Thomas A. Leibundgut is an academic, author, and activist. He currently works on his dissertation researching the migration of women in the Roman Empire: using a combination of epigraphical, textual, and bio-archaeological approaches, he interrogates the paradigm of the single adult male migrant. Leveraging the possibilities of computational data analysis, he analyses women’s propensity to move within the provinces and across the whole empire as well as the importance of labour in women’s decisions to migrate.
He has also written on the interplay of masculinity and military ideology, specifically how sexism is a fundamental prerequisite for the establishment and operation of armies, and how armies and their toxic masculinity in turn reinforce sexism in society at large; about the dangers autonomous combat drones will pose in future wars and how an international convention is imperative in order to mitigate those dangers; and the importance of a robust public scholarship system in higher education as a crucial instrument enabling students from lower socio-economic backgrounds to obtain post-secondary degrees.
Shorter pieces, mostly on educational policy, security and peace policy, civilian service, and gender issues within and without the military have appeared in the GSoA-Zeitung, the bärner studizytig, and the Terre des Femmes (Switzerland) blog.
He is currently a Scientific Advisor in Digital Transformation at the Bern University of Applied Sciences and a doctoral student in ancient history at the Classics Department at Stanford University where he studies the social and economic history of antiquity, with a special emphasis on gender and migration, particularly urban labour markets and gendered migration patterns.
During his studies in History, Gender Studies, and Philosophy (BA 2011, MA 2016) at the University of Bern, he worked as a political secretary for Switzerland’s largest peace organisation, assistant project manager of Switzerland’s youth parliament, assistant to the professor for Digital Humanities, and student representative on the departmental, local, national, and European level. He currently lives in Bern, Switzerland.
Scholarly Publications
| 2022 | ‘Mind the Gap. Women Authors in Anglophone Classical Scholarship, 1970–2016’. In: History of Classical Scholarship 4, pp. 235–267. |
| 2022 | Review of: Chronopoulos, Stylianos, Maier, Felix K., and Novokhatko, Anna, eds. (2020). Digitale Altertumswissenschaften: Thesen und Debatten zu Methoden und Anwendungen. Heidelberg: Propylaeum. For: Bryn Mawr Classical Review. |
| 2015 | ‘Conference Report: Scholarship in Software—Software as Scholarship. From Genesis to Peer Review. 29.01.2016–30.01.2016 Bern’. In: H-Soz-Kult 21.07.2015. |
Other Publications
30 Jahre Jugendsession. Texte, Fotos, Interviews, Illustrationen (2021)
Militär Macht Männlichkeit (2017)
Der drohende Drohnenkrieg (2015)
Für eine zivile Forschung und Lehre! (2015)
Stipendieninitiative—Weil Ausbildung Zukunft schafft (2012)
GSoA-Zeitung
Daurreform ohne Sinn und Konzept (August 28, 2016)
Falsch verstandene Gleichberechtigung (August 28, 2016)
Aufgeschoben ist nicht aufgehoben (May 25, 2016)
Die heilige Kuh schafft sich eine Spielwiese (May 25, 2016)
Entrüstung für den Frieden (May 25, 2016)
Mehr Krempel für die Armee? (January 28, 2016)
Zivilklausel statt Rüstungspropaganda (January 28, 2016)
Transportflugzeuge im Parlament abgestürtzt (January 28, 2016)
Thurgauer Panzer töten weltweit (November 20, 2015)
Für eine freie Forschung und Lehre (August 16, 2015)
Erfolgreiche Fusion (August 16, 2015)
Staatlich verordnete Zwangsarbeit (May 28, 2015)
Wenn eine Hand die andere wäscht (February 2, 2015)
Verfassungswidriger Einsatz der Armee in Basel (February 2, 2015)