Virginia (Ginna) Closs

Virginia (Ginna) Closs is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She holds a B.A. in Classics from Stanford University, an M.Phil in Classical Art and Archaeology from Cambridge University (where she was a member of Newnham College) and a Ph.D. in Classical Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.  Her research focuses primarily on Latin literature and Roman cultural history during the early imperial period, with a particular interest in how Latin texts reflect notions of material culture, urban space, and temporality. Her current book project investigates the representation of space and time in the poetry of the 1st century CE epigrammatist Martial, with particular interest in the influence of Spain and Greece on the way the poet represents his world. In Greece, Ginna will conduct research at the Blegen Library and will guest teach a Latin poetry seminar with her sponsor, Sophia Papaioannou of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She will offer several lectures at NKUA and other universities in Greece and will participate in a conference in Thessaloniki on the theme "Ages of Nero: Reality and Receptions."