Irene Peirano studied at Liceo Classico Galileo in Florence, Italy (Maturità Classica 1998), Oriel College, Oxford (B.A. Hons. Literae Humaniores 2002) and Harvard University (Ph.D. Classical Philology 2007). Her main research interests are Latin poetry, Literary Criticism and Rhetorical Theory in Antiquity, Reception Theory and Gender Studies, especially the representation of gender roles in literary texts and their relation with cultural practices.
Her dissertation work focuses on literary fakes, or pseudepigrapha, with special reference to the Roman tradition, and draws on approaches to forgery and cultural fictions in allied fields to provide an innovative frame with which to understand fakes. She is currently working on the rhetoric of abuse in Carmina Priapea, a collection of obscene Latin epigrams.
