Research: Religion, gender, dress: heuristic tools for an interdisciplinary approach to gender roles in Roman society
Sara Maria Di Russo graduated cum laude in Fashion and Costume Sciences from the University of Rome Sapienza in 2018 with a thesis entitled 'Ritual practice and vestimentary symbolism in the Bacchae' (supervisor: Prof. Francesca Romana Nocchi). The subject was an analysis of the correspondence between Euripides' description of the Bacchae's costume and its symbolic implications in the ritual practice.
In 2022, she obtained a master degree cum laude in Historical-Religious Sciences from the same university with a thesis entitled 'Virgines Vestales: female bodies in a male world' (supervisor: prof. Alessandro Saggioro; co-rapporteur: dott. Giorgio Ferri). The main objective was to analyze the function of a female priesthood in an entirely male-dominated social dimension and also to demonstrate the existence of a correlation between the peculiar condition of Vesta's priestesses and the pieces of their ritual costume, characterized by the coexistence of female and male elements.