Katherine Dunbabin

Katherine Dunbabin is an archaeologist specialising in Roman art and Professor Emerita of Classics at McMaster University.

Career

Dunbabin studied at the University of Oxford, and was awarded her doctorate in 1970. Her thesis was titled Studies in the mosaic pavements of Roman North Africa. When Dunbabin started her DPhil there was little English-language research into Roman art. Her first book, The mosaics of Roman North Africa: studies in iconography and patronage with the Clarendon Press, was published in 1978. It was based on her doctoral research. Barry Cunliffe described it as 'a contribution to classical studies of considerable significance, for not only does it give a thorough treatment to a body of material of outstanding beauty and interest, but in doing so it greatly enlivens our understanding of the social, economic and artistic systems which pervade the Roman world.' Her interest in the subject of Roman art continued, and in 1999 she published a book, Mosaics of the Greek and Roman World, with Cambridge University Press. A review in The Telegraph described the book as 'a masterpiece of visual, historical, technical and social analysis'.

While preparing a book on mosaics, Dunbabin began researching Roman dining spaces, looking particularly at how they were decorated. This led to Dunbabin publishing a second book with Cambridge University Press, exploring how art can be used to give insight into social history.