Women's Studies Affiliate Faculty

I earned my doctorate in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology at UC Berkeley. My research is guided by my interest in the symbols and rituals of power in the Roman Empire, with particular focus on the deployment of gender and material culture in imperial politics. I am also intrigued by representations of ancient Rome in the modern world, in film, literature and art. I regularly teach the survey course on Roman History and upper division courses on Republic and on Empire. I have also taught undergraduate courses on the ancient Mediterranean, on Rome's urban culture and on the interaction between the ancient Mediterranean and the Celtic and Germanic peoples of the European Iron Age. Graduate courses include colloquia on Comparative Imperial Systems, Cleopatra VII, Women/Gender and Power in Early Europe, Frontiers and Empire, and the general Topics in Roman History, as well as a pedagogy workshop for graduate students. My first monograph, Blood in the Arena, looks at how the institution of the gladiatorial games functioned in the negotiation of power among different groups in the Roman Imperial West. In 2006, Blackwell published my Roman Games: A Sourcebook, which considers spectacle in the Roman world more broadly. I am currently working on another monograph with the working title Barbarian Queens, which will focus on how this archetype, formed originally in the historical tradition of the ancient world, shaped later Western images of gender, power and identity in text and the visual arts. I have appeared as a talking head on a number of documentaries for the History Channel and A & E, including "Hannibal", "The True Story of Gladiators", "Cleopatra's World: Alexandria Revealed," and, most recently, "Boudica: Warrior Queen".

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