Matthew Roller is a classicist whose research and teaching are broadly concerned with the literature, history, art, philosophy, and culture of the ancient Roman world. He is the author of three monographs: Constructing Autocracy: Aristocrats and Emperors in Julio-Claudian Rome (Princeton University Press, 2001), Dining Posture in Ancient Rome: Bodies, Values, and Status (Princeton University Press, 2006), and Models from the Past in Roman Culture: A World of Exempla (Cambridge University Press, 2018). His current book-scale project is an investigation of the arenas of competitive eloquence in the early Imperial period, from the Augustan age into the 2nd century CE.
His research has been supported by major awards from the Institute for Research in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, as well as by smaller awards from diverse funders to support particular projects. He has been a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins University since 1994. His service roles include chairing the Classics Department for seven years and the Anthropology Department for one year, and serving for five years as the Vice Dean for Graduate Education and Interdepartmental Centers and Programs in the School of Arts and Sciences. In 2023 Roller will serve as president of the Society for Classical Studies, the principal learned society and professional association for classicists in North America.
