Alanna Heatherly

I am a Classical linguist and social historian interested in sport and spectacle, pain, and disability, spanning from the age of Pindaric athletes to imperial Roman games. My research has explored the social hierarchies, gendered realities, and pain-oriented language surrounding the lives of ancient athletes and martyrs. Within my teaching and research, I also interrogate the glitz and glamor of contemporary sword-and-sandal media to reconsider and dispel our society’s preconceived notions concerning the lived experience of ancient athletes.

My dissertation, Hermeneutics of Pain in the Roman Empire, explores four case studies concerning the communication and interpretation of pain: gladiators, martyrs, the philosophy of Epictetus, and the practices of Galen and Aelius Aristides. Ultimately, my dissertation argues that the hermeneutics of pain in the Roman empire were contextually bound and far from universal: all pains have meanings.   

I have participated in the Mitrou Archaeological Project in Greece, the Garden of the Hesperides Archaeological Project in Morocco, and the 2024 Classical Summer School at the American Academy in Rome. Although a philologist at heart, I have a passion for material culture, preservation, and archiving, and so I serve as the Classics departmental librarian. Outside of academia I enjoy live music, hikes in the Smoky Mountains, and perpetually improving my homemade southern cooking.