Roman History & Archaeology, Environmental History, Ancient Economy, Historical Epidemiology, Palaeoclimatology, Urbanism, History of Water Management, Roman Anatolia, Greek & Roman Egypt

Professional Background

Feb 2021 – Present

Postdoctoral Researcher and Lecturer, Department of Ancient Civilizations, University of Basel

Jan 2020 – March 2020

Lecturer, Department of Continuing Education, University of Oxford

Academic Education

Oct 2017 – Jan 2021

D. Phil, Classical Archaeology, University of Oxford
Dissertation: Climate change and major plagues in the Roman period
(Supervisor: Andrew Wilson)

Oct 2015 – July 2017

M. Phil, Classical Archaeology, University of Oxford
Thesis: Climate Change and the Antonine Plague

Sept 2012 – May 2015

BA, Department of History, Columbia University
Senior thesis: An Evolution of Roman Agricultural Exploitation in the Provinces 201 BCE-117 CE

Articles

(Accepted, forthcoming) McDonald, B. T. 2023. “The Justinianic Plague in the Southern Levant: Evidence Suggests the Pandemic was the Dominant Causal Factor of Societal Decline in the Late Antique Negev”, in Ancient Near Eastern Studies Supplement 65, A. Jamieson, C. Tully & L. Hitchcock (eds.), Plague in Antiquity, Peeters.

(Accepted, forthcoming) McDonald, B. T. 2023. "The Downturn of Egypt's Eastern Desert in the Middle Roman Imperial Period", Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 109.

(Accepted, forthcoming) Huebner, S. R. and McDonald, B. T. 2023. "Egypt as a Gateway for the Passage of Ancient Pathogens into the Mediterranean", The Journal of Interdisciplinary History.

McDonald, B. T. 2021. “The Antonine Crisis: Climate Change as a Trigger for Epidemiological and Economic Turmoil,” in P. Erdkamp, J. Manning, and K. Verboven (eds.) Climate and Ancient Societies in Europe and the Near East: Diversity in Collapse and Resilience, Palgrave Macmillan.

Reviews

(Accepted, forthcoming) McDonald, B. T. 2023, "Review of K. Harper, Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History", Journal of Late Antiquity, John Hopkins University Press.

In-progress books

Climate, Environment, and Pandemics in the Roman Period. (Conversion of D. Phil. dissertation to a monograph).

S. R. Huebner and B. T. McDonald, "The Roman Climate Optimum", Studies in Premodern History and Environment Series, Oxford University Press.

In-progress articles

Korom, S. and McDonald, B. T. “The Medical File of Alexander the Great”.

Wilson, A. I., McDonald, B. T., and Papaconstantinou, A. “Climate Change and the Justinianic Plague”.