Professor Rafael Scopacasa

I am Assistant Professor ​in the History Department at the University of ​S​ão Paulo (​Brazil)​, and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter, where I completed my PhD in Classics and Ancient History in 20​10.

My full CV is available here and here.

My most recent research explores human-climate interactions in antiquity, with particular emphasis on the interface between climatic change, environmental shocks, and social inequality in rural and/or provincial contexts of (early) Roman Italy/ the Mediterranean: such dynamics form the focus of an ongoing research project entitled “Calamitas: perceptions and experiences of climatic-environmental shocks in the Roman Mediterranean”.

My long-term work has investigated identity formation and cultural change in Italy in the context of the early Roman expansion, focusing on the Samnite communities of the central Italian highlands. I have also addressed dynamics of social marginalization in the ancient Mediterranean, in connection with phases of accelerated historical and environmental change.