ERIC R. VARNER

Office:
Hart M29
Phone:
404.727.2578
E-Mail:
evarner@emory.edu



EDUCATION
Ph.D., Yale University, Classics (Classical Archaeology), 1993
M.Phil., Yale University, Classics (Classical Archaeology), 1988
A.B., Princeton University, Classics (Classical Archaeology), 1985
(magna cum laude)

DISSERTATION
Damnatio Memoriae and Roman Imperial Portraiture
Advisor: Diana E.E. Kleiner

AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS:
Emory ICIS Travel Grant 2005
Emory UTF Grant (Art History Digital Images Teaching Enhancement Proposal) 2004
Emory URC Grant 2004
Emory ICIS Travel Grant 2002
Emory ICIS Curriculum Development Grant
Emory ICIS Travel Grant 2000
National Endowment for the Arts, for “From Caligula to Constantine: Tyranny and
Transformation in Roman Portraiture” 1999
Video Teaching Grant, 1998
University Teaching Fund Committee award to develop “Roman Vision” 1998-2000
Emory ICIS Travel Grant 1998
Andrew Mellon Faculty Fellowship in the Humanities for
Classical Archaeology, Emory University, 1992-94
Whiting Fellowship, Yale University, 1991-92
John F. Enders Research Assistance Grant, Yale University,
1991
Fulbright Fellowship, Italy, 1989-90
Berkeley, Biddle, Woolsey Travel Grant, Yale University, 1989
R. Townsend Fellowship, Yale University, 1988-89
Berkeley, Biddle, Woolsey Travel Grant, Yale University, 1988

AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION
Roman Sculpture

Monuments and Topography of Rome

EMPLOYMENT
Emory University:
Associate Professor, Departments of Art History and Classics, 2004-
Assistant Professor, Departments of Art History and Classics, 1998-2004
Visiting Assistant Professor, Departments of Art History and Classics, 1995-98
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Classics, 1994-5
Mellon Faculty Fellow in Classical Archaeology, Department of Classics, 1992-4

John Cabot University
Visiting Professor 1997-

PUBLICATIONS
Books:
Mutilation and Transformation: Damnatio Memoriae and Roman Imperial
Portraiture (Leiden 2004).
Grotesque Aesthetics. Transgression and Transcendence in the Age of Nero
(in progress)
Catalogues:
From Caligula to Constantine: Tyranny and Transformation in Roman Portraiture (Atlanta 2000)
Edited Volumes (in progress):
Reimagining Nero
Tyranny and Transformation II
Articles:
“Reading Replications: Roman Rhetoric and Greek Quotations,” Art History 29.2 (2006)
280-303.
“Transcending Gender: Assimilation, Identity and Roman Imperial Portraits,”
in S. Bell and I Hansen, eds. Role Models: Identity and Assimilation in the Roman World (Ann Arbor, forthcoming)
“Golden Excess: Nero’s Portraits and the Cult of Luxury,” Reimagining Nero. Collected
Symposium Papters
“Unstable Images: Shifting Identities and Damnatio Memoriae in Roman Imperial Portraits,” forthcoming in Tyranny and Transformation 2. Collected Symposium
Papers
“The Art of Condemnation: Sculptors’ Responses to the Mutilation and Reuse of
Roman Imperial Portraits” forthcoming in Marble in the Roman World, Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplement
“Ideologies of Empathy: Cruelty and Clemency on the Column of Trajan,” forthcoming
in Second Annual Societas Conference: Roman Political Ideology, Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplement
“Execution in Effigy: Severed Heads and Decapitated Statues in Imperial Rome,”

