Matthew O’Farrell joins Crises of Leadership project as Postdoctoral Fellow
CACHE welcomes new ECR Affiliate Dr Matthew O’Farrell, who is undertaking a two-year full-time postdoctoral fellowship related to Zoroastrian reactions to the fall of the Persian Empire. His fellowship is an integral part of the ARC Discovery Project “Crises of Leadership in the Eastern Roman Empire (250–1000 CE)”, led by Dr Eva Anagnostou-Laoutides (2020–2023). This project is part of CACHE’s research group Ancient Models of Leadership: Learning from the Past, which explores examples of leadership from the ancient past and how they can contribute to questions of governance in the present and future. “Crises of Leadership in the Eastern Roman Empire” focuses on how leaders of the late Roman Empire coped with social, political, and environmental conflict, including a rise in speculation about the end of the world – issues that continue to place stress on authority figures today. A workshop accompanying the project is planned for 2021.
As postdoctoral research fellow for the project, Matthew will examine the reaction of Zoroastrian leaders to the Arab conquests of the 7th century CE. In particular, he will look at the role played by the memory and ideology of the Sasanian Empire in the creation of the historical texts and apocalyptic prophecies of this community. This research follows on from his doctoral studies, which were concerned with the interlocking problems of Late Antique historiography, Iranian studies, and legend. Matthew was awarded his PhD in 2018, through cotutelle between Macquarie University and Ghent University, Belgium. He was subsequently awarded an Australian Society for Classical Studies (ASCS) Early Career Award in 2019 for his project ‘Investigating Parallels in Byzantine and Sasanian Royal Biographies’ and has several publications forthcoming.
We look forward to engaging further with Matthew and the “Crises of Leadership” project as their work continues in 2021!