Jonathan Conant studies late ancient and early medieval history. His research focuses on the inter-regional integration of the Mediterranean, and he has a special interest in questions of identity, empire, interfaith interaction, sanctity, slavery, and documentary culture. His first book examines the fate of Romanness in North Africa between the Vandal and Islamic conquests (c. 439-700); his current work concerns the Carolingian Empire.

In his research, Jonathan Conant explores the inter-regional integration of the late ancient and early medieval Mediterranean. Most recently, his research has examined the cultural, social, and political connections between North Africa and the rest of the early medieval world. His book, Staying Roman: Conquest and Identity in North Africa and the Mediterranean, 439-700 (Cambridge University Press, 2012), represents the first historical examination of the fate of Roman identity in the region of modern Tunisia and Algeria after the collapse there of Roman power, from the Germanic Vandals' capture of the territory in the early fifth century, through the sixth-century Byzantine reconquest, down to the Islamic invasions of the Maghrib in the late seventh and early eighth centuries. Though most studies of the early Middle Ages focus on the creation of new, non-Roman identities out of the encounter between "barbarians" and provincial Romans, Conant argues that the idea of being Roman never really ceased to be fundamental among key elements of early medieval society, both in Africa and beyond, even after direct imperial control of the West had long since collapsed. However, he contends that what it meant to be Roman in the early Middle Ages was constantly changing; and in Africa specifically, the Vandal conquest precipitated the emergence of three competing definitions of Romanness – political, cultural, and religious – all of which remained operational into the early Islamic era and beyond.

Conant's second book project focuses on Carolingian external relations and how these illuminate the Frankish rulers' understanding and exercise of empire. Conant has also authored shorter pieces on the diffusion of North African saints' cults in the early medieval Mediterranean; on lay literacy and documentary practice in late Roman and early medieval North Africa; and on the Vandal-era North African Jewish community.

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Books:

Staying Roman: Conquest and Identity in Africa and the Mediterranean, 439–700 (Cambridge University Press, 2012)

Articles and Chapters:

"Public Administration, Private Individuals, and the Written Word in Late Antique North Africa, c. 284–700." In: Laypeople and Documents in the Early Middle Ages, ed. A.J. Kosto, M. Innes, W.C. Brown, and M. Costambeys (Cambridge University Press, 2013). Pp. 36–62

"Europe and the African Cult of Saints, circa 350–-900: An Essay in Mediterranean Communications." Speculum 85 (2010): 1–46

"Private Documentation and Literacy in Vandal North Africa: The Case of the Albertini Tablets." In: Vandals, Romans and Berbers: New Perspectives on Late Antique Africa, ed. A.H. Merrills (Aldershot: Ashgate Press, 2004). Pp. 199–224

Forthcoming:

North Africa under Byzantium and Early Islam, ca. 500–ca. 800. Co-edited with Susan T. Stevens (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, in production)

“Sanctity and the Networks of Empire.” In: North Africa under Byzantium and Early Islam, ca. 500–ca. 800, ed. Susan T. Stevens and Jonathan P. Conant (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, in production)

"Louis the Pious and the Contours of Empire." Early Medieval Europe (in production)

“Romanness in the Age of Attila.” In: The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Attila, ed. Michael Maas (Cambridge University Press, in production)

Charles A. Ryskamp Research Fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies, 2014

Andrew Heiskell Post-Doctoral Rome Prize, American Academy in Rome, 2009-2010

Junior Fellowship in Byzantine Studies, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C., 2002-2003

Packard Fellowship, Harvard University, 2001-2002

Graduate Seminar in Numismatics, American Numismatic Society, New York, summer 1999

Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, 1997-2001

American Historical Association

Medieval Academy of America

American Academy in Rome

Jonathan Conant's teaching focuses on the fall of the Roman Empire, the early medieval Mediterranean world, late antique North Africa, the empire of Charlemagne, and the Vikings.