Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow

I am Professor and Chair of the Department of Classical Studies at Brandeis University. I have done archaeological fieldwork at Herculaneum, Pompeii, Tel Heshbon in Jordan, and Carthage, and survey work in Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, and Turkey. My scholarship focuses on ancient daily life, especially in Pompeii and Herculaneum, urban infrastructure, plumbing and hydraulics, baths and bathing practices, and toilets and sanitation. I just won the Archaeological Institute of America's 2016 award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. My latest publications are The Archaeology of Sanitation in Roman Italy: Toilets, Sewers, and Water Systems (University of North Carolina Press, 2015) and Roman Toilets: Their Archaeology and Cultural History (I am a major contributor and co-editor, Leiden 2011). My friends and colleagues call me “The Queen of Latrines.”