in A. Hopkins and M. Wyke, eds., Roman Bodies. Antiquity to the Eighteenth Century (London 2005) 66-81.
“Portraits, Plots and Politics: Damnatio Memoriae and the Images of Imperial
Women,” Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome (2001) 41-93.
“Punishment after Death: Mutilation of Images and Corpse Abuse in Imperial Rome,”
Mortality, 6.1 (2001) 45-63.
“Tyranny and the Transformation in Roman Imperial Marble Portraits and Coins,”
Minerva 11.6 (2000) 45-49.
“Grotesque Vision: Seneca’s Tragedies and Neronian Art,” Seneca in Performance, G.
Harrison, ed. (Wales Classical Press 2000) 119-36.
"Domitia Longina and the Politics of Portraiture," American Journal of Archaeology 99
(1995) 187-206.
"Two Portrait Stelae at Yale and the Romanization of North Africa," Yale University Art
Gallery Bulletin (1990) 11-19.
Reviews and Catalogue Entries:
Review, C. Hallett, The Roman Nude (Oxford 2005) American Journal of Archaeology
111 (2007)
Review, T. Hölscher, The Language of Images in Roman Art, trans. A. Snodgrass and A. Künzl-Snodgrass (Cambridge 2004), Bryn Mawr Classical Review (electronic, forthcoming)
Review, P.J. Holliday, The Origins of Roman Historical Commemoration in the Visual Arts (Cambridge 2002) AJA 111 (2007)
Review, E. Perry, The Aesthetics of Emulation in the Visual Arts of Ancient Rome(Cambridge 2005) American Journal of Archaeology 110 (1996) 678-9
Review, N. Agnoli, ed. Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Palestrina. Le Sculture
(Rome 2002) American Journal of Archaeology 110 (2006) online reviews
Review, J. Meier, Emperors Don’t Die in Bed (New York and London 2004) Mortality
2005
Review, E. Bartman, Portraits of Livia (Cambridge 1999) Classical Journal 95 (2000)
412-5.
Review, T. Hölscher, Monumenti statali e pubblico (Rome 1994) Archaeological News 23 (1998-2000) 74-75.
"Funerary Portrait of Gratidia M.L. Chrite and M. Gratidius Libanus," Rings: Five
Passions in World Art, M. Shapiro, ed. (New York 1996) 62.
Portrait of Lucius Caesar, Portrait of Tiberius, Portrait of Caligula, Portrait of Nero,
Portraits of Septimius Severus and Julia Domna, Portraits of Caracalla, Portrait of
Plautilla, I Claudia: Women in Ancient Rome (New Haven 1996) 55, 61-3, 81-6.
Review, O. Dräger, Religionem Significare: Studien zu reich verzierten römischen
Altaren und Basen aus Marmor (RM EH 33, Mainz 1994), American Journal of
Archaeology 100 (1996) 801-2.
Review, N. Hannestad, Tradition in Late Antique Sculpture (Aarhus 1994), Amercian
Journal of Archaeology 99 (1995) 746-7.
Review, Grabeskunst der römischen Kaiserzeit, G. Koch, ed. (Mainz 1993),

Archaeological News 19 (1995) 49-51.

EXHIBITIONS:
“From Caligula to Constantine: Tyranny and Transformation in Roman Portraiture,”
Michael C. Carlos Museum, September 2000-January 2001; Yale University Art
Gallery January-March 2001.
"Fragments of the Roman Past: North African Red Slip Ware from the
Collection of William Knight Zewadski," Michael C. Carlos Museum, February- May 1994

PAPERS AND LECTURES DELIVERED
“Eternal Rome and the Semiotics of Death in Roman Funerary Art” Key note address,
Athenaze Conference, University of Georgia, Athens, March 2006.
“Encoding Identity: Semantic Systems in Roman Portraiture,” Reading the Roman Portraits, Michael C. Carlos Museum, January 2006.
“Art History as Afterlife: Monumentalization and Memorialization in Roman Funerary
Art,” Seventh International Conference on the Social Context of Death, Dying
and Didposal, Bath, September 2005
“Tiberius: Portrait Paradigms and Paradoxes,” College Art Association Annual Meetings,
February 2005
“Reading Replications: Roman Rhetoric and Greek Quotations,” Corpus Christi College,
Oxford, June 2004
“Transgendered Images: Assimilation and Identity in Roman Imperial Portraits”
University of Texas at Austin, October 2003
“Eternal Rome and the Semiotics of Death in Roman Funerary Art,” Hunter College,
April, 2003
“Transcending Gender: Assimilation, Identity and Roman Imperial Portraits,” Role
Models: Identity and Assimilation in the Roman World and Early Modern Italy,
American Academy in Rome and the British School at Rome, March 2003
“Golden Excess: Nero’s Portraits and the Cult of Luxury,” Re-imagining Nero, Michael
C. Carlos Museum, November 2002
“Eternal Rome and the Semiotics of Death on a Season Sarcophagus in the Michael C. Carlos Museum,” Sixth International Conference of the Social Context of Death, Dying and Disposal, York, September 2002
“Beyond Greece: Nero’s Artistic Interactions with Egypt and Armenia,” Corpus Christi
College, Oxford, May 2002
“Rus in Urbe: Nero’s Domus Aurea and the Architecture of Transgression,” Association
Ancient Historians, Annual Meeting, Savannah, April 2002
“Ideologies of Empathy: Cruelty and Clemency on the Column of Trajan,”
Second Annual Societas Conference: Roman Political Ideology, Villa Vergiliana, Cumae, Italy, May 2001.
“The Art of Condemnation: Sculptors’ Responses to the Mutilation and Reuse of

