Professor John Ma FBA

Summary

Born in New York of Chinese immigrant parents, John Ma moved at age six to Geneva, where he grew up and was educated. Studied Classics at Oxford as an undergraduate (mainly Greek and Latin literature and ancient history within the Literae Humaniores degree) and graduate student. Has taught, and conducted research on, ancient history in the UK and the USA; has held visiting appointments in France, Israel, and Italy.

Interested in the history of the ancient Greek world, especially as seen through documentary and archaeological evidence, and in regional test-cases (such as the sub-regions of Asia Minor). He has a particular interest in the Hellenistic period (ca. 350-ca. 100 BCE). Part of his work has focused on ancient empires, as structures of power, control and extraction and as spaces of discourse, negotiation, and representation.

Another focus of his work has been the story of the Greek polis as a city-state, i.e. a political form. This has meant looking at the external aspects of polis life (autonomy or subordination, aggression or collaboration) as well as the internal aspects (political regimes between oligarchy, family rule and democracy; social relations between mass and elite; civic life; social life).  On these topics, he has published three monographs ('Antiochos III and the Cities of Western Asia Minor', 1999; 'Statues and Cities', 2013; Polis, 2024).

His current projects lie in Hellenistic history: looking at the articulation between political institutions and discourse on the one hand, and social practice on the other; connecting various types of evidence (epigraphical, literary and archaeological) at different scales; writing a global history of the Hellenistic period from the Atlantic to Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, and from Continental Europe to Subsaharan Africa (if this is possible).