Theresa Ruoxi Xu

Theresa Ruoxi Xu

First Name: 
Theresa Ruoxi
Last Name: 
Xu
Title: 
MA Student
Biography : 

Theresa (she/they) is an MA student in the Ancient History and Material Culture steam at University of Toronto. She obtained her Honours BA in Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies from the University of British Columbia. Her research interests lie in social and political history of the Roman Republic, engages with topics of slavery, freedom, citizenship, violence, and urbanism. Her BA thesis examines how mass massacre and the followed traumatic memory during the Mithridatic War (88-63 BCE) served as political agenda and reshaped Rome’s discourse of crises in the east Mediterranean and within the city of Rome. The core of her works seeks to untangle the relationship between violence, power, and the socio-political landscapes in which they are embedded.

Interested in archaeological practices across chronological and geographical contexts, Theresa has excavated with American Excavations at Morgantina: Agora Valley Project in Sicily, Italy (2024), and at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Memorial Museum in Oświęcim, Poland (2023).

When not reading, writing and teaching, Theresa enjoys hiking, jogging, and watching spy thrillers.

Education: 
Honours B.A., Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies, The University of British Columbia

People Type:

Research Area:

Areas of Interest: 

Roman social and political history; slavery; citizenship; comparative (un)freedoms; ancient and modern violence; urbanism