I grew up in High Bridge, NJ, in a family originally from Philadelphia. I earned my BA in Classics and Philosophy at Rutgers, an MA in Classics at the University of Maryland, and the PhD in Classical Studies at the University of Michigan. I am beyond thrilled to be back in familiar East Coast territory here at Haverford.
Questions revolving around food and eating fascinate me. What can the foods that people eat, as well as the ways in which they eat, tell us about their cultures? Their identities? Community? Difference? To what extent can writing about eating capture the experience of eating? Moreover, eating is inherently a violent and destructive activity (as is cooking, for that matter...). What do we do to make this violence socially acceptable? Much of my research so far has been dedicated to exploring these issues in Latin literature and Ancient Roman culture. My book project, based on my Michigan dissertation Seneca and the History of Roman Eating, argues that the younger Seneca uses the rich history of food and eating in Latin literature in order to craft his unique brand of Stoicism written in Latin and help make philosophy palatable in first-century Rome.
My publications have explored the intersection of eating and gender, the innovative reception of Ovid from Broadway to contemporary environmentalism, as well as Seneca's reworking of the Latin literary canon. Current projects are diverse and include an article on fatphobia in the early second century BCE, a crosscultural study of the relationship between comedy and food insecurity, and some pieces on Classics and media studies (with particular focus on filmic and queer perspectives on ancient texts).
Lastly, I am a first-generation college graduate and am keen to work with students from diverse backgrounds.