Michael Maas

Is Professor Emeritus of History at Rice University, in Houston, TX, where he taught for many years and was the Director of the Program in Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations. He received his BA from Cornell University in Classics and Anthropology and his PhD from UC Berkeley in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology.

He has published widely in the field of Late Antiquity. His most recent books are The Conqueror's Gift. Roman Ethnography and the End of Antiquity (Princeton University Press, 2025) and Empires and Indigenous Peoples. Comparing Ancient Roman and American Experiences, ed. with Fay Yarbrough (University of Oklahoma Press, 2024). Another volume, Empires and Exchanges in Eurasian Late Antiquity: Rome. China, Iran, and the Steppe, ca 250-750, ed. Michael Maas and Nicola Di Cosmo, (Cambridge University Press, 2018) won a CHOICE Academic Book of the Year Award.

At WIVA he will be working on a new project, a Historical Atlas of Late Antiquity, in collaboration with the Ancient World Mapping Center for Cambridge University Press. One aspect of this atlas will be the placement of Scandinavia within the frame of Eurasian Late Antiquity. WIVA is an ideal place to conduct this research. He is excited to be able to explore the history of this region with the assistance of the WIVA team.