Cait Mongrain is joining CC Classics for the 2024-2025 academic year from Princeton University's Classics department, with a dissertation on the Flavian emperors' use of city destructions to legitimize their claims to imperial power. Prior to her time at Princeton, Cait received her BA, then MA in Classics from Texas Tech University, where her research focused on Roman amphitheater spectacles and their depictions in the writings of the Roman historians and satirists. Her research interests include Roman historiography, public spectacles in the Roman world, Roman satire, and ancient food and dining.
Professor Mongrain has taught Classics in a variety of different contexts, beginning in 2013. After completing her MA at Texas Tech, she taught as a full-time instructor in the department for 3 years, and during her time at Princeton, she taught both within the department and for students incarcerated in NJ state prisons through the Prison Teaching Initiative. These courses included undergraduate Latin and Greek, Ancient Sport and Spectacle, Masterpieces of Early World Literature, and Classical Mythology. This year at CC, she will be introducing two new courses to the department: Consumption and Conservation in the Roman World, in which students will learn about Roman manipulation, exploitation, and preservation of the natural world and how these practices relate to ideas of empire, and Food and Dining in the Roman World, in which students will learn about the cultural, social, and economic significance of food to the Romans and put Roman techniques into practice through hands-on projects.
If you're a student interested in the possibility of pursuing a graduate degree in Classics, please feel to drop by Professor Mongrain's office (Cossitt 104E) to talk!
