Peter (Chenye Shi) graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Peking University in Beijing. As an undergraduate, Peter received systematic training in different aspects of Classics. His research interest during this time was to combine all the sub-fields of traditional classics. This culminated in his thesis paper, “Scepticism in Cicero? Political Philosophy in the Late Republic,” which aimed at reviewing Cicero’s philosophical treatises in the broader political atmosphere of the Late Republic.
As a student of the MA program of CLST, Peter concentrates on the social history of the ancient Mediterranean under Roman Empire. His research interest primarily lies in the diet, nutrition, and physical health of ancient populations. Accordingly, he includes scientific approaches, especially biological and medical ones, in his studies. He believes nutritional studies can enhance our comprehension of the exact dangers ancient people were exposed to and also provide further evidence for other topics, such as demography and poverty in social history studies. Currently, he is working on his MA thesis, “Surviving in Egypt: Nutrition, Adaptation, and Health,” under the guidance of Professor William Harris. In addition, he intends to employ a comparative perspective between the ancient Greco-Roman World and ancient China. He believes the comparability between those two civilizations can provide models to offset the lack of evidence in given topics. Presently, he is assisting in the reconstruction of genealogical records in his hometown. In the future, he hopes to use results from those studies as a demographic reference for the ancient Mediterranean. Email Peter Shi.