Participant Info

First Name
Anise
Last Name
Strong
Country
United States
State
MI Michigan
Affiliation
Western Michigan University
Website URL
Keywords
Ancient history, Roman history, gender and sexuality, prostitution, divorce, Roman slavery
Availability
Media Contact
Additional Contact Information
anise.strong@wmich.edu also works.
PhD
PhD

Personal Info

Photo
About Me
Education:
  • Ph.D., Classical Studies, Columbia University, 2005
  • M. Phil, Classical Studies, Columbia University, 2003
  • M.A., Classical Studies, Columbia University, 2001
  • B.A., Classical Civilization, Yale, 1999
Bio:

Anise K. Strong is a professor in the Department of History at Western Michigan University. She specializes in ancient history, especially Roman history, the history of gender and sexuality, and reception studies.

Frequent courses include 3500: The Greeks; 3510: The Romans, 3015 History and Film, 3020 World History to 1500, Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World, and Writing Women’s History.

Strong is the recipient of a 2016-17 College of Arts and Sciences’ Gender Scholar Award.

Recent Publications

 Prostitutes and Matrons in the Roman World, Cambridge University Press (2016). Prostitutes and Matrons in the Roman World is the first substantial account of elite Roman concubines and courtesans.  Exploring the blurred line between proper matron and wicked prostitute, it illuminates the lives of sexually promiscuous women like Messalina and Clodia, as well as prostitutes with hearts of gold who saved Rome and their lovers in times of crisis.  It also offers insight into the multiple functions of erotic imagery and the circumstances in which prostitutes could play prominent roles in Roman public and religious life.  Tracing the evolution of social stereotypes and concepts of virtue and vice in ancient Rome, this volume reveals the range of life choices and sexual activity, beyond the traditional binary depiction of wives or prostitutes, that were available to Roman women.

 

The Empress’ Gaze: Roman Debauchery in the Eyes of America, 1950-2015, in progress for Edinburgh University Press. This book focuses on the representation of desirous women and excessive and outrageous sexuality in the Roman world in American and British films and television from 1950-2010. Such media served as a means of defining and restricting contemporaneous Anglo-American sexuality as less debauched and thus less imperialistic than the Roman Empire.

 

Articles and Chapters in Edited Volumes

 

“Xena: Warrior, Heroine, Tramp,” in Epic Heroes on Screen, ed. S. Raucci and A. Augoustakis, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017.

 

“The Golden Aspects of Roman Imperialism,” in Golden Ages of Classical Antiquity on Screen, ed. M. Safran. Palgrave/Macmillan, 2017.

 

“The Rape of Lucretia” in Spartacus, ed. A. Augoustakis, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016.

Media Coverage
Country Focus
Italy
Expertise by Geography
Mediterranean
Expertise by Chronology
Ancient
Expertise by Topic
Gender, Material Culture, Sexuality, Slavery, Women