Ivana Petrovic is the Hugh H. Obear Professor of Classics at the University of Virginia. She specializes in Ancient Greek religion, Hellenistic poetry, and the interplay between texts and their historical, social, and religious contexts. Her research focuses on the role of belief in Greek religion, particularly the concepts of inner purity and pollution, challenging traditional views of Greek ritualism. Petrovic holds a Diploma in Classics from Belgrade, Serbia, and a PhD from Giessen University (2004). She has taught at Giessen University, Durham University, and joined UVA in 2016. She is the editor of the journal Greece and Rome and has co-edited major volumes such as Archaic and Classical Greek Epigram (2010), Inner Purity and Pollution in Greek Religion (2016), and Greek Epigram from the Hellenistic to the Early Byzantine Era (2019). Her current research with Andrej Petrovic explores the diachronic study of belief in Greek religion, emphasizing the significance of intrinsic faith-based elements. She has published extensively on topics including Greek epigram, sacred regulations, and religious interactions in the ancient Mediterranean. Petrovic has contributed to interdisciplinary discussions on the materiality of texts and the cultural poetics of Hellenistic poetry. Her work bridges literary and epigraphic analysis, examining how religious and social contexts shaped literary production.
