Roger Shaler Bagnall joins New York Universiy as the Director of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World and Professor of Ancient History. He earned his B.A. from Yale University (1968) and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Classical Studies from the University of Toronto (1972). Dr. Bagnall has taught at Columbia University for thirty-three years, most recently as the Jay Professor of Greek and Latin and Professor of History. He served as Chair of the Classics Department and as the Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Bagnall is the author or co-author of numerous books, including Egypt in Late Antiquity (1993), The Demography of Roman Egypt (1994, 2006); Women's Letters from Ancient Egypt, 300 BC–AD 800 (2006) and Chronological Systems of Byzantine Egypt (1978, 2003). He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the British Academy and a member of the American Philosophical Society.