Classics

(All email addresses belong to the domain @brown.edu)

Stevie Hull (2012)

email: stephany_hull

Stevie received her BA in Classics from Cornell University in 2010, graduating magna cum laude and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. In her senior thesis she examined some literary uses of scripture in the letters of 4th century senator Paulinus of Nola. Her other background in Classics includes two summers of intensive study at CUNY Brooklyn's Latin/Greek Institute and a year teaching Latin at a public high school in New Jersey. At Brown, she intends to work on late Latin and post-classical Greek literature with a particular interest in epistolography, historiography, and collections of "beneficial tales."

Trigg Settle (2012)

Trigg graduated from the University of New Mexico in 2009 with a B.A. in Classical Studies, and again in 2012 with an M.A. in Comparative Literature and Classics. His Master’s thesis examines the interplay between speech and divine identities in Euripides’ Hippolytos and Herakles, and he has presented papers at annual meetings of CAMWS 2010-2012. At Brown, Trigg hopes to further pursue his interests in Greek poetry, ancient drama, theatre and performance studies, and ancient and modern receptions. 

Michiel van Veldhuizen (2012) 

Michiel graduated from University College Utrecht (the Netherlands) in 2010 with a BA in History and Philosophy. He received his MA in Classics from Brandeis University in 2012, and his thesis “A Theology of Memory: The Concept of Memory in the Greek Experince of the Divine” explored the roles of Mnemosyne and recollection in Greek religio-philosophical thought. In the summer of 2011, he participated in a joyous dig in Croatia, and the following summer he presented a paper entitled “Artemis among the Other: Ritual Human Sacrifice and the Cult of Diana Nemorensis” at the Symposium Cumanum 2012. At Brown, Michiel hopes to work on the divine in Plato and the thought and Nachleben of the Presocratics, while also pursuing his interests in Sanskrit and Roman Satire. He enjoys Tintin, coffee, and roadtrips.

Rachel Philbrick (2011)

Rachel grew up in Cambridge, MA, and earned her undergraduate degree from Cornell University. She graduated in 2007 with a B.A. in Latin summa cum laude and a B.A. in Biology and Society. After teaching middle school science in Washington, DC, as a Teach For America Corps member, she earned her M.A. in Classics at the University of Kentucky. Rachel joined the Deparment of Classics at Brown in the fall of 2011. Her research interests include Hellenistic and Augustan poetry, especially Ovid.

Daria Resh (2011)

A native of Yekaterinburg (the Urals, Russia); BA in History, Ural State University, 2009. MA in Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, St Petersburg State University, 2011; MA thesis on writings of Symeon of Thessalonica (early XV century) with focus on problems of genre and self-representation. Participated in Medieval Greek Summer School in Dumbarton Oaks (2010), and presented a paper at XXII International Congress in Byzantine Studies (Sofia, 2011). Interested in rhetorical theory and literary circles in 10th century Constantinople, as well as reception of classical and medieval texts in modern Greek literature.

Elliston Bissel (2010)

Elliston graduated from the University of Michigan in 2010, with a major in Classical Languages and Literature. His senior thesis, “Cato in Lucan’s Poetic Conception of History”, explored Lucan’s use of the Stoic hero in his presentation of a history of the world marked by endless civil war. As an undergraduate he also studied Sanskrit, and spent summers at the South Asia Institute in Heidelberg and the American School of Indian Studies in Pune, India. He is currently enrolled in the Sanskrit and Classics PhD program, and hopes to work on comparative projects relating the traditions of epic poetry both of South Asia and the Mediterranean.

Justin Byrd (2010)

Justin graduated from the University of Florida in 2010 with a BA in Classics and Religion. He is the inaugural student in the Sanskrit Language and Literature track. His interests center on the Sanskrit Mahābhārata, with special attention to its narrative and the manner of its reception in later Sanskrit texts. He is also exploring an interest in the Mahābhārata’s philosophical and didactic material.

Scott DiGiulio (2009, ABD)

email: scott_digiulio

Scott received an AB from Harvard University in 2009, graduating magna cum laude with highest honors in the Classics. His senior thesis, entitled "The Mask of the Alien: Attitudes Towards Foreigners in Satiric Literature Under the Roman Empire," earned a departmental prize for excellence. At Brown, he has completed special authors on Lucian and Aulus Gellius. Scott also participated in the ASCSA Summer Session in 2011. His research interests include Second Sophistic literary and intellectual culture; identity in the ancient world; Roman satire; and multilingualism and code-switching. He is in the early stages of a dissertation on the ancient miscellany in the context of the Second Sophistic.

