Professor Caroline Goodson is a historian and archaeologist of late antique and early medieval Italy in particular and the Mediterranean more broadly. Her research concentrates on the nature of power and how different groups positioned themselves as successors of the Romans’ past glories or innovators in a new world order. At present, she is particularly interested in how cities facilitated new forms of social interaction and political authority, by consideration of the spatial, economic, and social aspects of urbanism. Her research deliberately moves between the disciplines of archaeology and history, and she has over fifteen years of experience working on the intersections (and disjuncture) of the material and textual records of the late ancient and early medieval worlds. She is currently a Professor of Early Medieval History at Cambridge University and fellow of King’s College.