Dr April Pudsey

Qualifications

PhD Ancient History (University of Manchester), 2007

MA Ancient World Studies (University of Manchester), 2001

BA (Hons.) Ancient History and Archaeology (University of Manchester), 2000

I’m an Ancient Historian and I research children’s and women’s lives in the Graeco-Roman world, particularly Egypt of the 1st c BCE - 6th c CE. I’m especially interested in children’s cultures, breastfeeding and wet-nursing, and how these relate to broader demographic patterns of fertility, mortality, migration and ecological, climatic and disease environments. 

As Deputy Director of ManMet’s interdisciplinary Manchester Centre for Youth Studies I develop research and outreach activities in line with the Centre’s youth-participatory framework. See our MCYS podcast. I have also worked in close partnership with the UK’s leading bodies for the discipline: the Classical Association (Chair of local branch); Classical Association Teaching Board (Subject Representative); the Council for University Departments of Classics (Committee); the Institute of Classical Studies (co-hosted workshops); and the Women’s Classical Committee (co-Chair). 

I’m heavily invested in the continued power of Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology to help us understand the world around us, and to provide children and young people space to explore ideas, cultures, literatures and histories. I have run several children’s workshops, craft and story sessions, and discovery days involving the ancient world. I also serve as Historical Consultant for children’s books on the ancient world, most recently for Penguin Random House (Ladybird Books), and Hachette Children’s Group. 

Recordings of some of my public lectures and podcasts are available online:

The Lives and Concerns of Enslaved Children in Roman Egypt (Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, June 2023)

Girls in Antiquity (Children’s History Society, 2022)

Work, Play, Enslavement, and Hope: the Lives and Concerns of Children in Roman Provinces (Lincoln Historical Association, 2022)

Children, Family and  Everyday Life in the Ancient World (Knockout Podcast, 2021)

Children in the Ancient World (History Hack Podcast, 2020)

Towards a Cultural and Social History of Breastfeeding in Antiquity (London, School of Advanced Study, 2018)

Growing Up in Roman Egypt (Classics Confidential, 2014)

Professional Service

Classical Association Teaching Board Subject Representative,  Ancient History

Manchester and District Classical Association (on YouTube), Chair

‘Post92classics’ a network of professionals teaching and researching Classical subjects in non-traditional contexts, Founding Chair 

Women’s Classical Committee UK, Committee, previously Co-Chair

Council of University Classical Departments, Previously committee

External Examiner Roles

External Examiner, BA (Hons.) Ancient History, Exeter University (2023 - )

External Examiner, BA (Hons.) Classics/Classical Studies, Birkbeck College, University of London (2018 - 2022)

External Validator, BA (Hons.) Classical Studies at University of Lincoln and BA (Hons.) and Classical Civilisations at University of Roehampton. 

External Examiner, PhD Viva, Newcastle University 

Expert Reviewer for Research Funders and Presses 

AHRC Peer Review College

The Wellcome Trust

The National Research Foundation of South Africa

Historical Methods journal

Liverpool University Press

Routledge Press

Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies

Research Grants and Awards

Sponsor on 280,000 EUR Marie-Sklodowska Curie International Fellowship, with postdoctoral researcher, Manchester Metropolitan, 2021-3

AHRC co-Investigator on £380,000 project with Canterbury, Kent, 2017-2019

Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship, 2009-11 (University of Liverpool)

AHRB Studentship, 2003-6 (University of Manchester)

AHRB Studentship, 2001/2 (University of Manchester) 

Recent Invited Research Papers

Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Buenos Aires, Society for Study of Childhood in the Past conference, ‘Ancient breastfeeding: emotions, economies and practicalities’, October 2023

Bonn, Germany, Centre for Dependency and Slavery Studies, ‘Children at Work in a Period of Transition, 400 - 1,000 AD’ conference, ‘Children at work in early Medieval Egypt: assessing the evidence’, August 2023

London, Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, ‘The lives and concerns of enslaved children in Roman Egypt’, June 2023

Dublin, Chester Beatty Museum ‘Children’s Lives in Roman Egypt: piecing together fragments and memories’, June 2023

Tampere, Finland, ‘Hope in the Premodern World’ Conference,  ‘Hope and affection as family strategy: fostering and adoption of children in Roman and Late Roman Egypt’, April 2023

Manchester Met., ‘Poverty and Vulnerability’ conference, ‘Vulnerable women and children: adoption and fostering in Roman Egypt’, May 2023

Cambridge University, Faculty of Divinity Research Seminar, ‘Children’s religious lives in communities of late Roman Egypt: papyri and material culture.’, January 2023

Nijmegen, Netherlands, Limes XXV Congress, ‘Sons of Auxiliary Veterans in Roman Egypt: family, status and experience’ (panel Prof M. Carroll: Childhood on the Roman Frontiers), August 2022

Tampere University, Finland ‘Young people experiencing space’ Passages from Antiquity to the Middle Ages VIII conference, August 2022

Rome, Finnish Academy at Rome, ‘A global history of youth across ancient worlds’ (with Vuolanto, V.), May 2022

2018-22

University of Hamburg, Germany, Women and Children and Ritual Urban and Extra Urban Spaces conference: ‘Young People’s Activities and Objects in Cultic Spaces in Roman Oxyrhynchos’ (with Vuolanto, V.)

Edinburgh University, ‘Born into slavery: experience and agency of children in Roman Egypt’, AHRC project conference, Child Slavery in the Roman World

Washington D.C., AIA SCS Annual Meeting: ‘Wet-Nurses and Fictive Kinships in Roman Egypt’

London, Institute of Classical Studies Ancient History Seminar ‘Towards a Social and Cultural History of Breastfeeding in Antiquity’

Panel Organiser and speaker, 15th Congress of Fédération international des associations d’études classiques /Classical Association Conference: ‘Seen and Not Heard. Children’s Experience in Roman Egypt’ 

University of Manchester, British Egyptology Congress 4 conference: ‘Musical Instruments and their use in Roman and Late Roman Egypt’ (with Ellen Swift and Jo Stoner)

Reading University, MOISA International conference: ‘Reconstructing musical instruments from Roman and Late Roman Egypt in the Petrie Collection’ (& Creese, D., Swift, E., Stoner, J.)

British School at Rome, Maternitas: Fertility, Pregnancy, and Maternal Health in the Classical World: ‘Experiences of mothers and infants in Roman Egypt: The papyrological evidence’

London, IHR and Raphael Samuel Centre, Seminar Series in the History of Sexuality: ‘Wet-nurses, sexual restrictions and wage labour in Roman Egypt’

Research Conference Organisation

(2023) ‘Poverty and Vulnerability in Classical Antiquity: Gendered and Life-Cycle Approaches’ ManMet University (with Dr Aida Fernandez Prieto)

(2021) ‘Children and Young People, Speaking Up and Speaking Out’, Biennial Conference of the Children’s History Society, Manchester Centre for Youth Studies and Children’s History Society (YouTube)

(2016) ‘Trauma and Changing Circumstances in Youth’ Network Colloquium, MCYS, ManMet University

(2016) ‘Mates, Mischief and Make-Believe. Children’s Peer Cultures, Past and Present’ Network Colloquium, MCYS, ManMet University

(2013) Institute of Classical Studies and School of Advanced Studies Ancient History Seminar Series (with Prof R Alston), Senate House London

(2013) Between Words and Walls: Material and Textual Approaches to Ancient Housing conference (with Dr J Baird) Birkbeck, University of London

(2012/13) Rome in Bloomsbury Public Lecture Series, Birkbeck, University of London

(2005) Manchester, Pre-modern Populations and Economies: the Case of Greece and Rome conference (with Dr C Holleran)