Haslam Dissertation Fellow

Biography

Matthew is a PhD candidate in the Department of History with interests in early Christianity, intellectual and religious history of the late Roman Empire, and the early medieval Mediterranean. His research focuses on late ancient and early medieval monasticism, with particular attention to the development of monastic identities and ways-of-being.

Matthew’s dissertation examines the fifth-century Christian monastery at Lérins, situated off the coast of southern Gaul, near modern Cannes. He traces the rise and evolution of this monastery’s distinctive posture towards the divine, towards the self, and towards humanity—what his work calls the development of a “Lerinian world” or “ontology.”

Matthew is the Marco Institute's 2023-24 Jimmy & Dee Haslam Dissertation fellow, and was previously the 2022-23 Public Humanities Fellow. He is also the recipient of Anne-Marie Van Hook Travel Fellowship for 2023.