Classics Graduate Students
Sandra Ayikwerah
Graduate Assistant
Sandra is a PhD student in Classical Philology. She received her B.A and MPhil from the University of Ghana. Her masters thesis explored the concept of hubris and honour in ancient Greek tragic plays. She is primarily interested in the exploitation of the...
Sara N Baldwin
Graduate Assistant
Sara is a second-year Master's student in Classical Philology. She graduated summa cum laude from Kenyon College in 2024 with her Bachelor of Arts in Classics with distinction. Her current project, her Master's thesis, is based on Statius' Thebaid....
Carlos Daniel Barrero
Graduate Assistant
Daniel is a first-year PhD student in Classical Archaeology. He received a BA in Classical Archaeology and Ancient History with highest distinction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Daniel also has received an MA in Greek and...
Anna Aleksandra Belza
Anna Belza is a PhD candidate in Aegean Prehistory. Her dissertation project, entitled "The Cyclades in the Mycenaean Period: A View from Ayia Irini, Kea,” is a study of the pottery, small finds, and architecture dated to Late Bronze Age IIB–IIIC...
Christopher S. Bendle
Graduate Assistant
Christopher Bendle is a PhD candidate in Ancient History. His main areas of interest are the later Roman Empire, especially the military and political spheres, as well as the intersection of identity, religion, and social networks with power. He...
Logan M Biren
Graduate Assistant
Logan Biren is a second-year PhD Student on the Ancient History Track. He graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BA in Ancient Greek and Ancient Mediterranean Studies from the College of St. Benedict and St. John's University in 2024. His undergraduate...
Jordan H Brady
Graduate Assistant
Jordan is a second-year PhD student in ancient history. He recieved his BA and MA in History from North Carolina State University in 2021 and 2023 respectively. His thesis entitled "City of Thunder: Numismatics, Space, and Civic Identity" dealt...
Graham Christopher Braun
Graduate Assistant
Graham Braun is a third year PhD student in Bronze Age Archaeology. He holds a B.A. Honours from the University of Victoria and an M.A. from the University of British Columbia. His research centres on prehistoric Aegean pottery, Bronze Age...
Giulia Brugnoli
Graduate Assistant
Giulia is a first-year Ph.D. student in Classical Philology.
She received her B.A. (2022) and M.A. (2024) in Classics from the University of Trento, Italy. She further enriched her academic training, as an Erasmus student at the Masaryk University in...
She received her B.A. (2022) and M.A. (2024) in Classics from the University of Trento, Italy. She further enriched her academic training, as an Erasmus student at the Masaryk University in...
Marialena Chalari
Graduate Assistant
Marialena is a second year PhD student in Bronze Age Archaeology. She holds a B.A. from the University of Ioannina in Greece. She has extended field experience, serving as a trench supervisor at excavations and partaking in research projects mostly at...
Matteo Ciocca
Graduate Assistant
Matteo Ciocca is a Ph.D. Candidate in Classical Philology. He received his B.A. (2023) and M.A. (2025) in Classics from the University of Milan in Italy. His research focuses on the resonance of Greek tragedy in the Greek novel, with particular...
Vasileios Dimoglidis
Graduate Assistant
Vasileios Dimoglidis is a Ph.D. Candidate in Classical Philology. He received his B.A. (2016) and M.A. (2019) in Classics from the University of Ioannina in Greece. He is specializing in Hellenistic Poetry and Greek & Roman Theater. In his M.A....
Cleo Lorna Elizabeth-Robertson
Graduate Assistant
Cleo Elizabeth-Robertson is a second year PhD student in Roman Archaeology. She graduated cum laude from Bryn Mawr College in 2019 with a BA in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology, before completing the Baccalaureate program in Classical...
Jacob M Engstrom
Jacob Engstrom is a PhD candidate specializing in Aegean Prehistory. For the 2025-26 academic year he is the Edward Capps Advanced Fellow at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and the Richard Seager Fellow at the Institute for...
Michaela Katherine Fielder-Jellsey
Graduate Assistant
Michaela (also known as MJ) is a second-year PhD student in Bronze Age Archaeology with an interest in Aegean prehistory. She received her B.A. in Classics from Carleton College. Her primary research interest concerns island and maritime landscapes in the...
Lily Dawn Fisher
Graduate Assistant
Lily Fisher is a first year PhD student in philology. She graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in Classical Languages and Literatures, and received her Masters from the University of Notre Dame in Classics. Her research interests...
Spencer Lewis Goods
Graduate Assistant
Spencer Goods is a second-year MA student on the Ancient History track. He graduated with a BA in Classics from Hope College in 2023. His primary research interests lie in the gray area between history and archaeology, primarily Attic epigraphy,...
Livia Alessandra Graf
Graduate Assistant
Livia Graf is a first-year Ph.D. student in classical philology. She holds a BA in philosophy from Boston University (2018) and two MA degrees from the University of British Columbia, one in philosophy (2021) and one in ancient studies, religions,...
Katherine N Griffith
Graduate Assistant
Katherine is a second-year Ph.D. student in ancient history. She received her Honors B.A. in Classics (Greek/ Latin) at Indiana University in 2024, and is an alumna of the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies. Katherine's research interests relate to...
Austin A Hattori
Graduate Assistant
A.B. Classical Languages, University of Georgia 2018
M.A. Classics, University of Cincinnati 2022
Before coming to the University of Cincinnati, Austin was an undergraduate at the University of Georgia. His undergraduate thesis, "The Rhetoric of...
M.A. Classics, University of Cincinnati 2022
Before coming to the University of Cincinnati, Austin was an undergraduate at the University of Georgia. His undergraduate thesis, "The Rhetoric of...