Roman Imperial Portraits” Marble in the Roman World, University of Colorado, Boulder, April 2001
“Mutilation of Images and Corpse Abuse in Ancient Rome,”Roman Bodies: Metamorphoses, Mutilation, and Martyrdom, British School in Rome, March 2001
“Memory, Condemnation and the Instability of Roman Imperial Images,” Symposium,
Tyranny and Transformation in Roman Portraiture, Michael C. Carlos Museum,
Ocotober 2000
“Documenting Death: Dacians and Empathy on the Column of Trajan in Rome,” Fifth
International Conference on the Social Context of Death Dying and Disposal,
London, September 2000
“Punishment After Death: Mutilation of Images and Corpses in Imperial Rome,” Fourth
International Conference on the Social Context of Death, Dying, and Disposal, Glasgow,
September 1998
“Wine and Wine Making in Roman Art,” Michael C. Carlos Museum, March 1998
“Memory and Commemoration: Constructing Image and Identity in Roman Portraits,”
Michael C. Carlos Museum, March 1998
“Mutilation and Transformation in Roman Portraits,” keynote address, “Ars Refecta”
Annual Graduate Student Symposium, University of Missouri, March 1998.
“Grotesque Vision: Seneca’s Tragedies and Neronian Art,” in “Seneca in Performance,”
Xavier University, February 1998
“Reflections of the Roman Theater at Sepphoris,” Michael C. Carlos Museum,
February 1998
“Mutilation and Reuse: Recasting the Image of the Roman Ruler, “ in "Negating the
Image: Iconoclasm, Vandalism, and Art Censorship," College Art Association, Annual
Meetings, February 1997
“Emperors, Popes and Architectural Commemoration in Rome,” Michael C. Carlos
Museum, November 1996
“Ancient Olive Crowns: Their History and Context,” Michael C. Carlos Museum,
September 1996
"A Portrait of a Roman Woman as Venus-Hygeia," Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory
University, November 1995
"Image and Response: Roman Women and the Portraits of Ptolemaic Queens," American
Research Center in Egypt, Annual Meetings, April 1995
"Outsiders in Roman Art," Multiculturalism: Ancient and Modern, Emory University,
February 1995
"Nero Imperator: Military Imagery and the Portraits of Nero," Annual Meetings,
Archaeological Institute of America and the American Philological Association,
December, 1994
"Artistic Ambiguity in Vergil's Aeneid and the Ara Pacis Augustae," NEH Institute,
Reading Vergil's Aeneid in the Humanities Curriculum, Christine G. Perkell, director,
June-August 1994
"Images of Saturn in the Art of Ancient North Africa,"Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University, April 1994

"Aspects of Divinity in Roman Imperial Portraiture: A Portrait of Hadrian from Carthage and the Imperial Cult in North Africa," Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University, April 1994
"Rewriting the Visual Record: Damnatio Memoriae and Roman Imperial Portraits," Archaeological Institute of America, Atlanta Society, November 1993
"Domitia Longina and the Politics of Portraiture," Archaeological Institute of America Annual Meeting, December 1992
"Damnatio Memoriae and Imperial Portraits," Archaeological Institute of America, Athens Georgia Society, November 1992
"Condemnation in Crisis: Three Portraits of Severus Alexander and Damnatio Memoriae in the Late Severan Period," Archaeological Institute of America Annual Meeting, December, 1991
"Mithras and Other Mysteries: Near Eastern Religions and the Art of the Roman Provinces," Yale University Art Gallery, October, 1991
"Memorials in Stone: Roman Relief Sculpture from Tunisia and Palmyra," Yale University Art Gallery, January, 1991

