Ph.D. Cornell University, Classics (Classical Archaeology)
\nM.A. McMaster University, Classics
\nB.A. McMaster University, Classics (Honors)<\/p>\n
Liana Brent specializes in the material and social histories of ordinary individuals in the Roman world. Her research interests include Roman burial practices, Latin inscriptions, Greek and Roman sculpture, museum practices, and the history of collecting antiquities. At Bates College, Prof. Brent teaches courses on Roman Civilization, Archaeology, Slavery, Death and Burial, Pompeii, as well as Latin at all levels. In 2025, she taught an off-campus short term course, The Layers of Rome, which traveled to Italy for three weeks.<\/p>\n
Before arriving at Bates College, Liana served as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics at Kenyon College (2020-2023), a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania (2019-2020), and she held a two-year pre-doctoral Rome Prize fellowship at the American Academy in Rome (2017-2019). Liana received her Ph.D. in Classics with a specialization in Classical Archaeology from Cornell University (2019), as well as a B.A. and M.A. from McMaster University in Canada (2010 and 2012).<\/p>\n
Liana is a field archaeologist who excavates a Roman cemetery in southeast Italy. Her research has appeared in the Journal of Roman Archaeology<\/em>, the Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome<\/em>, Proceedings of the Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference<\/em>, and in various edited volumes published by Cambridge, Brill, and Edipuglia. She is currently working on a monograph, Corporeal Connections in Roman Burial Practices<\/em>, which explores ongoing interactions between the living and the dead in Roman Italy.<\/p>\n In addition to her scholarly interests, Liana loves kayaking and hiking. In 2019 she hiked the Via Appia Antica (an ancient Roman road), which stretched for 350 miles from Rome to Brindisi!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Publications<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Brent, L. and T. Prowse. Forthcoming 2026. \u201cRural Roman Burials,\u201d in Roman Rural Archaeology: Society, Economy and Culture<\/em>, edited by G. Tol and A. Van Oyen, 137-53. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.<\/p>\n Brent, L. 2024. \u201cDrinking with the Dead: Libation Conduits from Rome\u2019s Columbaria to the Cortile at the American Academy in Rome.\u201d Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome<\/em> 69: 153\u201379.<\/p>\n Brent, L. and T. Prowse. 2024. \u201cRural Labour and Identity at Vagnari in Southern Italy,\u201d in Valuing Labour in Greco-Roman Antiquity<\/em>, edited by M. Flohr and K. Bowes. Mnemosyne Supplement 481, 264\u2013286. Leiden\/Boston: Brill.<\/p>\n Brent, L. 2022. \u201cThe Via Appia is Easiest if Taken Slowly.\u201d In Ways of Walking<\/em>, edited by A. De Forest, 108\u2013122, New Door Books.<\/p>\n Brent, L. 2020. \u201cSealed and Revealed: Roman Grave-opening Practices.\u201d Journal of Roman Archaeology<\/em> 33: 129\u2013146.<\/p>\n Brent, L. 2020. \u201cFlaming Torches: The Materiality of Fire and Flames on Roman Cinerary Urns,\u201d in Cultures of Stones: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Materiality of Stone<\/em>, edited by G. Cooney, B. Gilhooley, N. Kelly and S. Mall\u00eda-Guest, 213\u2013226. Leiden: Sidestone Press.<\/p>\n Brent, L. 2017. \u201cDisturbed, Damaged and Disarticulated: Grave Reuse in Roman Italy,\u201d in TRAC 2016: Proceedings of the Twenty-Sixth Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference<\/em>, edited by R. Cascino, F. De Stefano, A. Lepone and C.M. Marchetti, 37\u201350. Rome: Edizioni Quasar.<\/p>\n Brent, L. and T. Prowse. 2014. \u201cGrave Goods and Patterns of Distribution in the Vagnari Cemetery,\u201d in Beyond Vagnari: New Themes in the Study of South Italy<\/em>, edited by A.M. Small, 99\u2013109. Bari: Edipuglia.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Photo by Phyllis Graber Jensen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1669,"featured_media":7475,"template":"","class_list":["post-5476","faculty-profile","type-faculty-profile","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","expertise-roman-slavery","expertise-roman-society-and-culture","expertise-specific-funerary-archaeology","expertise-specific-latin-inscriptions","expertise-specific-roman-burial-practices","what-i-teach-classical-archaeology","what-i-teach-latin-language","what-i-teach-roman-history","what-i-teach-specific-intermediate-advanced-latin","what-i-teach-specific-roman-civilization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/faculty-profile\/5476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/faculty-profile"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/faculty-profile"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1669"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/faculty-profile\/5476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7880,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/faculty-profile\/5476\/revisions\/7880"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}