Julia Horn, Assistant Professor of Classical and Integrated Liberal Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, has been awarded the Loeb Classical Library Foundation Fellowship and selected for the UW–Madison First Book Workshop program, recognitions that will support her ongoing research and the completion of her first monograph.
The Loeb Classical Library Foundation Fellowship is a competitive award supporting scholars working in classical studies and related fields, providing dedicated time for advanced research and writing. Horn will also participate in the UW–Madison First Book Workshop, a program that funds external scholars to visit campus for intensive review seminars focused on developing early-career monographs.
Her book project, Wasting: A History of Tuberculosis in Classical Antiquity, offers a comprehensive study of one of the most widespread and devastating infectious diseases in the ancient Greco-Roman world.
The monograph examines tuberculosis as a defining condition of antiquity—characterized in ancient sources as chronic, debilitating, and often fatal—while tracing how the disease was understood, represented, and treated across different forms of evidence. Horn draws on bioarchaeological data, ancient medical writings, literary texts, and visual culture to reconstruct both the individual experience of illness and its broader social and cultural impact.
By integrating skeletal evidence with textual and iconographic sources, the study provides a multidisciplinary account of how tuberculosis shaped ancient populations on both personal and collective levels. It also situates ancient experiences of disease within larger conversations about the history of endemic illness and the ways societies respond to persistent public health challenges.
Horn’s research contributes to growing scholarship at the intersection of classical studies, medical history, and bioarchaeology. By bringing together clinical, literary, and material evidence, her monograph presents the first comprehensive history of tuberculosis in Classical antiquity, offering an integrated account of how the disease was experienced, represented, and conceptualized across the ancient Greco-Roman world.