Lorraine received a BA in Classics with a Minor in Anthropology at the University of Washington. Her senior honors thesis focused on the role of food artifacts in cultural exchange and contact between the Greeks, Romans, and Trans-Jordanian peoples during the late Hellenistic and early Roman Empire in the city of Gerasa (now Jerash, Jordan). Her main research interests include food studies; archaeobotany; zooarchaeology; the Greek and Roman imperial periods; post-contact theoretical framework, particularly as seen in the archaeology of the Americas; and culture contact and exchange in the process of identity formation.
Lorraine has participated in the Balu’a Regional Archaeology Project in Jordan, (2019) and the Issei at Barneston Project in Washington State (2020). She also has experience working in cultural resource management and archaeological consultation through her work with Cultural Resource Consultants in Seattle, Washington.
Lauren graduated magna cum laude with her BA in Anthropology and Classical Studies at the University of New Mexico. She received an MA in Classics with an emphasis in Classical Archaeology and a certificate in Geographic Information Science at the University of Arizona. While in this program, she investigated the exclusivity of the Mycenaean state-sponsored feast by analyzing the built environment of potential feasting locales. Lauren also received an MA in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of New Mexico. For this thesis, she explored Greek sympotic drinking behavior contextualized within the concept of the metron.
Lauren has participated in archaeological projects in Greece, Italy, Ireland, and the American Southwest. She is also a collaborator for the WebAtlas of Ceramic Kilns in Ancient Greece (https://atlasgreekkilns.arizona.edu/). Her research interests include the socio-political implications of communal drinking events, sympotic poetry (particularly archaic Greek), identity construction and manipulation, and GIS.
Andrew received his BA in Classical Studies from Michigan State University in 2014 and his MA in Archaeology from Cornell in 2017. He has participated in excavations and surveys in Cyprus, Greece, Italy, and Spain and has performed geospatial analysis and created geodatabases for projects studying a Maya site in Belize and an Iroquois site in New York. His research utilizes digital mapping technologies and spatial statistics as well as anthropological and archaeological theory of landscape. He applies these methodologies and concepts to study the creation and embodied meaning of space and place in the Eastern Mediterranean under the Roman Empire. His additional research interests include social identity in the ancient world, the politics of archaeological practice, and forced resettlement under empires.
Amelia Eichengreen
(she/her/hers)
Amelia received an A.B. from Bryn Mawr College in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology in 2013, an M.A. from Durham University in Roman Archaeology in 2016, and an M.A. from Columbia University in Classical Studies in 2017. She has roughly a decade of field experience and currently works as an assistant supervisor at the Gabii Project.
While she has published on a variety of subjects including Roman Athens, Archilochus, and ethnic identity she specializes in the architecture of central Italy during the first millennium BCE. Recently, she co-organized a two day conference in Rome, “the Origins of the Forum and the Basilica”, which will produce three edited volumes. Her dissertation research on archaic domestic architecture tracks the architectural development of domestic spaces in central Italy during the archaic period, or approximately 900-450 BCE, when homes moved from mud huts to complex multi-roomed buildings. A centerpiece of this dissertation is a new interpretation for the archaic houses on the north Palatine slope published fall 2023 in the Journal of Roman Archaeology. This dissertation project was recently the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship in Italy and the Etruscan Foundation Research Fellowship.
See more at her webpage here: https://sites.google.com/umich.edu/amelia-w-eichengreen/about
Caroline Everts
(she/her/hers)
Caroline received her B.A. at Union College (NY) in 2019, with a double major in Classics and Anthropology. Graduating with honors, her undergraduate thesis examined the connections between burial practices and social identity in early Iron Age Greece as evinced through grave goods. During the Spring of 2018, she studied at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome. In 2021, Caroline earned her M.A. in Ancient Mediterranean Art and Archaeology from the University of Colorado Boulder. She has excavated the children’s cemetery on Astypalaia, as well as completed fieldwork in Italy at Aeclanum and worked with pottery from the Suburban Baths at Pompeii. Caroline’s research interests include the use of spatial and visual narratives, their connections to social identity and their relationship within structures, particularly as shown through domestic architecture in the provinces.
Joseph received his BA in Classics from Macalester College in 2014 and studied at the ICCS in Rome in 2012. In 2017, he completed an MA in Classical Archaeology from the University of Colorado Boulder. Joseph has completed field work in Israel, Turkey, and Greece, including the Athenian Agora excavations and the ASCSA excavations in Corinth as a trench supervisor. Most recently, he has participated in the University of Michigan's Notion Archaeological Survey, the Bays of Eastern Attica Regional Survey, and the Western Argolid Regional Project. Joseph's research focuses on the landscapes, material culture, and economy of the Roman Empire, especially that of Greece and the Aegean. He is also interested in theoretical approaches related to connectivity, survey methodology, and object oriented ontologies.
