Kendra Eshleman

Kendra Eshleman is an Associate Professor of Classical Studies at Boston College, affiliated with the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences. She holds a Ph.D. and specializes in Roman history with a focus on the Second Sophistic movement and early Christianity. Her research examines how identity formation among intellectuals in the Roman Empire (1st–3rd centuries CE) was shaped by social networks and affiliations.

Teaching includes advanced Latin/Greek seminars on Tacitus, Apuleius, Cicero, Livy, and Herodotus, as well as courses on Roman history, law, medicine, and religion. Her 2012 book The Social World of Intellectuals in the Roman Empire explores how belonging influenced identity among philosophers, sophists, and Christians.

Her publications span topics like ancient biography (e.g., Oxford Handbook of Ancient Biography), cultural geography (Journeys in the Roman East), and interdisciplinary studies of medicine/legal practices under Rome. She co-edits the Culture, Religion and Politics in the Greco-Roman World series (Mohr Siebeck).