Katharine Huemoeller will discuss her research on the role of sex in the ancient Roman slave system from about 200 BCE to 200 CE. Using material from all over the Roman empire, from invective poetry to funerary epitaphs to contracts of sale, she demonstrates the significance of the sexual dimension of slavery for constructing both the lived experience of the enslaved and attitudes towards gender, family, and intimacy in the Roman world.

Huemoeller is the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman/Frank Brown Pre-Doctoral Rome Prize in Ancient Studies at the American Academy in Rome and is a PhD candidate in the Department of Classics at Princeton University.