Dr Ardle Mac Mahon
Associate Lecturer
Biography
I am a long-standing Associate Lecturer in Classical Studies with The Open University. My research focuses on the social and economic life of the Roman world, with particular interests in shops and workshops, working lives and the everyday experiences of people outside the Roman elite. My doctoral research examined tabernae (retail establishments) in Roman Britain, and my subsequent research has explored shops and workshops across the Roman Empire, particularly in Pompeii, Herculaneum and Ostia.
I also have a strong interest in inclusive teaching and educational innovation. I was a member of the Open University’s Relaxed Tutorial Project, which explored ways of designing synchronous online tutorials to improve participation and accessibility, initially with a particular focus on autistic students. My contribution also reflected a wider concern with creating tutorial environments that are welcoming and accessible to students with different levels of confidence and anxiety. Relaxed Tutorials are now offered as a designated tutorial option on A229 and A340, and I continue to teach these alongside other tutorial formats. The project has informed the wider development of inclusive tutorial approaches within Classical Studies and beyond, and has also contributed to published scholarship on teaching and learning.
I have taught across the Open University’s Classical Studies curriculum at undergraduate and postgraduate level. I currently teach A111: Discovering the Arts and Humanities, A229: Exploring the Classical World and A340: The Roman Empire. My research has been published in Roman archaeology, social and economic history, and the scholarship of teaching and learning.
I am also keen to support students’ wider interest in Classical Studies beyond their formal module study. I have given frequent presentations to The Open University Arts & Humanities Society on a range of my research and teaching interests, as well as sessions designed to support students’ learning. Several of these presentations have been recorded and are available on the Society’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@lractheopenuniversityartsh8229/videos
Mac Mahon, A. & Price, J. 2005. Roman Working Lives and Urban Living. Oxbow, Oxford.
Mac Mahon, A. 2003. The Taberna Structures of Roman Britain. British Archaeological Report (British series) 356, John and Erica Hedges, Oxford.
Mac Mahon, A. 2013. Three contributions to Wiley-Blackwell’s Encyclopaedia of the Roman Army edited by le Bohec, Yann on the topics of ‘Agricola’, ‘The Boudican Revolt’ and ‘Britain as a Strategic Sector’.
Mac Mahon, A. 2013. Three contributions to Wiley-Blackwell’s Encyclopaedia of Ancient History edited by Bagnall, R., Brodersen, K., Champion, C., Erskine, A. & Hübner, S. on the topics of ‘Wages’, ‘Wage labour’ and ‘Unemployment’.
Mac Mahon, A. 2006. ‘Fixed-point Retail location in Roman Britain’, Oxford Journal Archaeology 25.3: 289-309.
Mac Mahon, A. 2005. ‘The shops and workshops of Roman Britain’, in Mac Mahon, A. & Price, J. (eds) Roman Working Lives and Urban Living. Oxbow, Oxford: 48-69.
Mac Mahon, A. 2005. ‘The taberna counters of Pompeii and Herculaneum’, in Mac Mahon, A. & Price, J. (eds) Roman Working Lives and Urban Living. Oxbow, Oxford: 70-87.
Mac Mahon, A. 2003. ‘The realm of Janus: Doorways in the Roman World’, in Carr, G., Swift, E. & Weeks, J. (eds) TRAC 2002. Oxbow, Oxford: 58-73.
Mac Mahon, A. 2000. ‘Taberna economics’, in Fincham, G., Harrison, G., Holland, R. & Revell, L. (eds) TRAC99. Oxbow, Oxford: 44-52.
