{"id":3672,"date":"2015-09-02T16:16:56","date_gmt":"2015-09-02T20:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/classics\/?post_type=profile&p=3672"},"modified":"2026-01-22T11:50:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T16:50:00","slug":"zsuzsanna-varhelyi","status":"publish","type":"profile","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/classics\/faculty-profiles\/zsuzsanna-varhelyi\/","title":{"rendered":"Zsuzsanna Varhelyi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Curriculum Vitae<\/a><\/h3>\n

BU NEH Humanities Distinguished Professorship Initiative<\/a><\/p>\n

I was born in Budapest, Hungary during the Communist era, an experience that has led to a keen interest in how such circumstances may shape our\u00a0lives<\/a>. Having trained at ELTE (Budapest) and at the University of Heidelberg (Germany), I came to the United States to pursue a PhD in History at Columbia University in New York in 1996. My scholarship focuses on the rich and complex evidence surviving from the late Republic and from early Imperial Rome, a period that saw ideas emerge that are still with us today: questions about how one should live one\u2019s life, among others by the Stoics, and the role of religion in it, both by \u201cpagans\u201d and by post-Second-Temple Jews and Christians (\u201cAncient Mediterranean Sacrifice<\/a>\u201d). These issues have shaped my work on the Roman elite in a period of political oppression (cf. my\u00a0monograph<\/a>\u00a0on the Religion of Senators), and guide my current research on individuality and selfhood when exposed to potentially traumatic experiences in the late Republic and the Roman empire. I have also published on human sacrifice and post-traumatic stress among Roman soldiers, gender and domesticity, and ancient literacy, including late antique ostraka, among others. To further my research, I also completed a MSW with trauma specialization in 2019 and now maintain a small practice working with students facing various challenges through the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

My teaching incorporates my research on both undergraduate and graduate levels: my courses examine Roman history, Greek and Roman religions, public virtues and private vices in the Roman Empire, and read Latin prose on all levels. Additionally, I regularly offer a course entitled \u201cWhat is a good life?.\u201d In Spring 2024, I will start a 3-year term as the National Endowment for the Humanities Distinguished Teaching Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences and its Core Program<\/a> at Boston University.<\/span><\/p>\n

Research Interests<\/span><\/b><\/h3>\n

The social, political, cultural and religious history of the ancient Mediterranean with a focus on Late Republican Rome and the Roman Empire; questions of selfhood, individuality and community in this period; Latin historiography and literature; theoretical and methodological questions related to writing history, including trauma, practice theory, embodiment and the study of gender; Latin epigraphy, prosopography, paleography, and archaeological, art historical and numismatic evidence for the Roman Empire.<\/span><\/p>\n

Select Publications<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"The<\/a>With co-editor J. Knust, Sacrifice in the Ancient Mediterranean. Images, Acts, Meanings. Oxford University Press: Oxford 2011.<\/p>\n

The Religion of Senators in the Roman Empire: <\/em>Power and the Beyond<\/em> <\/em>(Cambridge University Press, 2010). Link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With co-editor J.-J. Aubert, A Tall Order: Writing the Social History of the Ancient World. Essays in Honor of William V. Harris<\/em>. Beitr\u00e4ge zur Altertumskunde. Saur, Munich 2005.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7388,"template":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/classics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/3672"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/classics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/classics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/profile"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/classics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7388"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/classics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/3672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11493,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/classics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/3672\/revisions\/11493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/classics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}