Sarah Levin-Richardson (U. Washington): Agency and Oppression in Pompeii's Purpose-built Brothel

Date
Tue February 16th 2016, 5:00 - 6:30pm
Event Sponsor
Department of Classics
Location
Building 110, Rm 112
Sarah Levin-Richardson (U. Washington): Agency and Oppression in Pompeii's Purpose-built Brothel

This talk delves into the emotional, social, and physical experiences of sex workers—both male and female—in what may be the most (in)famous brothel from Roman antiquity. By re-examining the structure’s architecture, frescoes, graffiti, and archaeological finds, I reveal an environment both more brutal and more full of resistance than previously thought.

Sarah Levin-Richardson’s work explores the material culture of Roman gender, sexuality, and sexual labor, and has been published in journals such as Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik and Helios, as well as the edited volumes Ancient Obscenities and Ancient Rome and the Construction of Modern Homosexual Identities (among others). She is currently an Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of Washington, Seattle, and in 2014-15 held a Rome Prize at the American Academy in Rome.

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