Banner for CLSC vertical bar Socio-Legal Studies Book Talk: Mark Letteney - Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration

CLSC | Socio-Legal Studies Book Talk: Mark Letteney - Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration

by School of Law

Workshop Law Law - Alumni Law - CLSC Law - General Public Law - HP Law - Students

Fri, Feb 6, 2026

12 PM – 1:15 PM PST (GMT-8)

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Law Building (LAW), LAW 3500

401 East Peltason Drive, Irvine , CA 92697, United States

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Mark Letteney, Assistant Professor and Carol Thomas Endowed Professor of Ancient History at the University of Washington, will discuss Ancient Mediterranian Incarceration (UC Press, 2025).

Publisher's Description
This book examines spaces, practices, and ideologies of incarceration in the ancient Mediterranean basin from 300 BCE to 600 CE. Analyzing a wide range of sources—including legal texts, archaeological findings, documentary evidence, and visual materials—Matthew D. C. Larsen and Mark Letteney argue that prisons were integral to the social, political, and economic fabric of ancient societies. Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration traces a long history of carceral practices, considering ways in which the institution of prison has been fundamentally intertwined with issues of class, ethnicity, gender, and imperialism. By foregrounding the voices and experiences of the imprisoned, Larsen and Letteney demonstrate the extraordinary durability of carceral structures across time and call for a new historical consciousness around contemporary practices of incarceration.

Co-hosted by the Department of History and Department of Criminology, Law & Society.

Hosted by the UCI Center in Law, Society and Culture, the Socio-Legal Studies Workshop is an interdisciplinary seminar that brings together scholars both within and beyond the UCI community working at the intersections of law, social sciences, humanities, and the arts to discuss works-in-progress. The Workshop also features a series of book talks in which authors discuss their recently published work.

To request reasonable accommodations for a disability, please contact centers@law.uci.edu.