Sashini Kannan
Graduate Assistant
Sashini Kannan is a first year MA student in Philology. She received her BA in Classical Culture and Society and Psychology from Bryn Mawr College in 2019 with a thesis entitled "An Exploration of Gender and Sexuality in The Life of St. Euphrosyne...
Rebecca Lyn Kerns
Graduate Assistant
Rebecca Kerns is a PhD candidate specializing in Roman archaeology. Her dissertation, "Roman Fire Prevention and the Development of the Urbs Nova" employs architectural fire prevention as a lens to track the major changes in Roman urbanism between the...
Jack M Kunst
Graduate Assistant
Jack Kunst is a second-year Ph.D. student specializing in Ancient History. He received his Bachelor's degree magna cum laude from Illinois State University in 2022. His undergraduate thesis, "Soldier-Engineers: Siege Warfare and Virtus in De Bello...
Michelle Anguita Lessard
Graduate Assistant
Michelle Lessard is a PhD candidate in the Philology program. Before coming to University of Cincinnati, she taught Latin in Massachusetts for five years. At Vassar College she majored in Classics and Biology, and she continues to be interested in...
Zimo Liang
Graduate Assistant
Zimo Liang（梁子墨）is a first year PhD student in Ancient History track. Zimo is mainly interested in Roman Greece in the Early and High Empire, with a special focus on epigraphy and historical geography. After excavating in Athens as an Agora...
Jorge J Maldonado
Graduate Assistant
Jorge J. Maldonado is a first year Ancient History PhD student. He received his BA in History at Rutgers University-Newark in the fall of 2020. He also completed a post-baccalaureate in ancient Greek and Latin in Rutgers University-New Brunswick in...
Rachael E Nelson
Graduate Assistant
Rachael is a first-year PhD student in Roman Archaeology. She graduated summa cum laudefrom the University of Colorado Boulder with a B.A. in Classics and minors in Anthropology, Art History, and Italian in 2024. Her undergraduate thesis,...
Patrick Gaughan O'Callahan
Graduate Assistant
Patrick Gaughan O'Callahan is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in Ancient History. He graduated from Brown University with a B.A. in Classics in 2015. His undergraduate thesis investigated the changing patterns of civic honors in Athens during the 4th...
Jack T Oster
Graduate Assistant
Jack is a first year PhD student specializing in Ancient History. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 2019 with a degree in Economics and a minor in History and graduated from the University of Notre Dame's Classics MA...
Giulia Paglione
Giulia is a PhD candidate specializing in Aegean Prehistory. She is interested in a multidisciplinary approach to Linear B texts, and her current research focuses primarily on Mycenaean religion and palatial control of labor and craft production....
Alex Bullock Reese
Student Associate
Alex Reese is a third-year PhD student in Classical Philology. In 2019, she graduated from Utah State University with her BA, with majors in English Literature and Philosophy and a minor in Latin. She went on to receive her MA in Ancient Languages...
Kelsey Anne Frable Schalo
Graduate Assistant
Kelsey Schalo is a Ph.D. candidate in Classics. She has an M.A. in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies from the University of Arkansas; her thesis is titled "Gynocentric Apuleius: Female Agency in The Golden Ass" (2020). Broadly, her...
Avery August Schollenberger
Graduate Assistant
Avery Schollenberger is a first year PhD student in the Bronze Age Archaeology track with an interest in Mainland Greece Prehistory. He received his BA from Indiana University in Classical Studies (Greek/Latin) and History. His Classics Honors...
Ali Jill Schwartz
Graduate Assistant
Ali is a first-year PhD student in Classical Archaeology at the University of Cincinnati. She graduated summa cum laude from Indiana University with a BA in Classical Studies and Anthropology and a minor in History. Her research interests center on...
Callaghan Marie Todhunter
Callaghan is a fourth-year PhD student in Classical Archaeology. She received her MA in Classics from the University of Iowa in 2021. She received her BA with honors from the same institution in 2019. Callaghan’s primary research interests lie in...
Valia Tsikritea
Valia Tsikritea is a Ph.D. candidate specializing in Late Bronze Age-Early Iron Age archaeology. Her dissertation "An Archaeology of Cult at Juktas,
Crete: Early Iron Age Pottery and Figurines from the 'Tomb of Zeus'" is a study of the 12th-7th...
Crete: Early Iron Age Pottery and Figurines from the 'Tomb of Zeus'" is a study of the 12th-7th...
Savannah Rose Wahlgren
Graduate Assistant
Savannah is a first-year Ph.D. student in the Philology program. She graduated summa cum laude from Trinity University with a B.A. in Classical Languages in 2023 and completed an undergraduate honors thesis on depictions of motherhood in Ovid's Metamorphoses...
Orion Aylwin Whitcher
Graduate Assistant
Orion Whitcher is a second-year PhD candidate in classical archaeology, who will be writing his MA thesis in the 2025-2026 academic year. His primary area of research is Greek funerary archaeology, with interests spanning from the Aegean bronze age to...
Cason James Willman
Graduate Assistant
Cason Willman is a first-year Ph.D. student, specializing in Greek and Latin philology. He completed his bachelor's degree at Case Western Reserve University (2025), graduating summa cum laude. His research focuses primarily on epic, having...
Tianqi Zhu
Graduate Assistant
Tianqi Zhu is a fifth year PhD candidate in Classical Archaeology at the University of Cincinnati (B.A. Vassar 2017; MPhil. Cambridge 2020). He is broadly interested in the history and archaeology of the eastern Mediterranean, in particular...