Miranda Amey Black

Professor Black is thrilled to join Tulane as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Classical Studies. Although her undergraduate training is in archaeology, her graduate work brought her to Classics, where she received training in ancient Greek and Roman medicine and received an additional certification in the religions of the ancient Mediterranean. Her research primarily focuses on ancient medicine, mythology, religion, and magic. The medical landscape in antiquity was holistic and offered a wide variety of options for healing, allowing the sick to seek out doctors and physicians, magical amulets, or religious temple medicine. Dr. Black is particularly interested in the way myths and medicine interact with one another, especially in the ancient gynecological material. Beyond this, she loves Augustan poetry and archaic Greek epic poetry.

She is currently working on a book that explores the relationship between gynecology and mythology in antiquity.

Selected Publications

• Forthcoming. “The Gynecology of Earth: Hippocratic Pregnancy and Ovid’s Metamorphoses,” in History of the Philosophy of Pregnancy, eds. Myrna Gabbe, Evangelian Collings, and Maja Sidzińska. Palgrave Macmillan.
• 2025. “Zeus’ Proxy Womb: The Myth of Dionysus and Alternative Medicine in Soranus’ Gynecology.” Archiv für Religionsgeschichte 27.1, 103–124.