Current Students in Classics
Diane Amoroso-O'Connor
Roman History, Trade, and Imperialism
Diane is a doctoral candidate working with Professor Darby Scott. Her
dissertation examines the relationship between Rome and Egypt using
evidence related to the city’s grain supply. Diane received her B.A.
in Classical Civilizations and Computer Science from Wellesley College in 2002, and her M.A. from Bryn Mawr College in 2007. While at Bryn Mawr, she has served as a teaching assistant in Latin as well as working with the College Collections as an NEH Curatorial Intern and a Collections Management Intern. She has presented her research at the Provincials and Empire Conference at Yale University, as well as the recent Bryn Mawr College Graduate Group Symposium, Feed Your Head. Her research interests include Roman history and historiography, Hellenistic and Roman Egypt, and the intersections of ancient cultures in political, economic, and religious contexts.
Dianne Boetsch
Later Latin Epic and Greek Tragedy
Dianne is a PhD student at Bryn Mawr College. Originally from Washington state, she received her BA from Whitman College, majoring in Classics and English, in 2007 and then went on to receive her MA in
Classical Studies from Indiana University in 2009 and her MA in Greek, Latin and Classical Studies from Bryn Mawr College in 2011. While at Indiana University, she was an associate instructor for a course in Ancient Civilization in 2008. During that time, pursuing an interest in Medieval Latin as well as the epistolary genre, she presented a paper on the failed and conflicting uses of rhetoric in Ovid’s Heroides and Heloise’s letters to Abelard at Indiana University’s Medieval Studies Symposium. She has most recently completed her MA thesis at Bryn Mawr in 2009 on Claudian’s De Raptu Proserpinae where she examined the thematic interplay of boundaries throughout the poem and its connection to the process of marriage. In the 2012-2013 academic year, she will be the teaching assistant for Latin at Bryn Mawr. Her research interests currently include Statius, Greek Tragedy,
Intertextuality (especially in Theocritus and Virgil), and the myth and ritual surrounding the Eleusinian Mysteries.
Lee Burnett
Latin Epic Poetry, Drama, and Roman Imperial History
Lee has taught all levels of Latin (6th grade - A.P.) for fourteen
years at Mercersburg Academy and now Germantown Academy. He attended
the ICCS program in Rome and has lead a trip to Rome every other
Spring for junior high school Latin students.
Roman Religion and Magic
Jennifer is a fourth-year student working on her preliminary examinations which focus on Alexander the Great and his successors, the “Orphic” gold tablets, Roman religion of the Republican era, and the minor works of Tacitus. Her research interests also include ancient magic, witchcraft, and initiation cults. She has presented research on liminality and sacred space at CUNY and Bryn Mawr. She received her B.A. in Classics from the University of Maryland College Park in 2008. In 2010, she completed her M.A. at Bryn Mawr with a thesis entitled "Canidia and Liminality in Horace."
Jennifer Kay Hoit
Archaic Greek Poetry, Historical Memory, and Ancient Greece and the Near East
Jennifer is a fourth-year student in the Department of Classical
Studies. She received her B.A. in Classical Studies and Classical Art
and Archaeology from Indiana University in 2008 and her M.A. in
Classics from Bryn Mawr College in 2010. Her M.A. thesis examined the
impact that the means by which Archilochus' poetry survived (in
citations, papyrus fragments, or inscriptions) has had on the poetry's
reception and interpretation. In 2011, Jennifer organized an
interdisciplinary graduate symposium about food on behalf of the
Graduate Group. Her current research interests include historiography
and alternative modes of remembering history, such as poetry and oral
tradition; Ancient Greece and the Near East; Aeschylus; and Roman
Satire.
Charles Kuper
Ancient Philosophy and Religion
Charlie is a second-year student completing his M.A. thesis on Anselm
of Canterbury’s use of mathematics as theology in his philosophical
dialogue, Cur Deus Homo (Why the God-Man). In 2010, he received his
B.A. in Classics and Philosophy from Indiana University. His research
interests center on Ancient Philosophy and Religion. Recently, he has
had the great privilege of studying Sanskrit and is currently amazed
how much it has enriched his studies.
