Michael Johnson will use his time in Rome to complete his dissertation The Pontifical Law: Religion and Religious Power among the Romans, an investigation of the powers, prerogatives, and obligations of the most powerful religious authority in ancient Rome. He will examine the role of the pontifical college within the Roman constitution and attempt to gain a deeper understanding of what the pontiffs did and why. The resulting paper will be the first comprehensive collection and analysis in nearly two centuries of pontifical activity during the Republic.