Bailey Franzoi
Bailey earned her B.A. in Classics and Archaeology and the Ancient World from Brown University in 2019. She graduated with honors and completed a thesis on how Roman conquest affected dining and funerary practice in local communities across the western Roman Empire, which won the James A. Pierce thesis prize. She also studied at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Spring 2018. She has excavated at Pani Loriga in Sardinia (2017) and at Pollentia in Mallorca (2019), and she interned at the Penn Museum digitizing archaeological ceramics (2018). Her research interests include human osteology and zooarchaeology.
Laurel earned her B.A. in Classical Civilizations, Classical Archaeology, and German with High Honors from the University of Michigan and her M.A. in Classics, Classical Archaeology Emphasis, from the University of Arizona. Her interests range from the Bronze Age through Hellenistic Greece and primarily include the organization of Greek households, city planning, ancient domestic spaces, the materiality of everyday life in the ancient world, and social groups not commonly represented in the ancient texts - especially children.
She has excavated as a volunteer with the Balkan Heritage Field School at the sites of Stobi in the Republic of North Macedonia and Emporion Pistiros in Bulgaria. Laurel has also been a trench supervisor at Michigan’s Olynthos Project, a field project focused on the Classical city of Olynthos in northern Greece. Currently she is the field supervisor of Michigan's Pella Urban Dynamics Project.
Melissa Gryan
Melissa graduated summa cum laude from College of the Holy Cross in 2018 with a double major in Classics and Art History and completed a post-baccalaureate in Classical Languages at the University of Pennsylvania in 2019. Her undergraduate thesis focused on the reception of the Laocoön in Antiquity and the Renaissance, as well as the reception of Pliny the Elder in Giorgio Vasari’s Lives of the Artists. While at Holy Cross, she also participated in manuscript research on Pliny the Elder and ancient translations of Josephus into Latin, in addition to research on the Greco-Roman coinage at the Worcester Art Museum and the representation of foreign cultures in exhibition spaces. In 2019, she joined the University of Michigan’s excavation at Gabii. Her research interests include the legacy of the reception and interpretation of classical art and artifacts, ancient aesthetics, the interplay of text and art, and how ancient people interacted with and venerated images.
Wenxuan Cecilia Huang
(she/her/hers)
Cecilia graduated from Rutgers University with a BA in Classics and Art History, and MPhil in Classics from the University of Cambridge. Her MPhil thesis, entitled 'Athletics, Spectacle, and the Representation of the Male Body,' puts third-century statues of Roman athletes and gladiatorial reliefs from the city of Aphrodisias in dialogue with ancient literature on the male sporting body. In this thesis, she questions the semiotics of the male body and the vulnerability of the concept of 'manliness' in Greco-Roman tradition. She has excavated at Rutgers Archaeological field school at Vacone, Italy, with a focus on the conservation of mosaics on Roman floor at the site. Her research interests lie in the visual culture, religious and social history of the Roman imperial period and Late Antiquity.
Gabriel graduated from Swarthmore College with a BA in Greek and minors in Latin and Religion. While attending Swarthmore College they were a Mellon Mays Fellow and in 2017 while studying abroad at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies, in Rome, they cemented their passion for archaeology. Gabriel completed the Bridge MA program in Classical Studies at the University of Michigan in the Spring of 2023. Gabriel has participated in fieldwork in both Greece and Italy. They participated in the Azoria Project, on Crete (2017), and have spent four seasons working with the Gabii Project (2018, 2019, 2022, and 2023), in Italy, two as a volunteer and two as a staff member in the Environmental Lab. Their research interests are centered around Early Central Italy, particularly on identity formation, food, archaeobotany, and zooarchaeology.
Ginevra Miglierina
(she/her/hers)
After completing the Liceo Classico in Italy, Ginevra moved to the U.S., where she continued her studies on the ancient Mediterranean world. She received a B.A. in Psychology and Classics from the University of Arizona in 2016, and an M.A. in Classics from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2018. Ginevra has participated in fieldwork in Italy, Greece, and Spain. She is also dedicated to museum work, and has interned first with the Arizona State Museum, where she worked on the accession of project material and assisted with the repatriation of artifacts, and then at the Archaeological Museum of Ancient Corinth as a cataloguer. Her research interests include colonization, urbanism, spatial organization, and the interaction between religion and architectural development at the edges of the Greek world.
