Alberto Rigolio

Professor Alberto Rigolio is a leading scholar of Classics and Ancient History at Durham University, specializing in the cultural and intellectual history of the Eastern Mediterranean during the Roman and late antique periods. He holds a D.Phil. from Oxford University and has held prestigious fellowships at Harvard Dumbarton Oaks, Princeton Society of Fellows, and All Souls College Oxford. His research focuses on Syriac literature, Greco-Syro-Arabic translation movements, and religious debates in late antiquity. Rigolio has published extensively, including his award-winning monograph Christians in Conversation (2019), and currently leads projects supported by the British Academy and the Institute for Advanced Study. He supervises PhD students across multiple institutions and mentors postdoctoral researchers like Dr. Karl Heiner Dahm and Dr. Mara Nicosia. His work bridges classical antiquity with early Christian and Islamic intellectual traditions, emphasizing literary and educational exchanges in late antique societies.

Educations:

• D.Phil., University of Oxford (2014)
• MPhil/BA, University of Milan and Oxford

Research Interests: Syriac literary emergence, Greek-Syriac-Arabic translation networks, late antique dialogues, early Christian theology, and the cultural history of the Roman Near East. Rigolio's current projects investigate how Syriac became a major literary language and its role in transmitting Graeco-Roman thought to early medieval cultures.

Grants & Awards:

• British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship (2024)
• All Souls College Visiting Fellowship (2024)
• Princeton IAS Membership (2023)

Advising & Mentoring: Supervised 9 PhD students, including Cédrik Michel (Lancaster University Lecturer) and Lila Knight (awarded 2024). Mentors postdoctoral scholars in areas like Syriac rhetoric and late antique religious conflict.

Labs/Teams: Leads interdisciplinary research groups at Durham and collaborates with institutions like the Institute for Advanced Study, focusing on textual analysis and cultural history.