Katharine T. von Stackelberg

Associate Professor, Ancient Environment, Latin, Roman History

Katherine von Stackelberg
Curriculum Vitae

BA, MLitt, PhD (Trinity College Dublin)
2004-2005 Garden and Landscape Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.

Phone: 905 688 5550 x5374
Fax: 905 984 4859
Email: kvonstackelberg@brocku.ca

Fall 2024 Teaching

Not teaching this term.

Winter 2025 Teaching

Not teaching this term.

My research focuses on how gardens and landscapes are a form of cultural communication (and sometimes resistance) through the art and literature of ancient Rome. I am the author of The Roman Garden: Space, Sense and Society (Routledge, 2009) and co-editor of Housing the New Romans: Architectural Reception and Classical Style in the Modern World (with E. Macaulay-Lewis) (Oxford University Press, 2017). I am currently studying expressions of imperial power and gender anxiety in Latin garden poems, and the reception of Graeco-Roman landscape architecture in 19th and 20th century Europe and America.

As a teacher my courses cover Roman history, the Roman Villa, the ancient environment; food and dining in the ancient world, and Latin prose (usually Cicero and Pliny the Younger).

Contact me if you are interested in any of the following research areas: Representations of nature in Roman art and literature, gender expression in the ancient world (including intersex representations [e.g. Hermaphroditus]), architecture and reception, space syntax analysis, Columella, Pliny the Elder, or Pliny the Younger.

Select Publications

2020 and 2021. “Hermaphroditism” and “Gardens” in T. Whitmarsh et al. (eds.) Oxford Classical Dictionary, 5th Edition (Oxford University Press).

2017. “Reconsidering Hyperreality: ‘Roman’ Houses and their Gardens”, in K. T. von Stackelberg and E. Macaulay-Lewis (eds.) Housing the New Romans: Architectural Reception and Classical Style in the Modern World. (Oxford University Press, 2017), 232-268.

2017. “Architectural Reception and the neo-Antique”, in K.T. von Stackelberg and E. Macaulay-Lewis (eds.) Housing the New Romans: Architectural Reception and Classical Style in the Modern World. (Oxford University Press, 2017), 1-23.

2015. “Decline and Fall: The Roman Garden of Louise du Pont Crowninshield”, in V. Pagán, J. Page and B. Weltman-Aron (eds.) Disciples of Flora (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015), 94-112.

2014. “Garden Hybrids: Hermaphrodite Images and Gendered Space in the Roman House”, Classical Antiquity 33, 395-426.

Recent Papers

2022 “Finding the Clitoris [in the Text]: Ecofeminist Approaches to Columella’s Garden.” Classical Association of Canada Annual Conference, May 12-15, University of Western Ontario.

2022 “ “Phew! I’m Not Pregnant!” Large-Class Learning Through Roleplay in a Roman Family.” Classical Association of Canada Annual Conference, May 12-15, University of Western Ontario.

2019. “Inseminating Empire: Columella, Colonialism, and Garden Politics”, University of Virginia, April 8.

2019. “Contentious Classics: Homeric Receptions, Elisabeth of Austria, and Kaiser Wilhelm II”, University of Western Ontario, January 25.

2018. “How to Eat a Flamingo: Exploring the Ancient Sensorium”, at A Learned Feast Humanities Research Symposium, Brock University, December 11.

2017. “Medusa’s Gaze: The Petrified Garden of the Achilleion”, at Hortus Inclusus: Expanding Boundaries of Space and Time, British School at Rome, June 27-28, 2017