarship. Learning Cities in Late Antiquity suggests a new explanatory model that helps to understand better how conditions in the cities shaped learning and teaching, and how, in turn, education had an impact on its urban context.

Drawing inspiration from the modern idea of ‘learning cities’, the chapters explore the interplay of teachers, learners, political leaders, communities and institutions in the Mediterranean polis, with a focus on the well-documented city of Gaza in the sixth century CE. They demonstrate in detail that formal and informal teaching, as well as educational thinking, not only responded to specifically local needs, but also exerted considerable influence on local society.

With its interdisciplinary and comparatist approach, the volume aims to contextualise ancient education, in order to stimulate further research on ancient learning cities. It also highlights the benefits of historical research to theory and practice in modern education.

Jan R. Stenger is the MacDowell Chair of Greek at the University of Glasgow, United Kingdom. Before joining Classics at the University of Glasgow in 2012, he was Junior Professor of Classics at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. He is Principal Investigator (PI) in the Cluster of Excellence Topoi, Berlin, Germany. His publications include two monographs, edited volumes and articles on Greek lyric poetry, literature and culture of late antiquity, and early Christian literature. His research focusses on educational practice and thinking between c. 300 and 600 CE; he is currently working on a monograph on this topic, funded by a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship.