Yolanda De Iuliis
Thesis title: THE ENDURING INFLUENCE OF THE MITHRAS CULT: CONTEMPORARY NARRATIVES AND IDENTITIES
PhD supervisors:
Address
- Street
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School of History, Classics and Archaeology
- City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
Background
Yolanda De Iuliis is a Scottish Italian researcher in archaeology at the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology, and the History of Art Subject Area Administrator and Coordinator at Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh. With over 10 years of experience in Higher Education, their research focuses on Mithraic studies, Roman religion, heritage and identity and the reception of Classical antiquity. They are the creator of the Mithraic Research Website and host of the Conversations about Mithras podcast, both of which promote engagement and scholarship on the cult of Mithras.
Qualifications
Master of Arts in Classical Studies, The Open University — 2021 Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Classical Studies, The Open University — 2019
Responsibilities & affiliations
The Roman Society
The Trimontium Trust
Undergraduate teaching
2025 — Present HCA Writing Centre Tutor
2025 — “The House as Memory Theatre: The House of the Tragic Poet, Pompeii,” University of Edinburgh, UK
2025 — “The Alexander Mosaic: Greek Painting and the Roman Mosaic, House of the Faun, Pompeii,” University of Edinburgh, UK
2025 — “Handling the Past: Ancient Objects and the Cult of Mithras,” HCA Teaching Project Day, Sutton Summer School, UK
Postgraduate teaching
2025 — “The Cult of Mithras – Artefacts from Hadrian’s Wall,” Newcastle University, UK
Research summary
Mithraic Studies • Roman Religion • Heritage and Identity • Classical Reception.
Current research interests
Yolanda's current research investigates how Mithras is constituted as a mobile heritage artefact across institutional, embodied, and digital contexts. Rather than treating Mithras as a fixed historical figure, her work examines how his meaning is produced, authorised, experienced, and transformed as it moves between museums, audiences, and online communities. Drawing on Authorised Heritage Discourse (AHD) and theories of travelling memory, Yolanda explores the tension between the institutional stabilisation of meaning and the ongoing circulation and reinterpretation of heritage beyond professional control. Her research considers how heritage narratives are negotiated across different sites of engagement and how the mobility of cultural memory shapes contemporary understandings of the past.Knowledge exchange
Mithraism | Yolanda De Iuliis Mithraic Research
Conversations about Mithras | Podcast on Spotify
Yolanda De Iuliis (@mithrashunter) • Instagram photos and videos
Papers delivered
2025 — “Great North Night: The Sensory Ancient World” (collaborative public engagement event), Great North Museum: Hancock, UK
2024 — “Reinterpreting the Cult of Mithras: Contemporary Narratives in Museum Exhibitions,” Transtemporal Looks at Global Art Histories Conference, Edinburgh College of Art, UK
BOOKS
De Iuliis, Y. (2016). The Memoirs of I. Lumphanan Press.
De Iuliis, Y. (2015). Underneath My Soul. Lumphanan Press.
ARTICLES
De Iuliis, Y. (2026). “Ancient Synergy.” Philosophy Now, 172.
REVIEWS
De Iuliis, Y. (2026). Review of Peter Mark Adams, Ritual & Epiphany in the Mysteries of Mithras (Theion Publishing, 2025). Pons Aelius, 18. Newcastle University