Dr. Sinja Küppers

In my first book project, I investigated the role of women and nontraditional learners on the margins of educational communities in late antiquity and challenged the notion of 'the' educated elite in Roman antiquity. At the BCDSS, I analyze the legal and literary evidence of adopted slaves who were loved by their Roman masters to uncover their multiple social dependencies and demonstrate that these cases were ethically and legally questioned already in antiquity. For example, the fourth-century love poet Ausonius provides a rare glimpse of a master loving a slave (Bissula) and of what he understood as the constitutive factors of her social dependency. I examine how Ausonius navigated the power relations embedded in the popular theme of Latin love elegy "servitude for love"– a poet presenting himself as a slave to the adored, usually free person – to express his own desire for an actual slave.

since 2023
Polonsky Academy for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences, van Leer Jerusalem Institute

2022–2023
National Academy of Education/Spencer Dissertation Fellow

2017–2023
Ph.D. in Classical Studies, Duke University

2016–2017
M.St. in Greek and Latin Languages and Literature, University of Oxford

2012–2016
B.A. in Ancient Languages and Cultures, University of Cologne