Overview
Dani studies the art and architecture of the ancient Mediterranean and western Europe, with a pointed interest in the religious material and visual culture of the Roman provinces during the early imperial period. Her dissertation will seek to examine the ways in which pre-Roman religio-cultural ideas and practices in Britain persisted and or changed as a result of contact with and conquest by Rome (ca. 50 BCE – 100 CE). This work is particularly concerned with ideas of the religious body, and how changes within the religious landscape affect the interaction between bodies, spaces and objects.
More broadly, her research and teaching interests lie in Graeco-Roman art, architecture, and religion, and archaeological methods and ethics.
A trained field archaeologist, Dani has participated in excavations across Italy including the Marzuolo Archaeological Project (Cornell University/University of Arkansas), the Casa della Regina Carolina Project in Pompeii (Cornell University/University of Bologna/Harvard University), and the Vulci Archaeological Project (Duke University). She has also served as an intern at the University of Rochester's Memorial Art Gallery and the American Academy in Rome.
Dani holds a double B.A. in Classics and Archaeology from the University of Rochester, a M.A. in Archaeology from Cornell University, and a M.A. in Classical Archaeology from Duke University.
She currently also serves as the Undergraduate/Graduate Coordinator for the Department of History of Art & Visual Studies.
Research Focus
- Roman Britain
- Constructions of Identity in Antiquity
- Religious Identity in the Roman world
- Materiality
- Frontiers of the Roman Empire
- Ethics of Archaeology
Professional Experience
Talks Given
"Containing Yourself: Romano-British Face Pots as Proxy for Body and Self." Archaeological Institute of America Annual Meeting: A Happy Medium: Media and Materiality in Ancient Art. January 2023.
"Seeing Faces: Bodily techne and perceptions of the self through Romano-British Face Pots." Ohio State University Classics Graduate Colloquium: Sense and Perception in the Ancient World. March 2021.
Publications
Peer Reviewed Chapters
Vander Horst, D. 2024. "Containing Yourself: Romano-British Face Pots as Proxy for Body and Self," in C. Marini and L. Trotzopoulou-Gregory (eds.), Of Things and Stories: Current Approaches to Object Biography, Medium, and Materiality, Selected Papers on Ancient Art and Architecture 8. Boston: Archaeological Institute of America.
Other Writings
Art&Object Magazine. Freelance writer since 2021. Author page.