Stone Chen

Stone is a PhD candidate whose research focuses on the movement of peoples and ideas in the ancient world. His primary emphasis concerns the phenomenon of colonial settlement and expansion (the conceptual problem of applying modern terminology such as “colonization” to ancient phenomena is itself an enduring topic of research) undertaken by Greek poleis in the Archaic and Classical periods, especially settlements established in peripheral regions, e.g. Iberian peninsula, southern Gaul, Corsica and Sardinia, Colchis, Crimea and the Sea of Azov littoral, where encounters between Greek settlers and indigenous peoples often creates a fluid medium for negotiating identities among various groups. Stone previously worked on Phokaian colonies of Massalia (Marseille), Emporion (Ampurias), and Elea (Velia) in the western Mediterranean for his M.A. His doctoral research seeks to expand the scope of this investigation, both in temporal and spatial terms, to include colonial encounters in Hellenistic and Roman times and beyond.

Stone is an enthusiastic cartographer who has been making maps since high school. He previously produced many historical maps in video formats on YouTube as well as open-access maps for Wikipedia and World History Encyclopedia. Utilizing GIS and Web GIS software, he has been creating maps for scholarly publications since 2018.

Stone grew up in China and moved to Canada on his own at the age of 16. His experience of meeting the challenge of loneliness and isolation in a new country helps inform his studies, while his journey of navigating his own self-identity in new national, cultural, religious, and racial contexts provides incentives for rooting his research in an awareness of current social issues.