Mary Smallwood was appointed lecturer in classics (in the Latin dept) at the
Queen's University, Belfast, in 1951. She became senior lecturer in 1963, reader in 1967, and was awarded a personal chair as professor of Romano-Jewish History in 1978. For the 1971–72 academic year she was a member of the School of Historical Studies at the
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. She was elected a Fellow of the
Society of Antiquaries in 1972. She retired to
Edinburgh in 1983. ==Death==