Dr. Newlands' research is focussed on understanding the Roman world in the first century CE when the system of government shifted dramatically from a republic to an autocracy; by the end of the same period the empire had reached a state of unparalleled prosperity and stability. She explores political and social change through key literary, and to some extent also, artistic works of this period, particularly by Ovid and Statius, examining the questions they raise of the freedom of the writer to challenge the status quo, to effect political and social change, to find new forms of expression for new forms of political and cultural power. She is also interested in reception studies, in particular the art and literature inspired by by the works of Ovid (43BCE-17CE), and to the present day. She completed in 2025 my introduction and notes to a new translation of Ovid's Heroides, to be published in the fall of 2026 in the Oxford World Classics series. Currently she has completed a book that examines from a post-colonial perspective the reception and translation of epic poetry in Scotland from the sixteenth century to the post-devolution period. The book is in the final stage of review at Cambridge University Press.
keywords
imperial Roman poetry, reception studies, ancient art and social history, Roman religion and gender, medieval Latin poetry
