A Global Roman Empire

I am a Roman archaeologist, art historian, and historian. I am currently an assistant professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of Classical Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, where I teach undergraduate and graduate courses in Roman art, architecture, and archaeology. I also serve as the director of Indiana’s Program in Ancient Studies.

My research focuses on issues of race, ethnicity, identity, change, and materiality in the Roman Empire. Growing up in Southern California, I was always interested in the immigration and social hierarchies (spoken and unspoken) that defined my world. But even more interesting to me were the diverse range of strategies and choices that individuals and communities made to cope with the constantly-shifting world around them. I began to apply these interests to the study of the ancient Mediterranean during my undergraduate work at UC Berkeley, where I was introduced to both Greek and Roman literature and material culture.

From there, I pursued a Ph.D. in Art History at Duke University, where I began to study cults of the Egyptian gods in non-Egyptian contexts. I wrote my dissertation on sculptures of Isis and Sarapis from Hellenistic and Roman Greece. Since then, I have held positions at the University of Oregon, Bucknell University, and the Memorial University of Newfoundland, and written on a range of topics, including migration, ethnicity, religion, materiality, and gender.

My research is inherently interdisciplinary, and draws on a wide array of evidence, methods, and approaches to reframe our understanding of the ancient world. I welcome potential graduate students who are interested in similar questions and approaches in Hellenistic and Roman contexts.