Lluís Jerez Bertolín

• Grau in History: Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona, Catalonia), 2017
• MRes in Late Antiquity: University of Birmingham, 2019

In 2017 I earned a "Grau" (equivalent to the British B.A.) in History at the "Universitat Rovira i Virgili", with double specialization in Prehistory, History and Archaeology up to the First Millennium and History of Social and Political Formations. My bachelor's dissertation delved into rural slavery in the Iberian Peninsula between the 4th and 7th centuries AD and was supervised by Prof. Amancio Isla. Afterwards, in 2019, I achieved an MRes in Late Antiquity at the University of Birmingham with a dissertation on the interaction between circumcellions and debt in the North African countryside supervised by Dr Gareth Sears and Dr Daniel Reynolds, which passed with no corrections.

During my undergraduate studies I was an intern at the "Museu d'Història de Tarragona" (History Museum of Tarragona) aiding the catalogation of their collection. During my PhD I have worked as a Coin Collection Assistant at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, where I contributed to the digitisation of their coin collection for public availability. I have also worked as a Postgraduate Teaching Assistant in the Beginner's Latin Module, teaching students from second year to Masters level.

I have had some experience teaching at almost all levels of education as a private tutor, a supply teacher in English Language at the "Institut d'Educació Secundaria Matadepera" (Matadepera, Catalonia), and volunteering in outreach programmes both in Catalonia and the UK. At the University level I have organised and run the weekly seminar sessions of the two-semester Beginner's Latin module as a Postgraduate Teaching Assistant. As part of this post I have also evaluated the formative assessment assignments of my students and provided contact hours to aid them in their learning.

PhD title

Rural Wage Labour in Late Antique North Africa

Supervisors

Dr Gareth Sears and Dr Daniel Reynolds

Course

Classics and Ancient History PhD/MA by Research (On-Campus or by Distance Learning)

My research delves into the organisation and characteristics of rural wage labour in the North Africa of the 4th and 5th centuries CE, especially for labour-intensive agricultural tasks such as the harvest. My thesis focuses on the organisation of contractor-led harvesting gangs, the social provenance of harvest contractors, the identities and origins of rural wage workers, and the ways breaches in wage labour arrangements were mediated. I pursue this line of enquiry through my knowledge of methodologies for the analysis of textual, epigraphic, archaeological and numismatic sources.

Other research interests include labour relationships in Late Antique rural contexts, the interplay between sectarian and secular violence in Late Roman North Africa and the evolution of trends in historiography in both ancient labour relationships and the Circumcellion phenomenon.

Conference Papers

• "From handling a sickle to owning a villa: tracing exceptionality in the social ascension of the Harvester of Maktar (CIL 8, 11824)". Individuals behind Documents, University of Manchester (on-line), 25 October 2021.
• "Just Laws and Restrained Insolences: the rationale behind the use of waged harvesting gangs in the Roman World". University of Birmingham’s Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology Postgraduate Colloquium, University of Birmingham (on-line), 19 May 2021.

Grants

• Recipient of a Stanley Ray Scholarship

Membership of Organisations and Organising Roles

• General Editor of the Rosetta Journal (2020-2021)
• Book Reviews and Responses Editor of the Rosetta Journal (2019-2020)
• Organising Committee Member, "A Workshop on Rural Communities in Ancient Greece" (online, 30th October 2020)
• Lead Organiser, "University of Birmingham’s Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology Postgraduate Colloquium" (online, 24th July 2020)