Alex Mullen

Contact

• workRoom B42 Humanities Building
  University Park
  Nottingham
  NG7 2RD
  UK
• Alex.Mullen@nottingham.ac.uk

Biography

• Elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS) and the Society of Antiquaries (FSA) 2021
• Principal Investigator of European Research Council funded project, The Latinization of the North-Western Roman Provinces (LatinNow), to 2023
• Post-doctoral Research Fellow, All Souls College, University of Oxford 2011-2015
• Affiliated lecturer, Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge 2010-2011
• Lumley Research Fellow, Magdalene College, University of Cambridge 2008-2011
• Undergraduate and Post-graduate, Jesus College, University of Cambridge 2001-2008

Expertise Summary

• Ancient History
• Roman Epigraphy
• Ancient Sociolinguistics (especially Multilingualism and Contact Linguistics)
• Roman Archaeology
• Gaul and Britain (c. 600 BC to AD 400)

Teaching Summary

Although I am contributing to various modules and supervising dissertations and theses, I am not currently teaching any modules. I would be very happy to hear from anyone interested in discussing… read more

Research Summary

Major project:

ERC-funded research project, The Latinization of the North-Western Roman Provinces: Sociolinguistics, Epigraphy and Archaeology (LatinNow). Please see www.latinnow.eu for further information.

This now has a spin off Arts Impact Accelerator funded project Roman Inscriptions of Britain in Schools: https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/schools/about

Selected other current research:

I am co-investigator on a Canadian project to investigate the latest scientific techniques to decipher hard-to-read texts from the ancient world. I also work on the Vindolanda tablets working group and the British Academy-funded project to read writing tablets from Roman Britain.

I have published an introduction to Gaulish with Coline Ruiz Darasse (CNRS, Paris): Gaulish. Language, Writing, Epigraphy (Zaragoza: University of Zaragoza Press, 2018) (commissioned for the AELAW series on ancient languages, funded by the EU-COST network), which is now also available in Spanish and French. I am currently a sociolinguistic expert on Ruiz Darasse's ANR project (Bordeaux) to republish in digital format all Gaulish inscriptions:

Selected Publications

• ALEX MULLEN and ALAN BOWMAN, 2021. Manual of Roman Everyday Writing: vol. 1 Scripts and Texts
• OLIVIA ELDER and ALEX MULLEN, 2019. The language of letters: bilingual Roman epistolography from Cicero to Fronto
• ALEX MULLEN and COLINE RUIZ DARASSE, 2018. Gaulish. Language, Writing, Epigraphy University of Zaragoza Press.
• MULLEN, A, 2013. Southern Gaul and the Mediterranean: multilingualism and multiple identities in the Iron Age and Roman periods Cambridge ; Cambridge University Press.

• View all publications

Although I am contributing to various modules and supervising dissertations and theses, I am not currently teaching any modules. I would be very happy to hear from anyone interested in discussing research at any level, especially on themes related to my ERC project, Roman Britain and Gaul. I have supervised graduates on bilingualism in Roman society, Roman Britain, the Roman oath and the Roman army as a speech community. My current PhD students are working on Roman porticoes and Identity making in Gaul.

Previous teaching includes: Becoming Roman in the West; Ancient Art; Fall of the Roman Republic; Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced Latin; Dissertation supervision; Telling Stories in Greek and Roman Culture (MA); Researching the Ancient World (MA).

I received an Oxford Teaching Award in 2014. I became a Fellow of the Higher Education Authority in 2017 via the Nottingham Recognition Scheme.

Past Research

• Co-director of the Canterbury Hinterland Project
• Founder and Director of the Code-switching in Roman Literature network
• My book on code-switching in Roman letters with Olivia Elder has been published: The language of letters: bilingual Roman epistolography from Cicero to Fronto (Cambridge University Press, 2019). The database used in this volume is available here.

Future Research

Longer term research plans:

• complete the research monograph Mullen, A. Entangled worlds: Britain and Gaul in the Iron Age and Roman periods (in preparation for Cambridge University Press).
• use my Philip Leverhulme Prize funds to support the writing of a Sociolinguistic history of the Roman world.
• write the Roman Inscriptions of Britain vol.4 with Prof. Alan Bowman (Oxford).

