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About Michael Motia
works primarily in late ancient Christianity. His first book, Imitations of Infinity, examined the transformation of theories and practices of mimesis—how and why people imitated—during late antiquity. His current work has focused on Christian transformations and inventions of space in the late Roman empire, that is, how new kinds of spaces (hospitals, cells, pillars, and more) shaped their political, social, and theological imaginations. He's also working on a book on color in late antiquity.
He teaches in Religious Studies and Classics at UMass Boston.
Michael Motia teaches in Religious Studies and Classics at UMass Boston.
NBN Episodes hosted by Michael:
November 11, 2024
The Problem of the Christian Master
The Problem of the Christian Master: Augustine in the Afterlife of Slavery (Yale UP, 2024) offers a bold rereading of Augustinian thought for a world …
October 28, 2024
Slaves of God
Augustine believed that slavery is permissible, but to understand why, we must situate him in his late antique Roman intellectual context. Slaves of G…
October 15, 2024
Babylonian Jews and Sasanian Imperialism in Late Antiquity
From the image offered by the Babylonian Talmud, Jewish elites were deeply embedded within the Sasanian Empire (224-651 CE). The Talmud is replete wit…
September 30, 2024
Desert Ascetics of Egypt
Egypt is revered as the home of the famous Desert Ascetics, who first embraced a monastic life and established homosocial communities on the borders o…
September 16, 2024
Julian
Today I talked to Philip Freeman about his new book Julian: Rome’s Last Pagan Emperor (Yale UP, 2023). Flavius Claudius Julianus, or Julian the Apost…
September 2, 2024
Ancient Christians and the Power of Curses
Ancient Christians and their non-Christian contemporaries lived in a world of 'magic.' Sometimes, they used curses as ritual objects to seek justice f…
August 19, 2024
Staging the Sacred
Staging the Sacred: Performance in Late Ancient Liturgical Poetry (Oxford UP, 2023) examines the importance of Christian, Jewish, and Samaritan liturg…
August 5, 2024
Birthing Romans
Across the vast expanse of the Roman Empire, anxieties about childbirth tied individuals to one another, to the highest levels of imperial politics, e…
July 28, 2024
Evagrius of Pontus
The Gnostic Trilogy is the best-known and most important work by the ascetic philosopher and teacher Evagrius of Pontus. Among the writers of his age,…
July 22, 2024
The Christianization of Knowledge in Late Antiquity
The Christianization of Knowledge in Late Antiquity: Intellectual and Material Transformations (Cambridge UP, 2023) traces the beginning of Late Antiq…
July 8, 2024
Gospel Thrillers
What if the original teachings of Jesus were different from the Bible's sanitized 'orthodox' version? What covert motivations might inspire those who …
June 9, 2024
Life
A vivid and intimate glimpse of ancient life under the sway of cosmic and spiritual forces that the modern world has forgotten. Life: The Natural His…
April 13, 2024
Prophets and Prophecy in the Late Antique Near East
In Prophets and Prophecy in the Late Antique Near East (Cambridge UP, 2023), Jae Han investigates how various Late Antique Near Eastern communities—Je…
April 3, 2024
Unfinished Christians
What can we know about the everyday experiences of Christians during the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries? How did non-elite men and women, enslaved…