Department of Biblical and Ancient Studies

Prof MEA de Marre

College of Human Sciences
School of Humanities
Department: Biblical and Ancient Studies
Associate Professor
Tel: 012 429 6394
Fax: 012 429 4570
E-mail: dmarrmea@unisa.ac.za

Qualifications

  • BA  (majors: English, Latin, Greek, Classical Culture) Stellenbosch, 1982-84
  • BA Honours cum laude (Classical Culture) Stellenbosch, 1985
  • MA cum laude (Classical Culture) Stellenbosch, 1988
  • BA Honours cum laude (Latin, Greek), Stellenbosch 1989
  • DLitt et Phil (Ancient History) Unisa, 2003

Currently teaching

  • Ancient History (all Under-graduate and post-graduate levels)
  • Ancient Greek (Short Courses)

Fields of academic interests

  • Socio-political history involving women in Roman North Africa
  • Female empowerment in ancient Greco-Roman society
  • Military history of North Africa

Field of Specialisation

  • North Africa in Greco-Roman antiquity
  • Gender in Greco-Roman antiquity
  • Empowerment in Greco-Roman antiquity

Books

Book chapters

  • 'Aelia Arisuth: Mithraic Matron or Popular Patron’ in Hommage à B Hendrickx, ed. by WJ Henderson, 2015, 215-239.
  • ‘One Oracle Too Many? Corippus (and Procopius) on Female Prophecy in North Africa’ in Prophets and Profits: Ancient Divination and Its Reception, ed. by RJ Evans, 2018.
  • ‘‘Bad Girls’? Collective Violence by Women and the Case of the Circumcellions in Roman North Africa’ in Piracy, Pillage and Plunder in Antiquity. Appropriation and the Ancient World, ed. by Richard Evans and Martine De Marre (forthcoming).

Journal articles

  • 'Docta nimis visa et facunda: Wishful Thinking or Social Reality’, Acta Classica, 2004. 47, 51-74. 
  • ‘Arming or Charming: Obsequium and Domestic Politics in Roman North Africa’,  Akroterion, 2004.50, 39-50.
  • ‘Augustine and Fulgentius: Vying or Parallelled African Lives’. Journal for Early Christian History, 2016.1, 1-25. 

Paper presentations

  • Unisa Classics Colloquium (Ancient Life-writing), 26 October 2016: “Augustine and Fulgentius, parallel or vying African Lives”.
  • AENES seminar 2017, 16 March 2017: “Ancient Empire-building: The Persians and the Greeks”.
  • Italian heritage seminar, Dept. of Afrikaans and Theory of Literature, 31 March 2017: “The Libyan Sibyl”.

Professional positions, fellowships & awards

  • Recipient of Vogel Merit Award (2004)
  • Recipient of Unisa Woman of the Year Award (2010)
  • Chair of Department (Classics and World Languages) (2007-2013)

Projects

  • The depiction of mothers in the lives of early Christian fathers
  • Portrayal of female oracles in the epic of Corippus
  • Race and racial stereotyping in North African authors