Hunter Gardner

Hunter Gardner is a Professor of Classics and Director of the Classics Program at the University of South Carolina’s Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures within the College of Arts and Sciences. Her expertise spans Latin and Greek literature, particularly Augustan/Imperial Latin poetry and Greek tragedy, alongside reception studies focusing on classical antiquity in modern media.

Education: PhD in Classics (UNC Chapel Hill, 2005), MA in Latin (UGA, 1997), BA in Classical Civilization (UNC Chapel Hill, 1994). Awards include the McCausland Fellow (2013–2019) and Loeb Classical Library Foundation Fellowship (2017).

Research emphasizes plague narratives in Roman literature (e.g., Pestilence and the Body Politic in Latin Literature, 2019), Latin love elegy (e.g., The Latin Love Elegists, 2024), and classical adaptations in film/TV (e.g., Ancient Epic in Film and Television, 2021). She explores intersections between ancient texts and modern cultural anxieties around disease, gender, and power.

Teaching includes courses on Greco-Roman antiquity in cinema, gender in antiquity, and advanced Latin/Greek language. She co-directed Soldier Girl: South Carolina’s Female Veterans (2012 documentary) and frequently lectures on classics’ relevance to contemporary societal challenges.

Grants include Magellan and ASPIRE funding for plague narrative research, plus leadership roles in professional organizations like CAMWS. She advises graduate students in classical reception and ancient literature studies.

Lab/Team affiliations include Women’s and Gender Studies (affiliate since 2008) and the Comparative Literature Program (core faculty since 2014). Her work bridges ancient texts with modern media, emphasizing classics’ role in understanding global crises like pandemics.