We extend our warmest congratulations to Alex Cushing for his recent appointment as Visiting Assistant Professor at the Department of Religion and Classics at the University of Rochester.
Alex received both his MA and PhD at U of T. His dissertation, defended in 2020, examined how legal and social connections between former enslavers and enslaved people shaped the economic relationships and strategies of freedpersons after their manumission.
He taught classes in Classics at all three campuses as a course instructor and was the Lead Writing TA for three years. He was also the President of the Classics Graduate Student Union for two years, and had previously held a variety of other executive positions in the CGSU. Alexander was also co-founded the Graduate Student Epigraphy reading group, and in 2011, helped to organize a collaborate conference with graduate students from York University on Concepts of “the Other” in Ancient History and Historiography.
At the University of Rochester, Alex will teach classes on the history of the Ancient Mediterranean, including Roman and Greek History, Ancient slavery, social history, connections, and migration in Antiquity, and the literature of the Ancient world.
His current research continues to explore the institutions of Roman slavery and manumission, employing a wide range of ancient materials that include papyri, inscriptions, wax tablets, and material and literary sources. He is currently working on a monograph that analyses the motivations and ideologies surrounding Roman manumission, from the perspectives of both enslavers and the enslaved, and how the relatively common practice of freeing certain types of enslaved workers was influenced by financial concerns, legal structures, and social conventions, and has two forthcoming chapters in edited volumes on euphemization and the use of affective language by enslavers in discussing enslaved labour.
Congratulations, Alex!