by Ian Bonze (University of St. Andrews)
The two-day conference Poverty Dynamics in the Long Late Antiquity was organised by Professor Carlos Machado and Ian Bonze on 22–23 July 2026 at the School of Classics, University of St Andrews. Our event brought together 19 speakers on the late antique period, including early-career and established scholars, to discuss the impact of poverty drivers, broadly understood, on daily lives, cultural values, and power hierarchies. We advertised the conference on various social media platforms and mailing lists, which generated significant interest in attending. Given the high number of people registered to attend in person and the room’s limited capacity of 35 seats, we decided to make our event hybrid. This decision allowed 50 other people, from the UK and abroad, to register to attend our event online. Additionally, two of our speakers could not attend in person due to unforeseen circumstances and presented online.
Group photograph of conference participants, image supplied by the conference organisers, all rights reserved the image maker (2026)
The conference programme was divided into six thematic sections, in which speakers presented new approaches to understanding the role of poverty in late antique societies, followed by rounds of discussion. Over 2 days, our speakers delved into a variety of poverty drivers, such as divorce, health, food consumption, and debt, and the strategies poor individuals used to cope with these socio-economic pressures. We are very grateful for the financial support offered by Past and Present Society (along with co-funders, the School of Classics, the CUCD, and the ICS), which was used to cover the expenses of accommodation and transport for our speakers.
Conference participants participating in a tour, image by Ian Bonze, all rights reserved (2026)
Despite the plurality of themes and temporalities, our speakers had a few points in common: 1) Defining the poor and poverty is essential but not sufficient. The notion of “poor” can also be rhetorically constructed, as Dr James Palmer put it, “a cosplay of poverty”. In this sense, analysis across social groups shows that these categories cannot be separated. Not only church leaders, such as bishops, presbyters, and monks, talked about the poor; aristocrats and the state did so too. Late antique society spoke clearly about poverty, and this production of discourse is an expression of power, with a considerable impact on behaviours and hierarchies. 2) The power to identify and name the poor is a form of social classification; in other words, it is an intervention in social life, and regulating the lives of the poor remains a way of intervening in the broader social world. 3) The poor, no matter how we may identify or classify them, did not suffer passively. There was a concrete social dimension in which people living in poverty responded to socio-economic pressures in practical ways, such as begging, borrowing, running away to churches, or selling or pledging children. The poor were dynamic economic agents who also impacted society economically and socially. 4) The discussions called for more archaeological (bio and zoo) excavations that go beyond traditional priorities like buildings and focus more on people and their lived experiences. At the same time, it is necessary to revisit older excavations and written sources to reassess the issue of poverty. At the end of the conference, our speakers and attendees had a free tour around the town of St Andrews, generously given by Prof Alex Woolf of the School of Medieval History at the University of St Andrews.
Conference participants participating in a tour, image by Ian Bonze, all rights reserved (2026)
Given the success of this two-day conference, we are planning the publication of the proceedings. We are currently compiling titles and abstracts from our speakers and considering which publishers to approach. To that end, we are also consulting experts in the field. Our goal is to publish a book examining the social history of the late antique and early medieval world. Many dramatic events and processes marked these periods; we argue that they can be reviewed and reframed, particularly when we consider quotidian dimensions, such as the lives of the poor.