Drop-in Hours: by appointment only

Sarah E. Bond is an associate professor and director of undergraduate studies in the History Department at the University of Iowa. She is interested in late Roman history, epigraphy, late antique law, Roman topography and GIS, Digital Humanities, and the socio-legal experience of ancient marginal peoples.

She earned a PhD in History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2011) and obtained a BA in Classics and History with a minor in Classical Archaeology from the University of Virginia (2005). Her book, Trade and Taboo: Disreputable Professionals in the Roman Mediterranean, was published with the University of Michigan Press in 2016.

Follow her blog: History From Below.

Additionally, Bond is a regular contributor at Hyperallergic, a columnist at the Los Angeles Review of Books, and a section editor at Public Books. She has written for The New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and The Washington Post. 

Please visit Professor Bond's personal website for her current CV.

Publications

Books

• Trade and Taboo Disreputable Professions in the Roman Mediterranean

Articles

• “The State, Governance, and Regulation in Ancient Shopping" in A Cultural History of Shopping
• Chapter 7 - "Maintaining the City Enslaved Labor and Trade in Roman Philippi" in Philippi, From Colonia Augusta to Communitas Christiana
• "Review of Carlos Machado, Urban Space and Aristocratic Power in Late Antique Rome: AD 270-535"
• "Linked Open Data for the Ancient Mediterranean: Structures, Practices, Prospects"
• "The Story of the Black King Among the Magi"
• "Public Writing and the Junior Scholar"
• "The Brothels of Ancient Pompeii: The largest of Pompeii's legalised Lupanars is the only surviving ‘purpose-built’ Roman brothel"

Commentary and Popular Writing

• "Did Archaeologists Discover Pliny the Elder’s Famous Roman Villa?"
• "Unearthed Clay Seals Shed Light on Ancient Roman Archiving Practices"
• "As a History Professor, This Is How I Use AI in Class"
• "What men are thinking about when they think about the Roman Empire"
• "2,000-Year-Old Grave of Roman Doctor Unearthed in Hungary"
• "The Meaning of Ancient Greek and Roman Artisan Signatures"
• "Why Did Roman Baths Disappear?"
• "An Iowa Museum Renowned for Its Pollock Emerges From a Flood With a More Inclusive Mission"
• "Massive Head of Hercules Pulled From Historic Shipwreck"
• "The Top Archaeological Discoveries of 2021"
• "Ancient Hellscapes, Santa & Supply Chains, and More"
• "Why the Hell We Are Obsessed with Hell"
• "What Can Shackled and Beheaded Skeletons Reveal About Roman Servitude?"
• "Anti-vaxxers are claiming centuries of Jewish suffering to look like martyrs"
• "Discovery of an Industrial Brewery in Ancient Egypt Rewrites the History of Beer"
• "A World-Famous Ancient Collection, on Display for the First Time, Awaits Visitors in Rome"
• "Identifying Slut-Shaming, Racism, and Transphobia in the Byzantine World"
• "How Academics, Egyptologists, and Even Melania Trump Benefit From Colonialist Cosplay"
• "How Racial Bias in Tech Has Developed the 'New Jim Code'”
• "Seeing Through the History of Ancient Roman Glass"
• "Did the Ancient Romans Use Infographics?"