Biography
Owen is an interdisciplinary researcher with a core specialism in ancient history.
He studied at the universities of Reading and Nottingham before completing his PhD at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2018.
Before he moved to Birmingham Newman in 2023, Owen held postdoctoral fellowships at the Institute of Medical Humanities at the University of Durham, and a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at the University of Nottingham.
Owen is also the founder and lead editor of badancient.com, which brings together a growing network of specialists to fact-check common claims made about the ancient world and expose the prevalent pseudohistory in the modern day.
Profile
Research Interests
Owen’s research interests focus on ancient Greek history and the relationship between warfare, civic society, and veteranship. As part of this research, he is one of the founders and leaders of The Returning Solider Network. Owen is also interested in the misuse of ancient history in the modern day, both in public discourse and also in pseudohistory.
Outside of his core academic focus, Owen is a public historian and has published his first trade book, The Far Edges of the Known World: A New Perspective On Our Ancient Civilizations, which was published in the UK by Bloomsbury in 2025 and by Norton in the US. He appears regularly on a variety of podcasts, including The Ancients and Let’s Talk about Myths, Baby!, has appeared on Channel 5 for ‘VIKINGS: Blood, Conquest and Kingdom’ to share his research, and spoken at festivals such as Chalke Valley History Festival, Oxford Literary Festival, and StonyWords. Owen has also shared his knowledge as an expert consultant for Dreamworks, History Hit, and other media outlets.
Teaching
Owen teaches on the Applied Humanities courses as undergraduate and postgraduate level.
Administrative Responsibilities
Owen is the Unit of Assessment lead for History. He leads and coordinates research activities across the humanities, overseeing our Applied Humanities Research Centre, mentoring staff in areas of research, and leading us into REF 2029.
Conferences and Other Research Activity
Recent Conferences
“Navigating the ancient world with modern diagnoses’, Military Welfare History Network Symposium (Birmingham, 6 November 2025) [Keynote]
“Herodotus, Thucydides, and the ‘making’ of public history,” Public History in European Historical Perspectives (Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg, 14-15 September 2023)
“Veterans as a political force in Ancient Greece,” Veteran Politics in Europe Workshop (Manchester, 18 Jun 2019) [by invitation].
“We need to talk about Epizelus: PTSD and the Ancient World,” Ancient World and Modern Societies Workshop (Reading, 6 October 2019).
“Picking over the Bones: The practicalities of processing the Athenian war dead,” History Research Centre Annual Symposium (Manchester, 13 June 2018).
“Incompatible Inking Ideologies: Tattoos in the Ancient Greek World,” HistFest (Lancaster, 3 June 2018).
“Challenging a seamless transition: ideological incongruence between the classical Greek oikos and the military,” Married to the Military: Soldiers’ Families in the Ancient World & Beyond (London, 11-12 November 2016)
“The Disappearance of Athena from Classical Warrior-Departure Scenes,” Athena: Sharing Current Research (Roehampton, 3 June 2016) [by invitation]
“Peers and Adolescence in Ancient Greek Military Contexts” Mates, Mischief and Make-Believe Children’s Peer Cultures, Past and Present (Manchester, 1 April 2016) [by invitation].
Invited Public Talks
‘Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: An Ancient Greek Case-study in Retrospective Diagnosis,’ NHS Fife Psychiatry Postgraduate Teaching Course (4 June 2024)
‘The Veteran’s Experience in Classical Greece,’ Municipality of Sparta, Association of US Army-Hellenic Chapter (AUSA), and University of Nottingham’s event: The Art of War: Then and Now – From Thermopylae and Granikos in Afghanistan and Ukraine (6 July 2022)
‘Sparta and the Internet: the ups and downs of public history online,’ University of Nottingham series: Sparta Live (18 February 2021)
‘Greek Warfare and Psychology,” Wolfson College Webinar Series (10 June 2020)
‘We need to talk about Epizelus: PTSD and the Ancient World,’ talk to the UK veterans’ charity Combat Stress (25 September 2019).
Publications
Books
O. Rees (2025) At the Far Edges of the Known World: a new perspective on our ancient civilisations. London: Bloomsbury.
O. Rees (2022) Military Departures, Homecomings, and Death in Classical Athens: Hoplite Transitions. London: Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN: 978-1-350-18864-8.
O. Rees (2018). Great Naval Battles of the Ancient Greek World. Barnsley: Pen & Sword.
ISBN: 978-1-473-82730-1.
O. Rees (2016). Great Battles of the Classical Greek World. Barnsley: Pen & Sword. ISBN: 978-1-473-82729-5.
Edited Volumes
O. Rees, K. Hurlock & J. Crowley (eds) (2022). Combat Stress and Pre-Modern Europe. Mental Health in Historical Perspective. London: Palgrave Macmillan..
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
O. Rees (2020) “Dogs of War, or Dogs in War? The use of dogs in classical Greek warfare.” Greece & Rome 67 (2): 230-246.
O. Rees (2020). “We Need to Talk about Epizelus: ‘PTSD’ and the Ancient World,” Medical Humanities 46 (1): 46-54.
O. Rees (2018). “Picking over the Bones: The Practicalities of Processing the Athenian War Dead,” Journal of Ancient History 6 (2): 167-184.
Book Chapters
O. Rees (2025), “Emotion and Violence.” In F. McHardy (ed.) A Cultural History of Violence, vol. 1: Cultural History of Violence in Antiquity. London: Bloomsbury.
O. Rees (2024). “Rockules’ Revenge: The portrayal of the Veteran Warrior in Brett Ratner’s Hercules.” In K. Nikoloutsos (ed.) Celluloid Battles: Ancient Mediterranean Warfare on Film. Brill’s Companion to Classics. Leiden: Brill.
O. Rees (2022). “Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: An ancient Greek case study in retrospective diagnosis.” In O. Rees, K. Hurlock, & J. Crowley (eds) Combat Stress in Pre-Modern Europe. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 15-36.
O. Rees (2019). “Incompatible Inking Ideologies in the Ancient Greek World.” In S. Kloß (ed.) Tattoo(ed) Histories: Transcultural Perspectives on the Aesthetics, Narratives and Practices of Tattoo. Routledge Studies in Cultural History. London: Routledge, pp. 277-294.
Book Reviews
O. Rees (2021), “Review of Military leaders and sacred space in classical Greek warfare (Sonya Nevin),” in Journal of Hellenic Studies.
O. Rees (2021), “Review of Hippocrates Now: The ‘Father of Medicine’ in the Internet Age (Helen King),” in Medical Humanities.
O. Rees (2020). “Review of Looking at Ajax (ed. David Stuttard),” in Bryn Mawr Classical Review.
O. Rees (2019). “Review of The Lame Hegemony: Cimon of Athens and the Failure of Panhellenism, ca. 478-450 B.C. (Matteo Zaccarini),” in Journal of Hellenic Studies.
O. Rees (2017). “Review of Ctesias’ Persica and its Near Eastern Context (Matt Waters),” in Classics for All, online: http://classicsforall.org.uk/book-reviews/ctesias-persica-near-eastern-context.
O. Rees (2013). “Review of The Psychology of the Athenian Hoplite (Jason Crowley),” in Sehepunkte 13, Nr 5: http://www.sehepunkte.de/2013/05/22364.html.