• ALEX MULLEN and GEORGE WOUDHUYSEN, eds., 2023. Languages and Communities in the Late-Roman and Post-Imperial Western Provinces Oxford University Press.
• ALEX MULLEN and GEORGE WOUDHUYSEN, 2023. Language and History in the Late-Roman and Post-Imperial West. In: ALEX MULLEN and GEORGE WOUDHUYSEN, eds., Languages and Communities in the Late-Roman and Post-Imperial Western Provinces Language and History in the Late-Roman and Post-Imperial West. Oxford University Press. 1-34
• ALEX MULLEN, ed., 2023. Social Factors in the Latinization of the Roman West Oxford University Press.
• ALEX MULLEN, 2023. In: ALEX, ed., Social dimensions of Latinization Oxford University Press. 1-23
• ALEX MULLEN, 2022. Transformations de la Gaule sous l’Empire romain : émergence d’une culture de l'écrit dans la production de masse. In: MICHÈLE COLTELLONI-TRANNOY and NOEMI MONCUNILL, eds., La culture de l’écrit en Méditerranée occidentale à travers les pratiques épigraphiques (Gaule, Ibérie, Afrique du Nord) Peeters. (In Press.)
• ALEX MULLEN, 2022. A sociolinguistic and archaeological epigraphy: translingualism, uncertainty and inscribed Roman spindle whorls. In: ELERI COUSINS, ed., Dynamic Epigraphy: New Approaches to Inscriptions Oxford. 39–64 (In Press.)
• ALEX MULLEN and ALAN BOWMAN, 2021. Manual of Roman Everyday Writing: vol. 1 Scripts and Texts
• OLIVIA ELDER and ALEX MULLEN, 2019. The language of letters: bilingual Roman epistolography from Cicero to Fronto
• ALEX MULLEN and COLINE RUIZ DARASSE, 2019. Cultural and linguistic contact in southern Gaul. In: A. GARCIA SINNER and J. VELAZA, eds., Palaeohispanic Languages and Epigraphies Oxford University Press.
• MICHAEL LOY and ALEX MULLEN, 2019. A Greek inscription with rider iconography from South Shields, Britain ZPE. 207, (In Press.)
• ALEX MULLEN and COLINE RUIZ DARASSE, 2018. Gaulish. Language, Writing, Epigraphy University of Zaragoza Press.
• LACEY WALLACE, ALEX MULLEN, PAUL JOHNSON and LIEVEN VERDONCK, 2016. Archaeological Investigations of Bourne Park, Bishopsbourne, 2011-2014 Archaeologia Cantiana. 137, 251-279
• MULLEN, A., 2016. Sociolinguistics. In: MILLETT, M., MOORE, A. and REVELL, L., eds., The Oxford handbook to Roman Britain Oxford University Press. 573-598
• PAVLENKO, A. and MULLEN, A., 2015. Why diachronicity matters in the study of linguistic landscapes Linguistic Landscapes. 1, 114–132
• MULLEN, A., 2015. Bilingualism and Multilingualism in the Roman World. In: CLAYMAN, D., ed., Oxford Bibliographies in Classics Oxford University Press.
• MULLEN, A., 2015. ‘In both our languages’: Greek-Latin code-switching in Roman literature Language and literature. 24.3, 213–232
• WALLACE, L., JOHNSON, P., STRUTT, K. and MULLEN, A., 2014. Archaeological investigations of a major building, probably Roman, and related landscape features at Bourne Park, Bishopsbourne, 2011–2012 Archaeologia Cantiana. 134, 187–204
• MULLEN, A., 2013. New thoughts on British Latin: a curse tablet from Red Hill, Ratcliffe-on-Soar (Nottinghamshire) ZPE. 187, 266–272
• MULLEN, A., 2013. The language of the potteries: communication in the production and trade of Gallo-Roman. In: FULFORD, M. and DURHAM, E., eds., Seeing red: new economic and social perspectives on terra sigillata 97–110
• MULLEN, A, 2013. Southern Gaul and the Mediterranean: multilingualism and multiple identities in the Iron Age and Roman periods Cambridge ; Cambridge University Press.
• MULLEN, A., 2013. The bilingualism of material culture? Thoughts from a linguistic perspective HEROM. 2, 21–43
• MULLEN, A., 2013. New thoughts on British Latin: a curse tablet from Red Hill, Ratcliffe-on-Soar (Nottinghamshire): ZPE ZPE. 187, 266–272
• MULLEN, A., 2012. Introduction. Multiple languages, multiple identities. In: MULLEN, A. and JAMES, P., eds., Multilingualism in the Graeco-Roman worlds Cambridge University Press. 1–35
• MULLEN, A and JAMES, P, eds., 2012. Multilingualism in the Graeco-Roman worlds Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
• MULLEN, A., 2012. Celtic languages. In: BAGNALL, R., BRODERSEN, K., CHAMPION, C., ERSKINE, A. and HUEBNER, S., eds., Encyclopedia of ancient history
• MULLEN, A., 2011. Latin and other languages: societal and individual bilingualism. In: CLACKSON, J., ed., A companion to the Latin language 527–548
• MULLEN, A., 2011. Reflets du multiculturalisme: la création et le développement du gallo-grec. In: RUIZ DARASSE, C. and LUJÁN, E. R., eds., Contacts linguistiques dans l'Occident méditerranéen antique 227–239
• MULLEN, A., 2010. Review of Biville, F., Decourt, J.-C. and Rougemont, G. (eds) 2008 Bilinguismr gréco-latin et épigraphie (Lyon) JHS. 130, 292–293
• MULLEN, A., 2008. Rethinking “Hellenization” in South-eastern Gaul: the Gallo-Greek epigraphic record. In: HÄUSSLER, R., ed., Romanisation et épigraphie. Études interdisciplinaires sur l’acculturation et l’identité dans l’Empire romain 249–266
• MULLEN, A., 2007. Linguistic evidence for Romanization: continuity and change in Romano-British onomastics Britannia. 35–61
• MULLEN, A., 2007. Evidence for written Celtic from Roman Britain: a linguistic analysis of Studia Celtica. 31–45
• MULLEN, A. and RUSSELL, P., 2007. http://www.asnc.cam.ac.uk/personalnames/
• MULLEN, A., Review of Adams, J. N. 2007 JRS. 98, 223–224
• WALLACE, L., MULLEN, A., JOHNSON, P. and VERDONCK, L., Archaeological investigations of Bourne Park, Bishopsbourne, Kent 2011–2014 Archaeologia Cantiana. (In Press.)