A native of Italy, Dr. Calhoon holds a Laurea in English and German from the University of Torino and a PhD in Classics from the University of California, Irvine. She has taught a wide variety of language courses (Latin and Italian) at all levels, as well as courses on Roman women, Greeks and barbarians, classical mythology, and Roman culture.

Her research focuses on the relations between the classical world and other cultures, with an emphasis on Romans and northerners, and also on the cultural significance of women in Roman literature and politics. Her doctoral dissertation, Livia the Poisoner, dissects the intersection between the public image of the empress Livia and the sinister private activities attributed to her by political rivals, a theme further expanded in Dr. Calhoon’s ongoing study of poison and desire in Roman literature. The article «The Dynamics of Sacrifice in Livy 1.57-59» in Helios 24 examines Livy’s representation of Lucretia as the ritual scapegoat, while «the River, the City and the Forest», (in preparation) discusses the colonization of natural spaces on the Column of Trajan, the sculptural representation of the empire’s Heart of Darkness.