— Jillienne Robinson-Warren (Mentor: R. Scott Smith)
Over the past few decades, research on the lives of ancient women has proliferated, spawning various Latin readers and textbooks. However, out of the textbooks born of this recent scholarly interest, none have focused specifically on the relationship between women and travel. Funded by the Global Racial and Social Inequality Lab and the Hamel Center for Undergraduate Research, I have had the opportunity to research and write an intermediate-to-advanced Latin textbook titled, “Roman Women on the Move” under the mentorship of Professor R. Scott Smith. For this project, I have compiled around twenty Latin texts (and counting) and created their accompanying commentaries, or reading guides, a process which is informed by recent scholarship on female mobility. Through this textbook, I am working to challenge both the general paucity of female representation, specifically in “authentic” Latin, at the intermediate level and the common misunderstanding of the ancient Roman woman as a housebound and immobile entity. I believe this intersection of topics presents a fascinating array of sources from multiple perspectives and textual traditions that lends itself to use in classrooms, adding something new and thought-provoking to the recent Latin textbooks on ancient women. In this commentary, I detail my process of creating this textbook.
