![Rachel Wood BA (Hons), MSt, DPhil, FHEA](https://profiles-cardiff.imgix.net/attachments/9479?w=200&h=200&auto=format&crop=faces&fit=crop&q=90")
Dr Rachel Wood
BA (Hons), MSt, DPhil, FHEA
Teams and roles for Rachel Wood
Lecturer in Hellenistic History
School of Global Humanities
Overview
My research focuses on how art and visual culture played a role in shaping experience in the Hellenistic world (c.330-c.30 BC), especially in the Middle East and Central Asia, in and around the Seleukid empire. I am particularly interested in what we can learn from iconography and objects about modes of cultural interaction and ancient religions. I teach a range of subjects in ancient history and archaeology, from the Classical period to late antiquity across the Mediterranean to Central Asia.
Publication
2021
- Wood, R. 2021. Takht-i Sangin. [Online].Encyclopaedia Iranica: Available at: https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/takht-i-sangin/.
- Elsner, J. and Wood, R. eds. 2021. Imagining the divine: Exploring art in religions of Late Antiquity across Eurasia. London: British Museum.
- Wood, R. 2021. Response to R. Hobbs, 'Use of decorated silver Plate in Imperial Rome and Sasanian Iran'. In: Elsner, J. and Wood, R. eds. Imagining the Divine: Art in Religions of Late Antiquity across Eurasia. London: British Museum Press. , pp.150-154.
2020
- Wood, R. 2020. Connecting art and Zoroastrianism in Sasanian studies. In: Elsner, J. ed. Empires of Faith in Late Antiquity: Histories of Art and Religion from India to Ireland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. , pp.223-259. (10.1017/9781108564465.011)
2018
- Wood, R. 2018. The Khosro Cup Replication Project. [Exhibition and video] Ashmolean Museum, Oxford 19 Oct 2017-18 Feb 2018.
- Kelley, K. and Wood, R. eds. 2018. Digital imaging of artefacts: Developments in methods and aims. Oxford: Archeopress.
- Wood, R. 2018. Wandering hero, wandering myths? The image of Heracles in Iran. In: Audley-Miller, L. G. and Dignas, B. eds. Wandering Myths: Transcultural Uses of Myth in the Ancient World. De Gruyter. , pp.327-355. (10.1515/9783110421453-014)
2017
- Wood, R. and Ali, N. 2017. The emergence of Islamic art. In: Elsner, J. , Lenk, S. and Parpulov, G. eds. Imagining the Divine: Art and the Rise of World Religions. Oxford: Ashmolean. , pp.135-161.
- Adrych, P. et al., 2017. Images of Mithra. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (10.1093/oso/9780198792536.001.0001)
2011
- Wood, R. 2011. Cultural convergence in Bactria: the votives from the Temple of the Oxos at Takht-i Sangin. In: Kouremenos, A. , Chandrasekaran, S. and Rossi, R. eds. From Pella to Gandhara: Hybridisation and Identity in the Art and Architecture of the Hellenistic East. British Archaeological Reports. , pp.141-152.
Book sections
- Wood, R. 2021. Response to R. Hobbs, 'Use of decorated silver Plate in Imperial Rome and Sasanian Iran'. In: Elsner, J. and Wood, R. eds. Imagining the Divine: Art in Religions of Late Antiquity across Eurasia. London: British Museum Press. , pp.150-154.
- Wood, R. 2020. Connecting art and Zoroastrianism in Sasanian studies. In: Elsner, J. ed. Empires of Faith in Late Antiquity: Histories of Art and Religion from India to Ireland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. , pp.223-259. (10.1017/9781108564465.011)
- Wood, R. 2018. Wandering hero, wandering myths? The image of Heracles in Iran. In: Audley-Miller, L. G. and Dignas, B. eds. Wandering Myths: Transcultural Uses of Myth in the Ancient World. De Gruyter. , pp.327-355. (10.1515/9783110421453-014)
- Wood, R. and Ali, N. 2017. The emergence of Islamic art. In: Elsner, J. , Lenk, S. and Parpulov, G. eds. Imagining the Divine: Art and the Rise of World Religions. Oxford: Ashmolean. , pp.135-161.
- Wood, R. 2011. Cultural convergence in Bactria: the votives from the Temple of the Oxos at Takht-i Sangin. In: Kouremenos, A. , Chandrasekaran, S. and Rossi, R. eds. From Pella to Gandhara: Hybridisation and Identity in the Art and Architecture of the Hellenistic East. British Archaeological Reports. , pp.141-152.
Books
- Elsner, J. and Wood, R. eds. 2021. Imagining the divine: Exploring art in religions of Late Antiquity across Eurasia. London: British Museum.
- Kelley, K. and Wood, R. eds. 2018. Digital imaging of artefacts: Developments in methods and aims. Oxford: Archeopress.
- Adrych, P. et al., 2017. Images of Mithra. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (10.1093/oso/9780198792536.001.0001)
Exhibitions
- Wood, R. 2018. The Khosro Cup Replication Project. [Exhibition and video] Ashmolean Museum, Oxford 19 Oct 2017-18 Feb 2018.
Websites
- Wood, R. 2021. Takht-i Sangin. [Online].Encyclopaedia Iranica: Available at: https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/takht-i-sangin/.
Teaching
I am module convenor for the Year 2 option 'From the Hellenistic World to the Roman Empire' and the Year 3 'After Alexander: society and culture from the Euphrates to the Oxus' and the Ancient History Dissertation.
I teach on various modules, including:
Year 1
- Investigating the Ancient World: Skills and Evidence
- Ancient Objects Then and Now
- Empires East and West 323 BCE - 680 CE
- A World Full of Gods
- The Archaeology of Mediterranean Societies: Egypt, Greece and Rome
Year 2
- Past and Present: Encountering Antiquity
- An Introduction to Greek Art and Archaeology
- A Visual History of Early South Asia
- From the Hellenistic World to the Roman Empire
- Independent Project
Year 3
- After Alexander: society and culture from the Euphrates to the Oxus
- Dissertation
MA
- Doing Ancient History: Themes and Approaches
Biography
Lecturer in Hellenistic History, University of Cardiff, 2024-
Departmental Lecturer in Classical Archaeology, University of Oxford, 2018-2024
Lecturer in Classical Archaeology, Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 2018-2023
Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, 2019-2021
Junior Research Fellow, Wolfson College, Oxford, 2014-2020
Co-curator, 'Imagining the Divine: Art and the Rise of World Religions', an exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford open from Oct 2017-Feb 2018.
Postdoctoral researcher, Empires of Faith project, The British Museum and University of Oxford, 2013-2018, in Sasanian art and religion
Archaeology DPhil (Oxf) 2013 'After the Achaemenids: exchange, transmission, and transformation in art in the visual culture of Babylonia, Iran, and Bactria c.330-c.100 BC' Supervisors: Prof. R.R.R. Smith and Prof. Rachel Mairs
Classical Archaeology MSt (Oxf) 2008
Classical Archaeology & Ancient History BA (Hons) (Oxf) 2007
Contact Details
Research themes
Specialisms
- Classical Archaeology
- Hellenistic history
- Art history
- Iconography
- Ancient Iran