Professor Penelope J. E. Davies was educated at Cambridge University and Yale. Specializing in the architectural history of ancient Rome, she is author of听Death and the Emperor听(Cambridge University Press 2000, University of Texas Press 2004), winner of the Dallas Museum of Arts鈥� Vasari Award, and听Architecture and Politics in Republican Rome听(Cambridge University Press 2017), a Choice Outstanding Academic Title, which was supported by grants from the British School at Rome, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Council of Learned Societies, as well as the University of Texas at Austin. She has also published numerous articles and essays in scholarly publications and collaborated on re-conceptions of听Janson鈥檚 History of Art听(seventh and eighth editions, Prentice-Hall 2007 and 2011) and听Janson鈥檚 A Basic History of Art听(eighth and ninth editions, Prentice Hall 2009 and 2013).
Davies is working on a new book,听Ancient Lives of Roman Buildings, and a co-edited听Cambridge Urban History of Europe听(3 vols.) She is also Hedda Andersson in Classical Archaeology at Lund University, where she received an honorary doctorate in 2021.
Her听classes range from 鈥楢rt and Power: A Survey of Art from Prehistory to the Middle Ages鈥� at the introductory level to 鈥楾he Art of Dictatorship鈥� at the graduate level. In 2016, she was the recipient of the College of Fine Arts Teaching Award.