Adrianne LaFrance (2009)

email: adrianne_lafrance

Adrianne received her B.A. in Classics summa cum laude from nearby Roger Williams University in 2008, after which she studied abroad in Leipzig, Germany as a Fulbright Scholar (08-09). In 2010-2011 she co-organized the Graduate International Colloquium "Ancient Drama and the Performance of Political Ideologies: Voices from the Center and the Edges" with fellow graduate student Matthew Wellenbach. Adrianne has completed special author studies in Catullus with Prof. Jeri DeBrohun (Spring 2012) and Greek Bucolic with Jay Reed (Fall 2011). Her primary research interest centers upon Greek bucolic in general, and late bucolic and the Epitaph for Bion specifically; still, she has found herself invested in other topics from all over the map: Fortunatus (currently working on a paper on servitium amoris in the personal poetry), Homer, metapoetics & literary criticism, and allusion.

Byron MacDougall (2009, ABD)

After graduating with a BA in Classics from Harvard in 2007, Byron taught for two years at the Dexter and Southfield Schools in Brookline, Massachusetts. In the summer of 2008 he studied at Father Reginald Foster’s spoken Latin course in Rome. At Brown he took his special author exams on Augustine (with Joe Pucci) and Gregory of Nazianzus (with Stratis Papaioannou), and he currently works on Late Antique Greek literature and cultural history.

Tara Mulder (2009)

email: tara_mulder

Tara Mulder received her B.A. in Classical Languages and Literature from the University of Michigan, graduating with highest honors.  She completed an honor's thesis entitled A Woman Possessed: The Role of the Furies in Ovid's Tale of Procne and Philomela.  At the time of graduation she was also awarded the department's Seligson Prize for Classical Greek and the University's Arthur Miller Award for achievement in the Arts.  Tara is currently interested in exploring Greek theater and its reflections in Roman poetry, as well as the creative process of translation.

Jen Swalec (2009)

Jennifer received her B.A. in Classics from the University of Virginia in 2009. Graduating as a Jefferson Scholar with high honors, she earned the Anne Marye Owen Prize for Outstanding Work in the Classics for her thesis on ancient Greek religion. Jennifer's other research interests include ancient drama, myth, and performance studies. Her special authors are Aristophanes (with Johanna Hanink) and Seneca (with Jeri DeBrohun). Jennifer has taught Intensive Elementary Ancient Greek and served as a TA for courses on The Greeks, ancient conceptions of eros, and Greek Mythology. In 2012, she traveled throughout Greece with ASCSA Summer Session II. 

Matthew Wellenbach (2009)

email: matthew_wellenbach

In 2009, Matthew received a BA in Classics, magna cum laude, from Williams College, where he wrote an honors thesis, “Atasthalie in the Odyssey.” Since arriving at Brown that same fall, he has continued to study Archaic Greek epic, and developed interests in Greek lyric and drama, and especially their interactions and mutual influences. Other interests include theater history, Athenian social and cultural history, and ancient concepts of poetry and genre. He completed a Greek special author on Pindar (with Deborah Boedeker) and a Latin special topic on intertextuality (with Jay Reed).

Barbara Blythe (2008, ABD)

Barbara earned her BA in Latin in 2008 from the College of William and Mary, where she graduated summa cum laude, was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, and received the departmental Hogan Prize for Outstanding Graduating Senior.  She has presented CAMWS papers on Vergil (2008 and 2009) and Varro (2012).  Barbara's special authors are Petronius (with John Bodel) and Sophocles (with Johanna Hanink).  Her primary interests include the Roman novel and sexuality in Augustan literature.  She is currently writing a dissertation examining religious elements in Petronius' Satyrica.  

Joseph McDonald (2008, ABD)

email: joseph_mcdonald

Joe graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2008 with a degree in Greek and Latin magna cum laude. Here at Brown he completed his Latin special author on Cicero’s Disputationes Tusculanae, De Finibus and De Officiis (with David Konstan) and his Greek special topic on Early Greek Historiography (with Prof. Deborah Boedeker). His interests include Homer, archaic elegy, Greek historiography, and Cicero’s philosophical side. In 2012 he presented a paper on plunder in the Homeric poems at CAMWS and now is working on his dissertation studying the theme of sacrilege in the Greek historiographers from Herodotus through Polybius.

Anne (McEnroe) McDonald (2008, ABD)

Anne graduated from the University of Kansas in 2007, receiving degrees in classical languages and creative writing with highest distinction.  In 2008, she earned her M.A. from the University of Bristol with a dissertation entitled “Augustine against the Clock:  Time, Language and the Economics of Salvation.”  At Brown, she has studied Plato’s writings on the soul with Prof. Mary Louise Gill and St. Augustine’s Cassiciacum dialogues with Prof. Joe Pucci.  Anne’s interests include the Platonic tradition, the philosophical dialogue, and biography in antiquity.  She is currently embarking on a dissertation on Plutarch’s dialogues. 

