About Us

Professor Rhodora G. Vennarucci’s main research interests lies in the socio-economic history of the Roman world with published and forthcoming works that focus on both ends of the distributive system in Italy: rural production and the development and use of urban commercial landscapes. As field director and co-PI of the Marzuolo Archaeological Project, she collaborates in the investigation of a Roman minor center in rural south-central Tuscany (IT) that has produced evidence of agricultural and crafts production as well as warehousing and commerce. She is the scientific director and PI of the Virtual Roman Retail project, which leverages immersive VR technology to put sensory archaeology into practice and explore how shop environments may have shaped ancient consumer experience and behavior. She has, in addition, contributed to the Virtual Pompeii project, which tests predictive analyses against experiential modeling to study the intersection of spatial configuration, decoration, and social phenomena in the Roman house.

Before arriving at Denison University, Professor Vennarucci taught at the University of Arkansas, where she received the J. Williams Fulbright College of Arts and Science’s Master Teaching Award, and the University of Rochester. She has taught a wide variety of courses on the ancient Mediterranean world, including ancient Greek and Roman art and archaeology, Shopping in Ancient Rome, Virtual Pompeii, Roman Urbanism, Ancient Historians and Historiography, Roots of Culture to 500 CE, and Latin Epigraphy. She is also active in international education and has led short-term study abroad programs in Rome, the Bay of Naples, and Sicily and taught twice at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome.

Will Loder, the Virtual Roman Retail Project’s Technical Director, is an independent DH Developer and archaeologist. He has an MA in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies from the University of Arkansas. As a 3D Designer and, more recently, Project Manager at the Tesseract Center for Immersive Environments and Game Design (2013-2023), Loder has extensive experience training students in digital skills and workflows and has contributed to numerous digital humanities projects. He was the Project Manager of the Mornin’ in Your Eyes, a US Civil Rights game, which was awarded Silver in the Higher Education category of the 2021 International Serious Play Awards competition, and the Virtual Pompeii Project. He also managed the design and release of a VR application that is being used as a pedagogy tool in elementary Italian classes at the University of Arkansas. Loder worked as an excavator and field supervisor on the Marzuolo Archaeological Project (2016-2019).