Welcome to Lectures on Tap

oin us for an engaging evening where professors, experts, and storytellers bring their thought-provoking lectures to your favorite bar in Downtown Los Angeles!

🗓️ Date: October 23rd, 2025

🕢 Time: 7:30 PM

📍 Location: Downtown Los Angeles (exact address given in confirmation email)

📚 Lecture: "On-screen Depictions of the Female Gaze in Ancient Rome"

🎤 Speaker: Professor Monica Cyrino

In this fascinating presentation, Professor Monica Cyrino explores the female gaze as depicted in onscreen representations of the ancient Roman world. Featuring the sexually aggressive elite female voyeur, recent cinematic portrayals invite us to examine the interplay between male vulnerability and strength through the lens of female desire.

From the predatory Empress Poppaea in QUO VADIS (1951) to social-climbing characters in SPARTACUS (1960) and SPARTACUS: BLOOD & SAND (2010), the camera lingers on brawny male figures, suggesting a negotiation of power that critiques contemporary anxieties about assertive female sexuality. Professor Cyrino will also touch on how these portrayals have shaped modern views of women's roles in society.

Dr. Monica Cyrino is a Professor of Classics at the University of New Mexico, with a PhD from Yale University. She is the author and editor of several influential works on ancient representations in film and has served as a consultant for various productions.

Get a drink, connect, and learn at Lectures on Tap! 🙌

Lectures on Tap - "On-screen Depictions of the Female Gaze in Ancient Rome"