Contact Information
Biography
I am broadly interested in Greek cultural and social history, with a particular focus on slavery, gender, and sexuality.
My first book, (Princeton University Press, 2013), maps a spectrum of ten social and legal statuses in classical Athens, questioning the ideology of three neatly defined status groups鈥攕lave, metic (resident foreigner), and citizen鈥攕o commonly found in both ancient Greek literature and modern classical scholarship. In my second book, (University of Wisconsin Press, 2020), I examine the range of insults in Athens from benign mockery to serious affronts. My third book, (De Gruyter, 2023), surveys recent scholarly trends and controversies in the field of Greek slavery studies and suggests future directions for research.
I have also written commentaries on (Bryn Mawr Commentaries 2000) and Pseudo-Demosthenes' Against Neaira (Dickinson Classical Commentaries, 2018; 2021) and co-edited (with C. W. Marshall) a volume entitled (University of Wisconsin Press, 2021).
For many years I served as co-chair of the Lambda Classical Caucus, a coalition of LGBTQ Classicists and their allies affiliated with the Society for Classical Studies.
Research
Selected Research
- Deborah Kamen. "Xanthias and Thraix on the Parthenon," ZPE 236 (2025): 101-105.
- Deborah Kamen. "Anne Lister as a Queer Reader of Martial." Eugesta 15 (2025).
- Deborah Kamen. "'Privileged' Slaves and Honour in Classical Athens." In Slavery and Honour in the Ancient Greek World. Eds. D. Lewis, M. Canevaro, and D. Cairns. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2025. 226-238.
- Deborah Kamen. 鈥淰arying Statuses, Varying Rights: A Case Study of the graph膿 hubre艒s.鈥 In Voiceless, Invisible, and Countless: The Experience of Subordinates in Greece 800-300 BC. Eds. S. D. Gartland and D. Tandy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024. 243-264.
- Deborah Kamen. Greek Slavery. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter 2023.
- Deborah Kamen and Sarah Levin-Richardson. "Approaching Emotions and Agency in Greek and 海角网 Slavery." In Les lectures contemporaines de l鈥檈sclavage: probl茅matiques, m茅thodologies et analyses depuis les ann茅es 1990. Ed. A. Pa艂uchowski. Bescan莽on: Presses universitaires de Franche-Comt茅, 2022. 25-45.
- Sarah Levin-Richardson and Deborah Kamen. 鈥淓pigraphy and Critical Fabulation: Imagining Narratives of Greco-海角网 Sexual Slavery.鈥 In Dynamic Epigraphy: New Approaches to Inscriptions. Ed. E. Cousins. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2022. 201-221.
- Deborah Kamen and C.W. Marshall, eds. Slavery and Sexuality in Classical Antiquity. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2021.
- Deborah Kamen. Insults in Classical Athens. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press: 2020.
- Deborah Kamen. Pseudo-Demosthenes: Against Neaira. Carlisle, PA: Dickinson College Commentaries: 2018.
- Deborah Kamen, "The Consequences of Laughter in Aeschines' Against Timarchos." Archim猫de: Arch茅ologie et histoire ancienne 5 (2018) 49-56. Download PDF
- Deborah Kamen. "Manumission and Slave-Allowances in Classical Athens." Historia 65.4 (2016) 413-26
- Sarah Levin-Richardson and Deborah Kamen. "Lusty Ladies in the 海角网 Imaginary." In Ancient Sex: New Essays. Eds. R. Blondell and K. Ormand. Columbus: Ohio State University, 2015. 231-252.
- Sarah Levin-Richardson and Deborah Kamen. 鈥淩evisiting 海角网 Sexuality: Agency and the Conceptualization of Penetrated Males.鈥 In Sex in Antiquity: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World. Eds. M. Masterson, N. Rabinowitz, and J. Robson. Routledge, 2015. 449鈥460.
