Distinguished Research Professor Emerita Sarah Spence’s research focuses on the medieval reception of classical Latin literature. In her first book, Rhetorics of Reason and Desire (Cornell UP), she traced the adaptation of rhetoric and rhetorical strategies by early Christian and medieval vernacular authors. Her latest book, The Return of Proserpina (Princeton UP) illuminates a history of mytho-political discourse from its origins in Roman antiquity to its Christian apotheosis in the late Middle Ages. This book examines the threads that bind Sicily to the imperial future of Rome and ultimately, through the long reception of Latin poetry, to medieval ideas of redemption. Between these two monographs she has published numerous volumes on classical, medieval and early modern topics, while also editing a series of books and journals, including serving as Editor-in-chief of Speculum, the journal of the Medieval Academy of America (2014–19 and a digital supplement) and Interim Editor for Dumbarton Oaks Publications (2019–21) where she oversaw peer review of a number of volumes. Research Research Interests: Latin Poetry, Medieval Vernacular Poetry, Rhetoric
