Erin M. Hanses

Erin M. Hanses specializes in Latin poetry of the late Roman Republic and early Empire. Her research focuses broadly on sex and gender in Roman culture, and particularly on representations of women and pleasure in the works of Lucretius and the Latin love elegists. Her publications to date have treated poetic engagement and philosophical contentions with Roman Epicureanism in the didactic works of Ovid and Vergil, and in the elegies of Sulpicia. Most recently, she has been investigating how critical phenomenology can be used in framing questions surrounding ancient identities. At Penn State, she teaches courses on Roman civilization, history, and archaeology; on classical mythology, Greek civilization, and the Greco-Roman world; and Latin language courses at all levels.