Mitchell Parks (2008, ABD)

email: mitchell_parks

Mitchell received his B.A. in Classics from Grinnell College in 2008, graduating with honors. He also received his department's Seneca Prize and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. At Brown he has completed special authors in Livy and Pindar, and he maintains additional interests in Herodotus and Statius. In the summer of 2011, he completed the British School at Athens’ epigraphy course and taught Greek under the auspices of HERC in Thouria. He is currently writing his dissertation, under the direction of Adele Scafuro, on the literary and political role played by praise at Athens in the fourth century BCE.

Anne Rabe (2008, ABD)

email: anne_rabe

Anne received a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Kansas (2002; Highest Distinction, Phi Beta Kappa), followed by a B.A. in Classical Languages (2004), and an M.A. in Classics (2007), both also from KU.  She was awarded the university-wide Outstanding GTA Award (2006) and later taught as an Adjunct Instructor of Classics at William Jewell College (2008).  Since coming to Brown, she has completed special fields in Euripides (with Deborah Boedeker) and Ciceronian Oratory (with John Bodel), and she is currently working on a dissertation that reexamines Roman oratorical invective and Cicero’s role within the larger tradition of invective.

 

Jeanmarie Stinson (2007)

Jeanmarie received her B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1999, where she graduated with highest honors and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.  She received her J.D. from Washington and Lee University School of Law in 2003, and practiced law thereafter.  She recently returned to classics, and she is interested primarily in Greek history, law, and tragedy.|

Christopher Geadrites (2006, ABD)

 Christopher received his B.A. in Classical Languages and Philosophy from the University of Scranton, where he graduated summa cum laude in 2002.  He went on to pursue graduate work in Classics at the University of Pittsburgh, where he received his M.A. in 2004.  After taking a year away from school he became a member of the Brown community in 2006.  While at Brown he has developed interests in Late Latin, Byzantine Greek, ancient Greek scholarship (scholia, commentaries, etc.), and rhetoric.  His special authors were Fortunatus and Hermogenes, for Latin and Greek respectively. After passing his oral exams in the fall 2010 semester, Christopher finally developed his dissertation topic: the reception of Latin Grammar in the Carolingian Renaissance, under the direction of Prof. Joseph Pucci.

Karen (Kelly) Jones (2006, ABD)

Karen received a B.A. in the University Scholars program at Baylor University in 2006, where she graduated summa cum laude and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. Her focus within the program was on Latin and Greek, and she wrote a thesis titled, "The Birds and the Bees: The Roman Poet as a Metaphorical Bird." Karen did her Latin Special Author on Statius' Silvae with Shadi Bartsch and her Greek Special Author on Sophocles with Deborah Boedeker. She enjoys reading from several different genres and time periods, but her main interests lie with Senecan tragedy and poetry in general, and specifically, portrayals of death and the afterlife and the literary traditions of imagery.  Karen is writing a dissertation that examines the cultural and religious ideas surrounding ghosts in early imperial Rome and explores the use and characterization of contemporary literary ghosts.

Timothy Haase (2005, ABD)

email: timothy_haase

 Timmy joined the Brown Graduate Student family in 2005, after completing his B.A. in Classical Languages, summa cum laude, at Fordham University. He is currently in the final stages of his dissertation, tentatively titled “Watching Satire Unravel: Juvenal’s Satiric Mechanics,” advised by John Bodel. His dissertation examines the connection between Juvenal’s techniques for satirizing Rome—particularly the difficulty of creating coherent meaning in, and about, Rome—and Juvenal’s place at the end of the tradition of Roman verse satirists. His other interests include the Greek and Roman novel, as well as Aristophanes. He is also currently a visiting instructor at Wheaton College in Norton, MA, teaching courses ranging from Latin didactic and letters to Greek drama. 

Jennifer Lewton Yates (2003, ABD)

Jenni completed her B.A. summa cum laude and with University Honors at Ohio Wesleyan University in 2003, majoring in Humanities/Classics and minoring in Medieval Studies and Ancient Studies.  Before coming to Brown she participated in the ASCSA summer session.  Jenni's special authors were Euripides and Ovid, and she is currently working on a dissertation about tragedy and the ancient novels.  When she isn’t busy with Classics, Jenni serves as the Head Teaching Consultant for the Humanities and Social Sciences for Brown’s Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning.