Eleanor V. Mulhern
Greek and Latin Epic, Imperial Literature
Nell is a PhD candidate working with Professor Catherine Conybeare.
Her dissertation will consider the construction of the heroic
Republican past in Imperial poetry including Lucan, Silius Italicus,
and Claudian. Nell received her AB in Classics from Princeton
University in 2007, and her MA in Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies
from Bryn Mawr College in 2010. In 2010, she participated in the
Summer Program in Archaeology at the American Academy in Rome. In the
2011-2012 academic year, she has served as the Latin teaching
assistant, as well as on the committee of Bryn Mawr’s biennial
graduate student symposium.
Sara Sieteski
Roman History, Military History, and Ancient Technology
Sara received her B.A. in Classics and Mathematics from SUNY
University at Buffalo and her M.A. in Classics from the University of
Colorado, Boulder. Her first master's thesis was entitled Changing
Aspects of Roman Army Life within the Hadrianic Period. She received a
second M.A. in Greek, Latin and Classical Studies from Bryn Mawr
College in 2010. Her thesis was entitled "The Roman Weakening of
Carthage by Means of Siege Warfare." Sara has taught both Latin and
mathematics in various high schools in Colorado and Pennsylvania as
well as through summer talent programs (RMTS and CTY). Currently she
is employed full-time in IT at the University of Pennsylvania. Sara’s
main career focus is in Digital Humanities, and she works with faculty
and librarians to determine how their research needs can best be
addressed through technology. Currently in the pre-lim/dissertation
planning stage, Sara intends to have a digital project be a integral
component to her work. Sara's interests and pre-lim work include:
military history, Roman Republican and Imperial history (especially
all things Hadrianic), historiography, ancient technology and
engineering, Roman social relationships, Catullus, and the ancient
novel. In addition, she is currently writing a children's book to
promote ancient history to younger generations.
Jessica M. Sisk
Poetry, Papyrology, Epigraphy, and the Natural World in Antiquity
Jessica is a PhD candidate and Whiting Fellow working with Dr. Darby
Scott. Her dissertation evaluates an interdisciplinary tangle of
evidence for female friendship in antiquity. She holds a double BA in
Latin and Classical Civilization with a Certificate in Medieval
Studies from Indiana University, Bloomington. She received her MA in
Classics from Bryn Mawr (2006). Jessica has recently spent a year in
Rome conducting epigraphical research as an affiliated fellow at the
American Academy in Rome (2010-2011) and has presented her work at
graduate student symposia both at Bryn Mawr College and UCLA. Her
research interests include the natural world in antiquity, papyrology,
epigraphy, and Greek & Latin verse.
Abbe Walker
Greek Religion, Tragedy, and Oratory
Abbe is a PhD student in Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies. She
received her B.A. in Greek and Latin from Florida State University in
2008 and her M.A. from Bryn Mawr College in 2011. Her Master's thesis
explored the problem of virgin sacrifice in Euripides' Iphigenia at
Aulis and Hecuba. Her research interests include Greek Religion, Greek
Tragedy, and Attic Oratory. She has presented her research at the Bryn
Mawr Graduate Group Symposium in the fall of 2011, as well as Boston
University's Classics Graduate Conference in the spring of 2012. In
2011-2012, she served as the Teaching Assistant for Traditional and
New Testament Greek.
Edward Whitehouse
Late Antiquity, Patristics, Early Christian Poetry
Eddie Whitehouse is a PhD candidate working with Professor Catherine
Conybeare. His dissertation will examine Gregory of Nazianzus’ poetry
and his appropriation of the Classical tradition. Eddie received his
B.A. magna cum laude in Greek, Latin and Religious Studies from the
University of Minnesota in 2006 and his M.A. in Greek, Latin and
Classical Studies from Bryn Mawr College. He has worked as an
assistant to the editorial staff of the Bryn Mawr Classical Review
throughout his time at Bryn Mawr.
