Emily Gowers Explained

Emily Gowers
Birth Name:	Emily Joanna Thomas
Birth Date:	1963 9, df=y
Nationality:	British
Alma Mater:	Trinity College, Cambridge
Thesis Title:	The representation of food in Roman literature
Discipline:	Classics
Sub Discipline:	Latin literature
Workplaces:	Princeton University University of Cambridge
Notable Works:	The Loaded Table: Representations of Food in Roman Literature

Emily Joanna Gowers, (Thomas; born 27 September 1963) is a British classical scholar. She is Professor of Latin Literature at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge. She is an expert on Horace, Augustan literature, and the history of food in the Roman world.^[1]

Early life and education

Gowers attended Oxford High School. She studied Classics at Trinity College, Cambridge and was awarded her BA in 1985 followed by her MA in 1990. Gowers remained in Cambridge for her PhD with a dissertation entitled The representation of food in Roman literature in 1990 for which she was awarded the Hare Prize. She was a Junior Research Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1988 to 1991.^[2]

Academic career

From 1991 to 1993, Gowers was a lecturer in Latin at University College, London followed by a period as an honorary research fellow at the same institution. In 1998 Gowers became an affiliated lecturer for the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge and then moved to Princeton University in 2000 as a lecturer in the Department of Classics. She returned to Cambridge as a lecturer in Classics in 2002 and became a Senior Lecturer in 2009. Since 2013 Gowers has been a Reader in Latin Literature.^[3] Gowers was made Professor of Latin Literature in 2016.^[4]

Gowers's work on the representation of food in Latin literature stemmed from her PhD research into the subject. Her 1993 publication, The Loaded Table, was awarded the Premio Langhe Ceretto (per la cultura del cibo) in 1994^[5] and translated into Italian in 1996. This work drew together evidence from literature for Roman diet and food culture.^[6]

Gowers's current work focuses primarily on the interpretation of Augustan literature, particularly the works of Horace.^[7] She was awarded a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship (2014–16) for her project Maecenas: Transformations of an Augustan Patron.^{[8] [9] [10]}

In 2012 Gowers was a Visiting Professor and Distinguished Webster Lecturer, Stanford University^{[11] [12]} and in 2014 she was a Visiting Professor for the Spring Semester at Princeton University.^{[13] [14]} She delivered the 2013 Fowler Lecture (Jesus College, Oxford) on the subject "Maecenas and the Women".^[15] In 2013-14 Gowers was a guest speaker in the Classical Studies Department of McGill University.^[16] Gowers was the Sather Professor of Classical Literature at the University of California, Berkeley in 2022, the eleventh woman to be invited to hold the position.^{[17] [18]} The role was founded by Jane K. Sather, with the first Sather Professor established in 1914.^[19] The position is annual, and involves teaching a course, delivering lectures on a specific topic, and publishing the lectures as a book.

In 2018 Gowers was appointed a Member of the Press Syndicate at Cambridge University Press,^[20] a role that contributes to the governance of the press.^[21] Gowers regularly reviews books for the Times Literary Supplement.

Honours

Gowers was elected a member of the Academy of Europe in 2013. In July 2019, she was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.^[22]

Personal life

In 1988, Gowers married Timothy Gowers, a mathematician and Cambridge academic: they divorced in 2007. Together they have three children.^[23]

Selected publications

• Tasting the Roman World in K. C. Rudolph, ed., Taste and the Ancient Senses (Routledge, Abingdon/New York, 2018, pp. 90–103)^[24]
• Under the Influence: Maecenas and Bacchus in Georgics 2 in P. Hardie, ed., Augustan Poetry and the Irrational (Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. 134–152)^[25]
• Girls will be boys and boys will be girls, or, what is the gender of Horace's Epodes? in P. Bather and C. Stocks, eds., Horace's Epodes: Contexts, Intertexts, and Reception (Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. 103–130)^[26]
• Horace Satires Book I (Cambridge Greek and Latin Texts series, Cambridge University Press, 2012) (rev. BMCR 2012.11.11)
• ed. with W. Fitzgerald Ennius Perennis: The Annals and Beyond (Cambridge Classical Journal Supplement 31, 2007)
• Fragments of Autobiography in Horace Satires I (Classical Antiquity 22.1, 2003, pp. 55–91)
• The Loaded Table: Representations of Food in Roman Literature (Oxford University Press, 1993) (paperback 1997, translated into Italian in 1996 as La pazza tavola, Società editrice internazionale di Torino)^[27]