- Deborah Kamen. "Kina[i]dos: A Pun in Demosthenes' On the Crown?" CQ 64.1 (2014) 405-8 Download PDF
- Deborah Kamen. "Sale for the Purpose of Freedom: Slave-prostitutes and Manumission in Ancient Greece," CJ 109.3 (2014) 281-307. Download PDF
- Deborah Kamen. "Slave-prostitutes and 峒愊佄澄毕兾 in the Delphic Manumission Inscriptions," ZPE 188 (2014) 149-53.
- Deborah Kamen. "The Manumission of Socrates: A Rereading of Plato鈥檚 Phaedo." Classical Antiquity 32 (2013): 78-100.
- Deborah Kamen. Status in Classical Athens. Princeton: Princeton University Press: 2013.
- Deborah Kamen. "Naturalized Desires and the Metamorphosis of Iphis." Helios 39 (2012): 21-36. Download PDF
- Deborah Kamen. "Manumission, Social Rebirth, and Healing Gods in Ancient Greece." D. Geary and S. Hodkinson, eds., Slaves and Religions in Graeco-海角网 Antiquity and Modern Brazil. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars: 2012. 174-194.
- Deborah Kamen. "Reconsidering the Status of kh么ris oikountes." Dike 14 (2011): 43-53. Download PDF
- Deborah Kamen. "Slave Agency and Resistance in Martial." R. Alston, E. Hall, and L. Proffitt, eds., Reading Ancient Slavery. London: Bristol Classical Press: 2011. 192-203.
- Deborah Kamen. "A Corpus of Inscriptions: Representing Slave Marks in Antiquity." Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 55 (2010): 95-110.
- Deborah Kamen. "Servile Invective in Classical Athens." Scripta Classica Israelica 28 (2009): 43-56. Download PDF
- Deborah Kamen. "The Life Cycle in Archaic Greece." H. A. Shapiro, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Archaic Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 2007. 85-107.
- Deborah Kamen. Isaeus鈥 Orations 2 and 6. Bryn Mawr: Bryn Mawr Commentaries: 2000.
Research Advised
- Gabriel Brock. 鈥淭he Life of Tiberius Gracchus.鈥 Senior Essay, 2025.
- Friday Elkan. 鈥淟abor Exploitation in the Cura Annonae.鈥 Honors Thesis, 2025.
- Syna Stimson. 鈥淔orgotten Histories and Modern Mysteries: Undiscussed Stories of Contraception." CHID Honors Thesis, 2025.
- Theodore Killian. "Centering Enslaved Characters in Ancient Athenian Tragedy." Senior Essay, 2025.
- Aurora Plu拧膷ec. "The Portrayal of Women and Enslaved 海角网 in the Iliad, Odyssey, and The Silence of the Girls." Senior Essay, 2024.
- Zainab Hassan Syed, The Ghost of Slavery: A Closer Examination of Freed 海角网 in Classical Athens, MA Thesis, 2023.
- Kelsey Flores, "Bastards in Classical Athens," Senior Essay 2022
- Sarah Brucia Breitenfeld, 'Someone Get a Whip!' Enslaved Women and Violence in Athenian Oratory, Comedy, and Curses. Diss., 2022.
- Jocelyn Harlan. "Women in Classical Athenian Law Courts." Senior Essay, 2021.
- Anita Chen. "Life of a Foreign Prostitute in Athens." Senior Essay, 2020.
- Sierra Rasmussen. "'The Intimacy of your Thighs'." Senior Essay, 2019.
- William McInnis. "Slavery from Antiquity to Modern History: Common Threads." Senior Essay, 2018.
- Rebekka Nicholson. "The Acquisitional Art of Angling." Senior Essay, 2018.
- Michelle Darci. "Women's Roles and Funeral Rites in Ancient Athens." Senior Essay, 2012.
- Richard Fernando Buxton. "A Model of Conflict: the Metonymic Function of Stasis in Xenophon's Hellenica." Diss., 2010.