The Women of Pompeii: Reexamining the Lives Beneath the Ruins
Lecture by Brenda Longfellow, University of Iowa
Associate Director, School of Art, Art History, and Design
Roger A. Hornsby Professor in the Classics
Division Head, Art History

Brenda Longfellow received her PhD in classical art and archaeology from the University of Michigan. She teaches classes on ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman art, and she also offers a class on fakes, looted art, and the global art market. Her research, which is focused on the art, architecture, and hydraulics of the ancient Roman Empire, has been published in the American Journal of Archaeology and the Art Bulletin, and her article in the Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome received the Barbara McManus Award from the Women’s Classical Caucus. She is the author of two books: Roman Imperialism and Civic Patronage: Form, Meaning and Ideology in Monumental Fountain Complexes (Cambridge University Press, 2011) and The Lives and Deaths of Women in Ancient Pompeii (University of Texas Press, 2025). She also co-edited the books Roman Artists, Patrons, and Public Consumption: Familiar Works Reconsidered (University of Michigan, 2018) and Women's Lives, Women's Voices: Roman Material Culture and Female Agency in the Bay of Naples (University of Texas Press, 2021).