Alison Futrell

My interests lie in the discourse, performance, and imagery of power in imperial Rome, with special interest in spectacle and gender. I have authored and edited and co-edited Blood in the Arena; The Roman Games; and The Oxford Handbook of Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World. I am likewise alert to representations of the ancient Mediterranean in modern popular culture, particularly film and television, with publications on The Viking Queen (1967), Spartacus (1960 and 2010-13), HBO’s Rome (2005, 2007) and Xena: Warrior Princess (1995-2001). I have appeared as a talking head in a number of public-facing media, including, most recently, for National Geographic and  BBC History Extra, on such topics as gladiators, the Roman arena, Cleopatra, Boudica, Hannibal, and the Bible. In the summer of 2022, I was featured in "Colosseum", an eight-part series on the History Channel! (I was a discussant on a teaser podcast for the channel's History This Week, which dropped on July 4). With Paul Milliman, I am co-creator of the University of Arizona Enhanced Experience for Age of Empires IV. The two of us were featured presenters in the University of Arizona's Wonder House at SXSW 2023, where we talked about “Gaming the Past: History as Time Travel”.