UR Classics Professor Awarded Grant for First Comprehensive Study of Women in Ancient Roman Graffiti

This spring, University of Richmond classical studies and women, gender, and sexuality studies professor Erika Zimmermann Damer will conduct first of its kind research in Rome on women depicted in ancient graffiti through an IES Abroad grant. She teaches in classical studies and women, gender, and sexuality studies.

“Scholars have called for a critical study to look at the women who appear in the graffiti of Pompeii and Herculaneum, but it has never been done,” said Zimmermann Damer. “By studying the women who appear in these records, this project offers a major critical intervention in the social history of Pompeii and will fill in the gaps left by previous studies of Pompeiian political careers and families.” 

Zimmermann Damer is also currently involved with the Ancient Graffiti Project, a digital resource and search engine for locating and studying graffiti of the early Roman empire from the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The inter-institutional effort involves University of Richmond undergraduates and collaboration with faculty from Associated Colleges of the South. 

Zimmermann Damer has taught at the University of Richmond since 2010. She obtained her M.A. and Ph.D. in classics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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