Brenda Longfellow received her Ph.D. 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).  

Research Interests

Roman art and architecture; ancient monumental fountains; Graeco-Roman statues; the cities of Pompeii and Rome.

Awards

• Summer Stipend, National Endowment for the Humanities 
• College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Developmental Studies Hybridoma Bank Faculty Scholar, University of Iowa 
• Andrew Heiskell Post-Doctoral Rome Prize, American Academy in Rome 
• Loeb Classical Library Foundation Fellowship
• Arts & Humanities Initiative Standard Grant, University of Iowa
• Samuel H. Kress Fellow, American School of Classical Studies at Athens   
• Oscar Broneer Travel Award, American School of Classical Studies at Athens
• Samuel H. Kress Travel Fellowship, Kress Foundation

Publications 

• Book: The Lives and Deaths of Women in Ancient Pompeii, Ashley and Peter Larkin Series in Greek and Roman Culture. University of Texas Press, spring 2025. 
• Book chapter: “Pompeian Women: Agents in Life and Death.” In Female Agency in the Ancient Mediterranean, edited by G. Gilles, K. Frank, C. Plastow, and L. Webb, 153-169. Women in Ancient Cultures. Liverpool University Press, 2024.
• Co-edited book with Molly Swetnam-Burland: Women’s Lives, Women’s Voices: Roman Material Culture and Female Agency in the Bay of Naples. University of Texas Press, 2021.
• Book chapter: “Contextualizing the Funerary and Honorific Portrait Statues of Women in Pompeii.” In Women’s Lives, Women’s Voices: Roman Material Culture and Female Agency on the Bay of Naples, edited by B. Longfellow and M. Swetnam-Burland, 109-132. University of Texas Press, 2021.
• Co-edited book with Ellen E. Perry: Roman Artists, Patrons, and Public Consumption: Familiar Works Reconsidered. University of Michigan Press, 2018.
• Book chapter: “The Reuse and Redisplay of Honorific Statues in Pompeii.” In Reuse and Renovation in Roman Material Culture: Functions, Aesthetics, Interpretations, edited by M. Swetnam-Burland and D. Ng, 24-50. Cambridge University Press, 2018.
• Book chapter: “From Elite Villas to Public Spaces: The First Monumental Fountains in Ancient Rome.” In Water and Power in Preindustrial Societies, edited by E. Holt, 115-130. SUNY Press, 2018. 
• Book chapter: “Reflecting the Past: The Nymphaeum near the Praetorium at Gortyn.” Great Waterworks in Roman Greece: Aqueducts and Monumental Fountain Structures: Function in Context, edited by G. A. Aristodemou, 246-258. Archaeopress, 2018. 
• Book chapter: “Spolia as Strategy in the Early Roman Empire: Reused Statues in Augustan Rome.” In At the Crossroads of Greco-Roman History, Culture and Religion: Papers in Memory of Carin M.C. Green, edited by S. Bell and L. Holland, 203-216. Archaeopress, 2018. 
• Book chapter: “The Silhatarağa Statues in Context.” In Fountains and Water Culture in Byzantium, edited by P. Stephenson & I. Nilsson, 68-86. Cambridge University Press, 2016. 
• Book chapter: “Architectural Settings.” In The Oxford Handbook of Roman Sculpture, edited by E.A. Friedland & M. Grunow Sobocinski, 343-357. Oxford University Press, 2015. 
• Article: “Female Patrons and Honorific Statues in Pompeii.” Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 59/60 (2014/2015), 81-101. 
• Article: “Roman Fountains in Greek Sanctuaries.” American Journal of Archaeology 116.1 (2012), 133-155. 
• Book: Roman Imperialism and Civic Patronage: Form, Meaning and Ideology in Monumental Fountain Complexes. Cambridge University Press, 2011.
• Article: “Reflections of Imperialism: The Meta Sudans in Rome and the Provinces.” Art Bulletin 92 (2010), 275-292. 
• Book chapter: “The Legacy of Hadrian: Roman Monumental Fountains in Greece.” In The Nature and Function of Water, Baths, Bathing, and Hygiene from Antiquity through the Renaissance, edited by C. Kosso & A. Scott, 211-232. Brill, 2009. 
• Book chapter: “A Gendered Space? Location and Function of Room 5 I the Villa of the Mysteries.” In The Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii: Ancient Ritual, Modern Muse, edited by E.K. Gazda, 24-37. University of Michigan Press, 2000.
• Book chapter: “Liber and Venus in the Villa of the Mysteries.” In The Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii: Ancient Ritual, Modern Muse, edited by E.K. Gazda, 116-128. Ann Arbor, MI: Kelsey Museum of Archaeology & University of Michigan Press. 

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