Heidi Broome-Raines (2002, ABD)

Heidi received a BA from Georgetown University in 2002 in Classical Languages with a minor in Modern Greek. Her main research interests include many aspects of ancient theater, especially tragedy; Modern Greek literature; and Greek history. Her special authors were Sophocles and Seneca. She attended the American School of Classical Studies at Athens Summer Session in 2003 and Regular Program in 2006-2007, and is currently the Alison Frantz Fellow at the Gennadeios Library of the American School of Classical Studies, researching her dissertation on Classical tragedy in Early Byzantine literature. At Brown she has taught Greek and Latin language classes since 2004. She has excavated at the sites of Despotiko and Corinth, and enjoys teaching study-travel courses in Greece. 

Wendy Teo (2001, ABD)

Wendy received her B.A. in Classics from Reed College. Her undergraduate thesis focused on Tibullus, but also examined the development of the genre of Latin Love Elegy as mythopoesis. During her time at Brown University, she has worked on the Pre-Socratics and Lucretius for her special author exams. She is currently writing her dissertation on the appeal of Greek tragedy, specifically on the pleasure to be gained from the painful experience. Her primary interests are in the intellectual and emotional responses to literature, and the interaction between poetry and philosophy.

Ancient History

Keith Fairbank (2012)

email: keith_fairbank

Keith joins the Classics Department as a recent MA graduate from Brigham Young University. He earned his BA from BYU in Classics and Humanities (2010) with a senior thesis entitled "Pompey Stamped His Foot: Origins of the Pompeian Military Forces in 49-48 BC." His Master’s Thesis, “Horace's Ideal Italy: Sabines and Sabellians in Odes 1-3," reflects his growing interests in ethnography and the iconography of self-promotion in Rome. Keith is primarily interested in the Roman Republic, cultural and literary memories of the civil wars of the first century BC, and the influence of familial history and traditions on Roman historiography.

Darrel Janzen (2011)

email: darrel_janzen

Darrel graduated with a B.A. from the University of British Columbia in 2011 with majors in History and Classical Studies, with additional concentrations in Latin and Greek. He has also studied at the University of the Fraser Valley (2006) and at the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi (2009). While at UBC, he also worked as an RA for several years, researching Roman social, legal and military history, inter alia. In the summer of 2011, he attended the Paideia Institute's spoken Latin program in Rome. Darrel's interests include cultural history in early Imperial Rome, the social history of Roman law, Tacitus, Lucius Aelius Sejanus, and historiography.

Dominic Machado (2011)

Dominic Machado earned a B.A. (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) in Classics and Economics from Dartmouth College in 2009, where he wrote an honors thesis on Marcus Claudius Marcellus. In 2010, he entered the University of Pennsylvania post-baccalaureate program before matriculating to Brown the following fall. His interests include Roman imperialism during the conquest of the Mediterranean, ancient historiography and the reception of Classics in modern entertainment. With Paul Christesen, he has presented his research in the paper "Gods, Generals and Games" at the 2008 Meeting of the APA and the 2010 Classical Association of New England Summer Institute.

Colleen Donahoe (2010)

email: colleen_donahoe

Colleen earned a BA in Classical Studies and History from the University of Western Ontario in 2007, followed by an MA in Classics from McMaster University in 2010. She has excavated at Nysa-on-the-Maeander in Turkey (2008) and participated in the 2012 season of the Brown University Petra Archaeological Project in Jordan. Since 2011 she has worked on the US Epigraphy Project, using EpiDoc to digitally encode Greek and Latin inscriptions. She is mainly interested in historiography.

Joseph Kurz (2009)

email: joseph_kurz

Joseph Kurz graduated from the University of Washington in the Spring of 2008 with Bachelor's Degrees in both History and Latin and a minor in Greek.  His research interests include the history and historiography of the Roman Republic, with a focus on the processes of empire.  He is particularly interested in examining the expansion of Roman influence in Sicily.  During the summer he teaches Etymology through Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth Program, at the Los Angeles site.  When he isn't solving history's mysteries, Mr. Kurz enjoys skiing, reading, and gaming.  

Bryan Brinkman (2008, ABD)

email: bryan_brinkman

Bryan received his BA in Classics and History (Honors) from the University of Utah (2006) and an MA in History (Highest Honors) from the University of Washington (2008). He has also attended the American School of Classical Studies at Athens Summer Program (2007), The British School at Athens Post-Graduate Course in Greek Epigraphy (2011), and the American Society of Papyrologists Summer Institute (University of Chicago, 2012). His main focus is the social and cultural history of the Roman Empire with interests in popular religion, social memory, and Greek and Latin epigraphy and papyrology (particularly graffiti and magical texts).