Areas of specialization: late ancient Mediterranean religions;听dress and performativity;听history of medicine, health, and healing聽
Prof. Upson-Saia offers specialized courses on the ancient Roman world, including:聽Magic, Miracle, and Medicine in Antiquity;听"Good" Sex: History of聽Sexual Ethics;听Death, Dying, and the Afterlife in the Ancient Mediterranean World; and聽Humans and the Environment in Antiquity. With Prof. Morrissey (Philosophy) and Prof. Lehr (Economics), she team-teaches the Health & Humanity FYS course. She has also led the聽Turkey: Then & Now聽program, which pairs a semester long course with a short-term field study聽in Turkey (ancient Asia Minor).
Her early research focused on religious dress and performativity in late antiquity. On this topic, she published two books:聽聽(Routledge, 2011) and聽聽(Routledge, 2014).聽
More recently, her research focus has turned to medicine and healing in late antiquity. Prof. Upson-Saia聽co-founded the international working group聽(pronounced "remedy," an acronym for Religion, Medicine, Disability, and Health in late antiquity), a group of 350+ scholars who collaborate on scholarly projects. She is a series editor for the (Routledge Press).聽Her latest book was published with University of California press in 2023 and is already receiving !听
Interested in Prof. Upson-Saia's research? You can listen to the BBC podcast, You're Dead to Me, in which she was the guest scholar.聽