Faculty Books

Women in Martial
Ilaria Marchesi
Women in Martial (Oxford University Press) is the first detailed study of the portrayals of women in Martial’s Epigrams. Marchesi, who is director of Princeton’s Classics Language Program, proposes a novel method of examining femininity in the Flavian age through the combination of close readings of the poems with legal, historical, and rhetorical discussions. Marchesi explores how Roman women were expected to represent their fathers and reproduce for their husbands, while also being important figures in Martial’s work. This book gives readers an understanding of how Roman society constructed and regulated female identity. 

In COVID’s Wake
Stephen Macedo *87 & Frances Lee
In COVID’s Wake: How Our Politics Failed Us (Princeton University Press) is a comprehensive assessment of the political responses to the COVID pandemic. The politics professors question why pre-COVID plans were largely ignored, if dissenting voices were treated with fairness, and if the adopted policies actually worked. They examine how governments abandoned existing strategies in global pandemics and how these policies disproportionately harmed essential workers and vulnerable, underprivileged families. Science was suddenly caught up in a web of political polarization. They underline the importance of open-mindedness, democracy, and evidence in future crises.