Kristina Sessa

Biographic Data

ID5629130
NAMEKristina Sessa
GIVEN NAMESKristina
FAMILY NAMESessa
SIGNATURESESSA K
AFFILIATIONSThe Ohio State University
VERIFIEDNo
TOTAL WORKS11
TOTAL CITATIONS13
WORKS AS AUTHOR10
WORKS AS EDITOR1
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2011
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX1

  • War and Community in Late Antiquity

    Open AccessKim Bowes, Ellen Muehlberger et al.EDITORBOOKWar and Community in Late Antiquity2026

    Late Antiquity (ca. 250–600 CE) was a world at war: barbarian migrations, civil wars, raids, and increasingly porous frontiers affected millions of its inhabitants. While military and political historians have long grappled with this history, scholars of late antique society and culture rarely interrogate the consequences of near constant warfare on civilian populations, fighting forces, and the built environment. War and Community in Late Antiqu…

  • Emerging Scholars of Late Antiquity

    Kristina SessaARTICLEStudies in Late Antiquity2025

    Issue 9.1 marks a new stage of SLA's mission to expand the study of Late Antiquity to new communities of scholars.In 2023-24, we inaugurated the Access Mentorship Program (AMP) with the aim of diversifying the field of late ancient studies.Each year, SLA solicits applications and invites a small cohort of high school or undergraduate students from underrepresented backgrounds to participate in a year-long research experience.Each mentee is paired…

  • Problems, Progress, and Prospects

    Timothy P Newfield, Timothy Newfield et al.ARTICLEStudies in Late Antiquity2025

  • Pathogen Paleogenetics and Late Antique Disease

    Dionysios Stathakopoulos, K Harper et al.ARTICLEStudies in Late Antiquity2025

  • The First Plague Pandemic in the Byzantine Empire – Toward a New Dynamic Consensus

    Open AccessDionysios Stathakopoulos, Timothy Newfield et al.ARTICLEHuman Ecology2025References: 11

  • Presentism and the Study of Late Antiquity

    Kristina SessaARTICLEStudies in Late Antiquity2022

    In his September 2022 Perspectives on History column addressed to members of the American Historical Association, President James H. Sweet reflected on the currents of “presentism” in the profession, calling out what he saw as the anachronistic use of the past for political interests in a range of contemporary settings, from Samuel Alito’s majority decision to overturn Roe v. Wade to a Ghanaian tourist site associated with the African slave trade…

  • Keep Late Antiquity Weird

    Kristina SessaARTICLEStudies in Late Antiquity2022

    As historical periods go, Late Antiquity is neither fish nor fowl. Straddled by epochs with broadly recognizable attributes (city states and temples! kingdoms and churches!), Late Antiquity escapes easy definition. Scholars continue to debate the period’s most essential elements, from when it began (the third century?) to when it ended (the seventh century?) to whether its most salient features were religious (the rise of Christianity, rabbinic J…

  • Urban Developments in Late Antique and Medieval Rome

    Ann Karin van Dijk, Dale Kinney et al.BOOKUrban Developments in Late…2021

    A narrative of decline punctuated by periods of renewal has long structured perceptions of Rome's late antique and medieval history. In their probing contributions to this volume, a multi-disciplinary group of scholars provides alternative approaches to understanding the period. Addressing developments in governance, ceremony, literature, art, music, clerical education and the city's very sense of its own identity, the essays examine how a variet…

  • The New Environmental Fall of Rome

    Kristina SessaARTICLEJournal of late antiquity2019Cited by: 13References: 10

    A series of recent publications, both scholarly and popular, has identified the physical environment as a primary historical agent in the Roman Empire's development and decline as a major (and distinct) political, cultural, and economic entity. This essay presents a critical review of the professional scholarship that argues for Rome's putative "decline and fall" due to major environmental crises, namely climate change and the first global pandem…

  • The Formation of Papal Authority in Late Antique Italy

    Open AccessKristina SessaBOOKFormation of Papal Authority in…2011

    This book is the first cultural history of papal authority in late antiquity. While most traditional histories posit a 'rise of the papacy' and examine popes as politicians, theologians and civic leaders, Kristina Sessa focuses on the late Roman household and its critical role in the development of the Roman church from c.350–600. She argues that Rome's bishops adopted the ancient elite household as a model of good government for leading the chur…

  • Formation of Papal Authority in Late Antique Italy

    Kristina SessaBOOKFormation of Papal Authority in…2011