TEACHING EXPERIENCE
John Cabot University, Rome
Monuments and Topography of Ancient Rome, June 2004, June 2003, June 2002, June 2001, June 2000, Fall 1999, June 1999, July 1998, July 1997

Emory University:
Picturing Artefice: Phantasia and Roman Painting, Fall 2006
Views of Rome: Ancient and Baroque, Fall 2006
Memorial Afterlife and Roman Funerary Art, Spring 2004
Politics, Identity and Gender in Roman Art, Fall 2003
Methods in Art History, Fall 2003, Fall 2005
Rome: Ancient and Baroque (Art History Summer Abroad Program 2003)
The Art of Transgression under Nero, Fall 2002
Roman Citiscapes: Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Ostia, Fall 2002
Nero: Hero or Anti Hero?, Spring 2002
Roman Vision, Fall 2000, Spring 2004
Column of Trajan, Spring 2000
Roman Imperial Residences: Architecture and Decoration, Fall 1998
Image and Identity in Roman Portraits, Spring 1998, Spring 2005
Image and Text: Suetonius, Caesars, and Art, Fall 1997
Mutilation and Transformation in Roman Art and Architecture, Fall, 2000, Spring 1997
Age of Augustus, Spring 2002, Spring 1997, Spring 1995
Politics of Gender: Images of Women in Roman Art, Spring 2000, Fall 1996, Fall 1993 Imitation and Rivalry: Alexander the Great and His Artistic Legacy, Fall 1996
Tradition and Innovation in Late Antique Art, Spring 1996
Survey of Roman Art, Spring 2006, Spring 2005, Spring 2003, Spring 2001, Spring 2000, Spring 1999, Fall 1997, Spring 1996

Classics 101, Spring 2001, Spring 1999, Spring 1998, Spring 1997, Fall 1995
Age of Nero, Fall 1998, Fall 1995, Spring 1993, Fall 2005
HART 101 (Etruscan and Roman), Fall 2005, Fall 2003, Fall 2002, Fall 2000, Fall 1998, Fall, 1997, Fall 1996, Fall 1995, (Greek and Etruscan), Fall 1992
Pompeii, Herculaneum and Ostia: the Urban Fabric of Roman Daily Life, Spring
1998, Spring 1995
Latin 102, Fall 1994
Latin 101, Fall 1994
Urbs Aeterna: Monuments and Topography of Ancient Rome, Fall Fall 1994, Fall 1992
On site version at John Cabot (Summer 2003, Summer 2002, Summer 2001, Summer 2000, Fall 1999, Summer 1999, Summer 1998, Summer 1997)
Ancient North Africa: Art and Society, Spring 1994
Emory Summer Program in Italy, Summer 1993

Yale University:
Teaching Fellow, Greek Architecture, Spring 1991
Teaching Fellow, Age of Augustus, Fall 1990
Teaching Fellow, Roman History, Spring 1989
Teaching Fellow, Age of Augustus, Fall 1988
Teaching Fellow, Cities of the Greco-Roman World, Spring 1988
Teaching Fellow, Greek Art, Fall 1988

UNIVERSITY SERVICE
Emory University:
Honors Thesis Committee, Rachel Harrison 2006-7
Ph.D. Committee, Jason Cjieka, Art History 2005-
Ph.D. Committee, Anthony Mangieri, Art History, 2005-
Honors Thesis Committee, Val Prochaka, Classical Studies, 2005-6
Honors Thesis Committee, Susan Weisbrod, Art History, 2005-6
Educational Policy Committee, 2005-
Humanities Committee, SIRE Grants 2003-2004
Honors Coordinator, Art History Department 2003-2004
Library Representative, Art History Department 2003
Honors Thesis Committee, Scott Walker, Art History, 2003-3004
Honors Thesis Committee, Lisa Boutin, Art History, 2003-2004
Honors Thesis Committee, Ellie Ruth, Political Science, 2002-2003
Honors Thesis Committee, Jody Campbell, History Department, 2002-2003
Ph.D. Defense Committee, Karen O’Day, December 2002
Organizer, “Re-imagining Nero,” Symposium, Michael C. Carlos Museum, November
2002
Ph.D. Defense Committee, Katrina Dickson, April 2002
Curriculum Committee, 2000-2002

