Dr. Rebecca Moorman

Biography

Rebecca Moorman specializes in Republican and early Imperial Latin literature, focusing on aesthetics, emotion, and multisensory experience in Latin poetry. She is particularly interested in how ancient philosophers, poets, and literary critics utilized the concept of disgust to create new pathways for knowledge and pleasure within Roman culture. Her current book project, 'Allure of Disgust in Ancient Rome: Knowledge, Poetics, Senses', develops the overlooked aesthetic concept of disgust as discussed by Lucretius, Persius, Seneca, and Apuleius, arguing that these Roman authors committed to sensory-based intellectual engagement, creating avenues for pleasure and instruction through negative affective experiences like disgust. Additional research projects explore topics such as taste and socioeconomic distinctions in Horace’s Epistles, the theme of forgetfulness in Persius’ Satires, and the economics of bad poetry in Petronius’ Satyrica. Her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. In her teaching, Rebecca emphasizes the enduring impact of Greek and Roman culture and its ability to provide new perspectives on understanding and articulating difference. In addition to Greek and Latin language classes, she teaches courses on Roman culture, philosophy, satire, the ancient novel, and ancient horror. In her leisure time, Rebecca enjoys snuggling with cats, preferably with a G&T in hand.

Research Interests