External links

• Academy of Europe publication list
• Emily Gowers - Faculty page

Notes and References

1. Web site: Professor Emily Gowers — Faculty of Classics. www.classics.cam.ac.uk. en. 2018-08-16.
2. Web site: Academy of Europe: CV. Hoffmann. Ilire Hasani, Robert. www.ae-info.org. 2018-08-16.
3. Web site: Academy of Europe: Gowers Emily. Hoffmann. Ilire Hasani, Robert. www.ae-info.org. 2018-08-16.
4. Web site: Reports - Cambridge University Reporter 6429. www.admin.cam.ac.uk. 2018-08-19.
5. Book: Gowers, Emily. The Loaded Table : Representations of Food in Roman Literature: Representations of Food in Roman Literature. 1993-01-21. Clarendon Press. 9780191591655. en.
6. Bober. Phyllis Pray. 1993. Review of: The Loaded Table: Representations of Food in Roman Literature. Bryn Mawr Classical Review. 1055-7660.
7. Sharland. Suzanne. 2012. Review of: Horace: Satires Book I. Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics. Bryn Mawr Classical Review. 1055-7660.
8. Web site: Dr Emily Gowers awarded Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship StJohns. www.joh.cam.ac.uk. en. 2018-08-16.
9. News: Grant winners - 27 February 2014. 2014-02-27. Times Higher Education (THE). 2018-08-16. en.
10. Web site: Leverhulme Awards Made (2013). 16 August 2018.
11. Web site: Stanford Classics Newsletter 2011. 16 August 2018.
12. Web site: Stanford Classics Newsletter 2012. 16 August 2018.
13. Web site: Events Archive Page 3 Princeton Classics. classics.princeton.edu. en. 2018-08-16.
14. Web site: Princeton Classics Newsletter 2014. 16 August 2018.
15. Web site: Fowler Lectures Jesus College, University of Oxford. www.jesus.ox.ac.uk. en. 2018-08-16.
16. Web site: Guest Speakers: 2005-present. Classical Studies. en. 2018-08-16.
17. Web site: Professor Emily Gowers: Sather Lectures — Faculty of Classics. www.classics.cam.ac.uk. 27 March 2018. en. 2018-08-16.
18. Web site: Past and Future Sather Professors Department of Classics. www.classics.berkeley.edu. en. 2018-08-16. 18 October 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161018093808/http://www.classics.berkeley.edu/people/sather/list. dead.
19. Web site: A Brief History of the Sather Professorship Department of Classics. www.classics.berkeley.edu. en. 2018-08-19. 3 September 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180903102753/http://www.classics.berkeley.edu/people/sather/history. dead.
20. Web site: Profiles of Members of the Press Syndicate: 2018. Cambridge University Press. 2018.
21. Web site: The Press Syndicate. Cambridge University Press. en. 2019-08-16.
22. Web site: New Fellows 2019 . The British Academy . 27 July 2019 .
23. Web site: Gowers, Sir (William) Timothy, (born 20 Nov. 1963), Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics, University of Cambridge, since 1998; Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, since 1995; Royal Society 2010 Anniversary Research Professor, since 2010 WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO . . Oxford University Press . 28 July 2019 . en . 10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U17733. 1 December 2018. 978-0-19-954088-4 .
24. Book: Rudolph . Kelli C. . Taste and the Ancient Senses . 2017 . Routledge . 9781317515401 . en.
25. Book: Hardie . Philip . Augustan Poetry and the Irrational . 2016 . Oxford University Press . 9780191037719 . en.
26. Book: Bather . Philippa . Stocks . Claire . Horace's Epodes: Contexts, Intertexts, and Reception . 2016 . Oxford University Press . 9780191063343 . en.
27. Natunewicz. Chester F.. 1995. Review of The Loaded Table: Representations of Food in Roman Literature. The Classical World. 88. 3. 211. 10.2307/4351686. 4351686.