Search Committee, Curator of Greek and Roman Art, Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2000-1
Ph.D. Exam Committee, Erin Black, Spring 2001
Ph.D. Exam Committee, Jennifer Palinkas, Spring 2001
Curator, “From Caligula to Constantine: Tyranny and Transformation in Roman Portraiture,” Michael C. Carlos Museum, September 2000-January 2001; Yale University Art Gallery January-March 2001.
Ph.D. Exam Committee, John Stephenson, Fall 2000
Academic Advisor, Emory Students at John Cabot, Fall 1999
Search Committee, Greek Material Culture Position, Classics Department, 1998-99
Study Abroad Coordinator, Art History Department, 1998-ongoing
Graduate Committee, Art History Department, 2002, 1999, 1998
Steering Committee, Program in Classical Studies, 1997-
Curator, "Fragments of the Roman Past: North African Red Slip Ware from the
Collection of William Knight Zewadski," Michael C. Carlos Museum, February- May 1994
Curriculum Reform Committee, Classics Department, 1993-1994
Dissertation Advisor, Katrina Dickson, “Agrippina Minor: Optima Mater or Semper Atrox?”
Dissertation Advisor, Erin Black, Tropaeum Traiani at Adamklisi
Dissertation Advisor, John Stephenson, Roman Villas in Gaul, Spain and North Africa
Dissertation Committee, Karen O’Day,
Ph.D. Exam Committee, Sheramy Bundrick, Fall 1995
Honors Thesis Advisor, Saskia Benjamin, Empresses as Goddesses in Julio-
Claudian Visual Propaganda, 1994-95
Honors Thesis Committee, Nicholas Holmes, Spring 1995
Ph.D. Exam Committee, Katrina Dickson, Fall 1994

RELATED PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Manuscript Review, Hesperia, 2006
Tenure Reviews, University of Indiana, Bloomington, 2006, University of Delaware, 2005, University of Colorado, Boulder 2005
Chair, “Inventing the Age of Augustus: Tiberius and the Reification of Empire,”
College Art Association Annual Meetings, February 2005
Manuscript Review, A History of Roman Art (textbook) 2004
Manuscript Review, Roman Chapters, Janson’s History of Art 2004
Manuscript Reviews, American Journal of Archaeology, 2006, 2004, 2002, 1995
Manuscript Reviews, Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, 2006, 2004, 2002
Sculptural Workshop, Butrint Albania (organized by the British School at Rome and the
Butrint Foundation) June 2003
Organizer, “Re-Imagining Nero,” Symposium, Michael C. Carlos Museum, November
2002
Sculptural Consultant, Columbia Museum of Art, South Carolina, Fall 2002
President, Archaeological Institute of America, Atlanta Society, 1998-2001

Manuscript Review, Princeton University Art Museum Catalogue of Roman Sculpture,
2000
Chair, “Remembering the Dead: Roman Funerary Reliefs,” Open Session
Annual Meeting, Archaeological Institute of America, December 1998
Publications Review for Susan E. Wood, Promotion to Full Professor, Oakland
University, April 1997
Sculptural Consultant, Columbia Museum of Art, South Carolina, July 1996
Organizer, "Rethinking Nero's Legacy: New Perspectives on Neronian Art, Literature,
and History," Joint Session, Annual Meetings of the Archaeological Institute of
America and the American Philological Association, December, 1994
Member, Local Organizing Committee, Annual Meetings of the Archaeological Institute
of America and the American Philological Association, December 1994
Member, Local Organizing Committee, Annual Meeting of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South, April 1994
President, Archaeological Institute of America, New Haven Society, 1990-1992
Librarian, Classical Archaeology Slide Collection, Yale University, 1991

FIELD EXPERIENCE
University of Georgia Excavations of the Roman Circus at Carthage
(Naomi Norman, Director):
Summer 1987, Supervisor
Summer 1985, Student Participant