Erik Gunderson focuses on the literature and culture of the Roman era. His work explores the relationship between the self and institutions. He has written two monographs on rhetorical culture. The first explores the rhetoric, performance, and the male self. The second surveys the fictive world of declamation and its bearing on questions of Roman identity. His third book examines Romans as scholars and their relationship to their own cultural legacy. He has also edited the Cambridge Companion to Ancient Rhetoric. He has written a monograph on Seneca, ethics, and literature as well as a study of Plautus. His most recent book is about politics and poetry in the Domitianic age. His articles explore topics such as the Roman arena, biography, epistles, historiography, philology, satire, and tragedy.

His undergraduate study was conducted at the University of Chicago. His masters and doctorate were earned at The University of California at Berkeley. He was formerly an assistant and then associate professor of Greek and Latin at The Ohio State University. He has been a member of the University of Toronto since July 2007.