Thomas Clements

Dr Clements is a Greek historian focusing on the Archaic and Classical periods. He received a BA (Hons) in History from Lancaster University (2016) and a MA in Classics and Ancient History (2017) from the University of Manchester. In 2017, he was awarded a studentship by the North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership, part of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, to complete a PhD, on territory and territoriality in ancient Sparta, which he completed in 2022. He first joined the staff at Manchester in the same year as Lecturer in Graeco-Roman Material Culture (2022), before taking up his current role of Lecturer in Greek History. He has previously been a member of the British School at Athens. In the 2024/25 academic year, Dr Clements will be Early Career Fellow in Hellenic Studies at the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington DC and Margo Tytus Visiting Fellow within the Department of Classics at the University of Cincinnati. 

Dr Clements' main research interests lie in the social, economic and cultural history of ancient Greece, with a particular interest in ancient Sparta. His doctoral research examined the nature of territory and the processes of territoriality in ancient Sparta, employing critical ideas about state formation and drawing on the full breadth of literary, epigraphic and archaeological evidence. He is currently working on a monograph on the subject. 

His previous research has concerned processes of regional formation and interaction. He has a strong interest in the way that pre-modern societies impose themselves on landscapes and communities, the techniques they use, and the extent to which they can be considered institutionally competant and has several chapters in preparation on the subject. He is also interested in the reception of ancient Sparta, with a paper in preparation on the reception of Sparta's alleged policy of exposure by eugenicists. 

Dr Clements' teaching mostly concerns Greek history and language, though he has also taught more widely in ancient history and Classical archaeology.

In 2023/24, he will be involved in the teaching of the following courses:

CAHE10012 - Constructing Archaic Greek History

CAHE10131 - The Making of the Mediterranean

CAHE10231 - Cities and Citizens: Studying the Ancient Mediterranean

CAHE30162/70162 - Intensive Greek 2 

CAHE61121 - Using the Past: History and Memory in the Greek World