Daniel Jew

My adult life has been split roughly equally between the UK and Singapore – though the balance now weights toward Singapore. As a history undergraduate at Trinity College, Cambridge I enquired about doing more courses on Greece and Rome and was told I had to switch to Classics! So I ended up with a first degree in Classics.

I went on to receive a masters degree and doctorate at Cambridge (supervised by Paul Millett and Paul Cartledge), and held a post-doctoral position (as Moses & Mary Finley Research Fellow) at Darwin College, Cambridge. In between, I held positions as a Senior Tutor in American Studies and at the University Scholars Programme here at NUS.

I am currently Associate Professor in History and Director of Studies at the College of Alice & Peter Tan within NUS. My office is in University Town. Students are very welcome to see me (please email to arrange a meeting). My pedagogy focuses on learner-centredness and significant learning (Tan, Jew & Blumberg 2026, Weimer 2013, Fink 2013). I am happy to informally or formally peer review curricular material or classroom teaching, or share in workshops, based on these pedagogies (via Zoom if needed).

My research focuses on modelling socioeconomic and ecological aspects of ancient Greece: climate, the agricultural and non-agricultural economies, land and labour, and inequality and wealth distribution in classical Athens.

CURRENT RESEARCH:

• Agriculture and carrying capacity in classical Athens and Sparta
• Monte Carlo (probabilistic) and other quantitative methods for ancient history
• The ancient Greek economy
• Ancient Greek climate
• Postcolonialism and Subaltern Studies
• Ancient slavery
• Learning-centred teaching

MODULES TAUGHT:

• The Ancient World: Ancient Greece (HY2263)
• The Ancient World: The Roman Empire (HY2262)
• Games, Game Communities & Society (UTC1416)
• History/EU Honours Thesis (HY/EU4401)

TEACHING AWARDS & SERVICE:

• NUS Annual Teaching Excellence Award, 2020-22
• NUS Annual Teaching Excellence Award Honour Roll, AY2023-AY2027
• NUS Residential Colleges Teaching Excellence Award, 2017, 2019-20
• NUS Residential Colleges Teaching Excellence Honour Roll, AY2021-AY2023
• NUS Teaching Academy, Fellow, 2024-2026
• NUS Residential Colleges Teaching Excellence Committee, AY2026 (Chair), AY2021-AY2022 (Member)
• NUS Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences Teaching Excellence Committee, Member, AY2022-AY2026

PUBLICATIONS:

• The Probable Past: Agriculture and Carrying Capacity in Ancient Greece (forthcoming monograph)
• Making Learning-Centred Teaching Work in Asia & Beyond (Routledge, 2026, co-edited with Lynette Tan and Phyllis Blumberg), with chapters therein
• The Uncertain Past: Probability and Ancient History (Cambridge University Press, 2023, co-edited with Myles Lavan and Bart Danon)
• 'Probabilistic Modelling in Ancient History' in Lavan, Jew & Danon eds. 2023 (co-authored with Myles Lavan)
• 'The Agricultural Economy’ in The Cambridge Companion to the Ancient Greek Economy, ed. Sitta von Reden (Cambridge University Press, 2022)
• ‘The Non-Agricultural Economy: Artisans, Traders, Women and Slaves’ in von Reden ed. 2022
• M.I. Finley: An Ancient Historian and his Impact (Cambridge University Press, 2016, co-edited with Robin Osborne and Michael Scott)
• ‘Introduction: Finley’s Impact – A Balance Sheet’ in Jew, Osborne & Scott eds. 2016 (co-authored with the other editors)
• ‘Agriculture, Greek’ in The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, R. Bagnall et al. eds. (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012)

SELECTED CONFERENCES, TALKS & WORKSHOPS:

• ‘Teaching Spartan & ancient Greek history in Asia’ (Sparta Live Seminar, University of Nottingham, Oct 2024, with Rachel Quek & Enoch Lim, former honours thesis students)
• Athens: Economy and Democracy (2-day conference, Cambridge, July 2022, co-organiser with Robin Osborne and Sitta von Reden; Festschrift P. Millett)
• 'Agriculture, Silver, Trade and Liturgies: A Model of the Athenian Economy', paper presented at the conference above
• 'Wealth Distribution and Sociopolitical Power in Classical Athens', paper presented at The Distribution of Economic and Political Power in Ancient Societies Conference (St. Andrews, June 2022)