Please join the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies as we celebrate the recent publication of faculty member Mark Letteney’s new book: Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration, co-authored by Matthew D. C. Larsen.

Letteney will be joined by Stroum Center faculty member Joel Walker to discuss the book, unpack what role prisons played in ancient societies and how this history continues today, and answer questions. Light refreshments will be provided before the talk and the book will be available for purchase.

Registration required: register here.

Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration examines spaces, practices, and ideologies of incarceration in the ancient Mediterranean basin from 300 BCE to 600 CE. Analyzing a wide range of sources—including legal texts, archaeological findings, documentary evidence, and visual materials—Matthew D. C. Larsen and Mark Letteney argue that prisons were integral to the social, political, and economic fabric of ancient societies. Ancient Mediterranean Incarcerationtraces a long history of carceral practices, considering ways in which the institution of prison has been fundamentally intertwined with issues of class, ethnicity, gender, and imperialism. By foregrounding the voices and experiences of the imprisoned, Larsen and Letteney demonstrate the extraordinary durability of carceral structures across time and call for a new historical consciousness around contemporary practices of incarceration.

Mark Letteney, University of Washington, is an ancient historian and archaeologist working in the history of incarceration, book history, and the archaeology of military occupation. He holds the Carol Thomas Endowed Professorship in Ancient History, and is also a faculty member of the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies and the Comparative Religion Program.