She was previously interim president[1] and provost[2] of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

[3] Connolly's main research interests are Roman republicanism, rhetoric, civic discourse, classical reception, and the role that aesthetic experience plays in the formation of political judgement.

[6] In 2016, she was named provost, senior vice president, and distinguished professor of classics at Graduate Center of the City University of New York in Manhattan.

The first, The State of Speech: Rhetoric and Political Thought in Ancient Rome,[7] was published in 2007 by Princeton University Press; the second, The Life of Roman Republicanism,[8] also published by Princeton and appeared in 2014.

[10] Connolly has served on the board of directors of the Society of Classical Studies[11] and is currently a member of the Advanced Seminar in Classics and Ancient Near Eastern Studies sponsored by Venice International University.