Her research interests focus on the discourse, performance and imagery of power in imperial Rome, with special interest in spectacle and gender. She is likewise alert to manifestations of the ancient Mediterranean in modern popular culture, with publications on the Viking Queen, Spartacus, HBO’s Rome and Xena: Warrior Princess. She is the author of Blood in the Arena (1997) and Roman Games (2006) and the co-editor of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World. She hopes one day to complete her ongoing monograph project on the Barbarian Queens: Paradoxes of Gender, Power and Identity.