Giulia Sissa

Giulia Sissa (Mantua, 1954), Professor of Political Science and Classical Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), has a PhD in Classical Studies from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris. Her main concern in her research has been to study the aspects of classical antiquity which are closely linked with key contemporary debates, including feminism, sexuality and the body, political emotions, addictions and utopian thinking. She has published essays, among them Eros tiranno. Sessualità e sensualità nel mondo antico (Laterza, 2003), in which she traces the concept of sexual desire in literary and philosophical works from Homer to Saint Augustine and demonstrates the extent to which western society still imbibes from the concept of sexuality constructed in antiquity. Her work in the field of gender studies includes Le corps virginal. La virginité féminine en Grèce ancienne (Vrin, 1987) and L’âme est un corps de femme (Odile Jacob, 2000). Her study The Daily Lives of the Greek Gods has been translated into Spanish (La vida cotidiana de los dioses griegos – Temas de hoy, 1994), as has Le Plaisir et le Mal. Philosophie de la drogue (El placer y el mal: filosofía de la droga – Península, 2000). The latter work explores the desire-pleasure binomial throughout western history. Her latest book is La jalousie: une passion inavouable (Odile Jacob, 2015).