Salve! My name is Giuseppe Castellano. I was born in Orlando, Florida, to an Icelandic mother and an Italian father, and have lived in London, Rome, New York City, Washington D.C., and Austin, Texas. I received my PhD in Classical Archaeology at the University of Texas at Austin in August 2019. I am currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Toronto, part of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)-funded project on the Italian economy, “An economic history of the Roman conquest of Italy, 500-200 BCE.”
My international upbringing and multicultural identity have strongly informed my primary research interest in cultural contact in the ancient Mediterranean world. In particular, I study cultural contact between the indigenous people of ancient Italy and Sicily and the Greeks through the trade in metals and their use as currency.
In addition to my primary interest in the role of metal currency and coinage in ancient cultural contact, I also study the history of coin collecting. I am particularly interested in the educational use of coin collections (see my piece on the University of Texas Swenson collection here). I also study ancient military practice, particularly the spread and adoption of different arms, armor, and military technologies throughout the Mediterranean in the context of cultural contact. Finally, I am trained in photogrammetry, which is the process of creating measurable 3D models from digital photosets.
I was honored to be in the first cohort of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Engaged Scholar Initiative at the University of Texas at Austin. The fellowship aims to foster public-facing scholarship in the humanities. In addition to supporting me while I wrote my dissertation and hosting a series of valuable seminars and workshops, the ESI program is funding my development of an ancient currency conversion website, Trapezites, pronounced “trap-ed-ZEE-tace,” the Classical Greek term for a banker and money-changer.
Please visit my blog for regular updates on my work.
Don’t hesitate to contact me at g.castellano@utoronto.ca gcastellano@utexas.edu or at the following physical address:
Giuseppe Carlo Castellano II, Ph.D
The University of Toronto, Department of Classics
125 Queens Park
Toronto, ON M5S 2C7