Assistant Professor of Classics
Ph.D. in Classics, Duke University
Office: 246
michael.freeman@ttu.edu
CV

Dr. Freeman specializes in ancient Mediterranean social and cultural history, the history of the book, religion and magic in the ancient world. Much of his work focuses on the reading and writing culture of Greek and Roman antiquity, in particular the lived experiences of ancient Mediterranean scribes and how their training prepared them to produce texts for their communities. His monograph The Training and the Lived Experiences of Ancient Mediterranean Scribes (Oxford UP, under contract) asks "How did ancient scribes learn their trade?" That is, how did the individuals responsible for recording and preserving the bulk of ancient history and literature acquire the skills needed to accomplish this monumental, world-changing task? He is also working on several, interconnected articles exploring the relationships within ancient religious communities between their readers, writers and scribes.

Books

Hands That Write: The Training and the Lived Experiences of Ancient Mediterranean Scribes. (under contract). Oxford University Press.

Articles and Book Chapters

• “Embodying Voces Magicae,” co-authored with Amanda C. Ball. In S. Torallas-Tovar, R. Martín-Hernández, P. Sarischouli (eds.). Voces Magicae and the Power of the Unintelligible (in press). 
• “The Fackelmann Papyri at Duke University,” BASP 62 (2025): 247-262.
• “The Body of the Scribe,” Classical Journal 120.4 (2025): 450-478.
• Magic in the Ancient World: An Exhibit at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, April 16, 2016-April 30, 2017 (exhibition catalog), co-authored with Robert G. Ousterhout and Grant Frame. Philadelphia: History of Art Department at the University of Pennsylvania (2016).

Reviews of

• Scribes and Language Use in the Graeco-Roman World, Sonja Dahlgren, Martti Leiwo, and Marja Vierros (eds.). Commentationes humanarum litterarum, 147. Helsinki: The Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters, in BMCR, 2025.12.03.

Recent Awards and Honors

• ASP Travel Award, American Society of Papyrologists (2024)
• Papyrology Summer Institute Fellowship, American Society of Papyrologists and Istituto Papirologico “G. Vitelli” (2024)