Ambra Spinelli is an Italian art historian and archaeologist with experience in national and international academic institutions, museums, and archaeological sites. She received a B.A. in Classics and M.A. in Archaeology and Civilizations of the Ancient World from the University of Bologna, and a Ph.D. in Art History, with a specialization in Roman Art and Architecture, from the University of Southern California. Ambra currently teaches at John Cabot University (Rome) and the American University of Rome, where her courses encompass a variety of topics including Etruscan and Roman art and architecture, Greek and Roman history and religion, and Museum Studies.
Her publications and research interests focus on Roman domestic and funerary art and architecture, with a special emphasis on the houses at Pompeii and Herculaneum. Ambra also examines Greek and Roman wall painting, the influence of Eastern and Italic rituals on Roman soil, and Roman perceptions and adaptations of earlier traditions. She has extensive experience, as well, in archival research, having served for ten years as Head of Archival Research for the University of Cincinnati’s archaeological project at Pompeii. Ambra has led previous tours for both students and adults, and she particularly enjoys teaching on-site. Almost daily she takes students and scholars to many sites and museums in Lazio and Campania in particular (i.e., Rome, Ostia, and Pompeii, especially, but also Tarquinia, Cerveteri, and Naples, among others).
