As a classicist and ancient historian, I study the social and cultural history of Graeco-Roman and Late Antiquity, paying particular attention to the human life course: childhood, youth, family, sexuality, and disabilities. My monographs and over 200 contributions have been published with internationally renowned publishers and journals.

I came to Manchester in September 2018, after a career as a secondary school teacher of classics, and an academic path in Belgium (mainly Antwerp), Finland, Switzerland, and Italy. I held guest professorships at several European and American universities: Coimbra, Hamilton (Colgate), Leuven, Oslo, Nicosia (Open University), Tampere, and Vilnius. Since June 2013, I have been granted the title of Adjunct Professor (Docent) in Ancient History at the History Department of Tampere University (Finland).  From the 1st of August 2014 to the 1st of August 2016, I was a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Social Research at the same university. From October 2016 on, I became an Invited Professor at the Pontificium Institutum Altioris Latinitatis (Salesiana, Rome). In 2016-2017 I acted as an Inspector for Classical Languages with the Flemish Ministery of Education. In 2017-2018, I was a Visiting Professor at the University of Fribourg, with research on play and education with Véronique Dasen and the team of the ERC Advanced Grant Locus Ludi. The Cultural Fabric of Play and Games in Classical Antiquity (FNS Scientific Exchange Grant 1.10.2017-31.3.2018). In 2023, I was a professorial fellow at the BCDSS, University of Bonn.

In Manchester, I was the main supervisor of three PhD’s. I acquired significant funding for two major international conferences (partly with Hallsworth Fund). Both meetings on vital topics like Intellectual Disabilities and Old Age and Rulers produced important volumes that expand our knowledge of the ancient world to cultures such as early Islam and China.

My current project is the fascinating and highly understudied Aesop Novel, for which I prepare the first full commentary ever. Four articles about this Life of Aesop are forthcoming, while a Dutch monograph for a wider audience has done remarkably well for a book on ancient history. 

Since more than a decade, I have studied disability history of Antiquity. Next to two monographs, four edited bookvolumes and several articles, this interest also led to the development of a website Disability History and the Ancient World, containing a regularly updated bibliography on the subject.

For my research, I have made extensive use of inscriptional evidence. My love for documentary philology, mainly epigraphy, caused me to be involved in the excavations of Grumentum. An edition of the epigraphical material of this Roman town in Lucania was published in November 2020. In 2022, I was nominated as a collaborator (for Regio III in Italy and for Britannia – since 2024 for the whole of Italy in ZPE) of l'Année Épigraphique.

Educated as a classical philologist, I have kept my zeal for Latin language and literature, occasionally publishing on fabulous Neo-Latin writers such as Nodot, Schnur, De Groot, De Laet, Van Torre, Pascoli, Galante Bartoli and Martinelli. As a Sodalis and President of the established Academia Latinitati Fovendae (since 2022, re-election in 2025), I promote the use of the Latin language.

I am also passionate about the didactics of Latin and Ancient Greek, including the beginners level. As such, I acted as an expert, appointed by the Flemish Minister of Education, for the development of new attainment targets of classical languages (2019-2020). As the president (2013-2020) of Classica Vlaanderen I actively supported the cause of ancient languages in the Flemish secondary school system and in European context, including the development of a new series of Latin handbooks. In 2019, I was elected as the new president of Euroclassica, in 2023 I was offered a second term after re-election. Just have a look at the promotional video of our most successful 2024 of the conference at Vivarium Novum, Frascati, in Italy.

I fully engage in outreach and public service. I have been an elected Council Member of the Roman Society (2019-2023) and a member of the evaluation body of the Swiss SNF SPIRIT Evaluation Commission. I also was an expert for the development of attainment targets in classics in Flanders: for the government, the central exam commission and the network of Catholic schools. I am the expert for the yearly translation contest of Virgil for Flemish schools. In 2025, I became the editor in chief of the long-standing Flemish journal Kleio. Tijdschrift voor oude talen en antieke cultuur, which I immediately transferred to an established publisher, Peeters, Leuven. I also act as the chair of the Vlaamse Wetenschappelijke Stichting.

In my free time, I am a keen traveller. A taste for fine dining is one of my weaknesses.  

You can find me on Facebook, Instagram (@laeschristian), and X (@ChristianL14405). Please have a look at my personal webpage too, which is still under construction. See also this recent interview on why studying classics. I now regularly post my views and opinions on social media – feel free to share and (dis)agree.

Teaching in the academic year 2025-2026:

CAHE 20052: The Roman Empire 31 BC - AD 313

CAHE 30211-70211: Advanced Latin Language 2

CAHE 30311-70331: Advanced Latin Language 3

Enhancement Latin Epigraphy: (part of the Intensive Latin 1 course)

Teaching in the academic year 2024-2025:

CAHE 20051: The Roman Empire 31 BC - AD 313

CAHE 30211-70211: Advanced Latin Language 2

CAHE 30311-70331: Advanced Latin Language 3

No teaching in the second semester, due to academic leave.

Teaching in the academic year 2023-2024:

CAHE 20051:  The Roman Empire 31 BC - AD 313

CAHE 25211/35211:  Education and Schools in the Greek and Roman Worlds

CAHE 30220-70220:  Advanced Ancient Greek 2

CAHE 30320-70320:  Advanced Ancient Greek 3

CAHE 60001: Directed Reading [Education and Schools in the Greek and Roman Worlds]

CAHE 66811: Speaking Stones. Roman Epigraphy

Teaching in the academic year 2022-2023:

No teaching, academic leave in the first semester and Professorial Research Fellowship at the University of Bonn in the second semester.

Teaching in the academic year 2021-2022:

CAHE 20051:  The Roman Empire 31BC - AD 313

CAHE 25212/35212:   Education and Schools in the Greek and Roman Worlds           

CAHE 30390/66910:   Living Latin

CAHE 60002: Directed Reading [Education and Schools in the Greek and Roman Worlds]

CAHE 66811:  Speaking Stones. Roman Epigraphy

Teaching in the academic year 2020-2021:

 CAHE 20051:  The Roman Empire 31BC - AD 313 

 CAHE 30441:   Families in the Greek and Roman Worlds (6th c. BCE -3 c. CE) 

 CAHE 30220-70220: Advanced Ancient Greek 2

 CAHE 30320-70320: Advanced Ancient Greek 3

 CAHE 60002: Directed Reading [Early Christianity and the Roman Empire]

 CAHE10022:  From Republic to Empire [seminars only]

Teaching in the academic year 2019-2020:

CAHE 20052:  The Roman Empire 31BC - AD 312 

CAHE 30441:   Families in the Greek and Roman Worlds (6th c. BCE -3 c. CE) 

CAHE 30220-70220: Advanced Ancient Greek 2

CAHE 30320-70320: Advanced Ancient Greek 3

CAHE 30390: Living Latin

CAHE 60002: Directed Reading [Early Christianity and the Roman Empire]

Teaching in the academic year 2018-2019:

CLAH 30442: Families in the Greek and Roman Worlds (6th c. BCE -3 c. CE) 

CLAH 30220: Advanced Greek Language 2

CLAH 30320: Advanced Greek Language 3

CLAH 20052: The Roman Empire: 31 BC - AD 235: Rome's Golden Age  [only weekly seminars]

CLAH 60002: Directed Reading [socio-cultural history and the life course]