Biography
Ellen Perry is a scholar of classical art and archaeology. She received her B.A. from Swarthmore College with a major in Greek and a minor in Latin, then received her M.A. and her Ph.D. in Classical Art and Archaeology from the University of Michigan. She has done fieldwork in Carthage (Tunisia), California (Mission San Antonio de Padua), Qift (Egypt) and Corith (Greece), but her research interests in recent years have mainly been in Roman art and aesthetics, ancient religious spaces, and the reception of Greek and Roman culture in later periods.
Professor Perry has held a number of leadership roles, including as the President of the Classical Association of New England (2010–2011), and as Chair of the Archaeological Institute of America’s Program Committee (2014–2020). Most recently, she concluded terms as the Director of College Honors (2019–2023) and as the Monsignor Edward G. Murray Professor of the Arts and Humanities (2021–2025).
A native of Washington, D.C., Professor Perry now resides in Paxton, Massachusetts, where she balances her scholarly pursuits with beekeeping and baking.
Recent Courses
- Intro To Classical Archaeology
- Greek and Roman Sculpture
- Ancient Sanctuaries & Religion
- Intermediate Greek 1
- Roman Comedy
- Ideological Destruction of Art
- Stolen History
Selected Publications
Book
The Aesthetics of Emulation in the Visual Arts of Ancient Rome, Cambridge University Press, 2005
Articles
“Edward Robinson’s Plaster Casts and the Battle for the Museum of Fine Arts,” in Pushing the Boundaries of Historia: Essays on Greek and Roman History and Culture in Honor of Blaise Nagy, eds. M. English and L. Fratantuono (forthcoming, 2017)
“Human Interactions with Statues,” in The Oxford Handbook of Roman Sculpture, eds. E. A. Friedland and M. G. Sobocinski with E. Gazda, Oxford University Press, 2015, pp. 653–666