Professor Phil Booth

Introduction

I am the A. G. Leventis Professor in Eastern Christian Studies, a post split equally between the Faculty of History and the Faculty of Theology and Religion. After completing my PhD in Ancient History at Cambridge (where I also completed a BA and MPhil in Classics), I was Junior Research Fellow in History at Trinity College, Oxford (2008-2011); Leverhulme Post-doctoral Fellow at Cambridge (2011-12); then A. G. Leventis Departmental Lecturer in Eastern Christianity in Oxford (2012-17). I became Associate Professor in 2017; and Full Professor in 2026. I joined St Peter’s in 2017.

Teaching

At the undergraduate level I teach a range of papers covering the history and theology of the first millennium, in particular in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. I am the convenor for the FHS courses on ‘The Near East in the Age of Justinian and Muhammad’ (History) and ‘Eastern Christianities from Constantinople to Baghdad’ (Theology and Religion), but also contribute regular lectures to a range of other historical and theological papers. I also offer undergraduate tutorials for the courses Jesus through the Centuries, History and Theology of the Early Church, Nicaea to Chalcedon, and Eastern Christianities from Constantinople to Baghdad (in Theology & Religion); and European and World History 1 (Prelims), European and World History 1-2 (FHS), The Near East in the Age of Justinian and Muhammad, Byzantium in the Age of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, and On the Road to Baghdad (in History). At postgraduate level I am heavily involved in the Master's programme in Late Antique and Byzantine History for the Faculty of History, but also teach on the programmes in Ecclesiastical History and Patristic Theology for the Faculty of Theology and Religion.

Research

I am a specialist in Medieval Eastern Christianity, with a particular interest in the transition of Christian communities and ideas between the late Roman and Sasanian empires and the Islamic caliphate. Across my career I have cultivated a research profile which sits at the intersection of several disciplines (including Late Antique and Byzantine Studies, Ecclesiastical History, and Eastern Christian Studies) and several linguistic specialisms (in particular Greek, Coptic, Ethiopic, and Syriac), and which ranges across both the late Roman and the early Islamic worlds. I have a particular interest in the sixth and seventh centuries in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East.