Research areas
- Athenian Legal and Social History
- Greek Historiography
- Greek Rhetoric and Oratory
Much of my work has focused on how institutions (e.g., antidosis, conscription, ostracism, and taxation) functioned in democratic Athens (508-322 BC) and how Athenian citizens worked within, and sometimes around, civic regulations. I have been especially interested in tensions between the actual practices of individuals and the civic ideals invoked in public discourse. In my first book, The Litigious Athenian (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998), I explored the Athenian discussion of the abuse of law and legal process under the democracy, arguing that this gives us access to how Athenians conceived of, and responded to, problematic aspects of their personal and collective legal experience.
