Brent D. Shaw is an historian who teaches ancient history at Princeton University.
Shaw earned his B.A. and M.A. from the University of Alberta in 1968 and 1971, respectively, and then later his Ph.D. from Cambridge University in 1978.
Specializing in Roman history, religion and material culture, Shaw's books include Spartacus and the Slave Wars: A Brief History with Documents (2001); and Variorum editions of Environment and Society in Roman North Africa and Rulers, Nomads and Christians in Roman North Africa, published in 1995. While visiting at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, he wrote the following article for The New Republic, July 18, 1994, pages 33–41: A Groom of One's Own?. The article reviews and disagrees with the claims that same-sex unions were approved of by the early Christian Church in the book Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe by John Boswell (Villard Books).