Chloe earned her B.A in Classics from Texas Tech University. She earned an M.A in Greek Art and Archaeology from King’s College London, where she wrote a thesis focused on the Centauromachy in Greek architectural sculpture, as well as an M.A. in Classics at Texas Tech University, with a thesis titled “The Vergina Hunting Frieze Recontextualized: the Development and Significance of Hunting in Macedonian Burials”. Since 2019, she has participated in the excavations at Argilos and Kerdylion in Northern Greece (trench supervisor 2023-2024). She has also been a member of the Libarna Urban Landscapes Project (Italy) and is currently a trench supervisor at the University of Michigan’s Pella Urban Dynamics Project (2022-present).
Her research focuses on urbanism and state formation in Macedonia, spanning from the Iron Age to the Classical period, and the cultural interactions between Macedonians, Thracians, and Greek colonists in the Northern Aegean.
Alex earned a BA in Ancient History with High Honors from Swarthmore College in 2015. His research there focused on modeling processes of cultural contact at the Greek site of Sybaris. In 2017, Alex received his MA in Classical Languages (Greek and Latin emphases) at the University of Georgia. His master's thesis considered Herodotus's Histories and focused on the role of colonial narratives in blurring distinctions between Greek and non-Greek identities. Alex has also participated in the Azoria Project in Crete and the Western Argolid Regional Project. Since 2016, he has excavated at Morgantina with the Contrada Agnese Project, mostly recently serving as an assistant supervisor. Alex's research investigates economic exchange, migration, and transitions in cultural identity at the periphery of the Iron Age Greek world.
Theo Nash
A 
lifelong fascination with ancient ruins led Theo to study Classics, earning First Class Honours for his Bachelor’s degree and a Master of Arts with Distinction at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. His research so far has been focussed on the Mycenaeans and their broader contexts, starting with his Honours thesis where he explored the creation of identity during the early Mycenaean period. In his MA he argued that the Mycenaean presence at Knossos during Late Minoan II was a precipitating factor in the emergence of palatial culture on the mainland, with a special focus on the contemporary development of Linear B and the contexts in which new scripts are created. He hopes to ask further questions of how scripts develop and spread, both at the palaeographic level and in their broader societal contexts. His broader interests include the development of early Greek hexameter poetry and Attic vase painting.
Elena Navarre earned her B.A. with honors in Classical Languages and in Classical Archaeology in 2022 from the University of Texas at Austin. Her thesis, entitled “Cum Torrens Fit Stillicidium”, focuses on domestic and public water usage within the city of Rome during the late stages of the Roman Empire. In the Spring of 2024, Elena completed her M.A. in Classical Studies at the University of Michigan. She has excavated at Argilos and Kerdylion in Northern Greece, and has served as a research assistant in various academic projects, notably the Black Classicists in Texas Exhibition.
Elena’s research focuses on Roman art and architecture and its relation to water usage; specifically within fountains and bathhouses. She is also interested in museum studies and has received a Bridging Disciplines Museum Studies Certificate at UT Austin, which she completed alongside her various internships at Austin-based museums and archives. Elena aims to intertwine her academic interests with her passion and enthusiasm for museums and public outreach.
Caroline Nemechek
(she/her/hers)
Caroline earned her B.A. in Classical Civilization at Cornell University, receiving magna cum laude in 2014 for her thesis on terracotta figurine from Egypt. In 2017, she graduated from the University of Kansas with a M.A. in Ancient Mediterranean Art and Archaeology. Her MA thesis examined how depictions of Polyphemus and Galatea in wall-painting were entwined with Roman values and aspirations, such as conveying one’s status through their literacy. She has participated in field projects in the United States, Spain, and Italy. Caroline’s research interests include domestic art, the construction of identities in the ancient world, domestic cult practices, and museum studies.
James Nesbitt-Prosser
(he/him/his)
James earned both his BA in Classical Studies with an Architecture minor in 2015 and his MA in Classical Archaeology in 2017 at Tufts University. His Master’s thesis investigated a new digital reconstruction for the plan of the Late Roman Theodosian Wall of Carthage as well as a comparative study to other Late Antique Roman urban defenses. He has participated at excavations at Binchester in England, Cerro de la Muela: El Pulpon in Spain, Piano della Civita in Italy, and Saint Martin Island in France. James has taken part in the Gabii Project excavations since 2016 and began as a member of the field staff in 2018. His research interests center on Late Antique urbanism, Roman North Africa, and the Roman military.
Buck received his B.A. in Classical Languages with a minor in Art History from the University of Oklahoma, graduating magna cum laude in 2015. In 2018 he received his M.A. in Classics with an emphasis in Classical Archaeology from the University of Arizona. His thesis compared the levels of specialization in the production of pottery in Early Helladic II and III Lerna using indirect evidence, notably standardization analysis. He has excavated at Gabii (2014) and the Athenian Agora (2016), worked in the finds lab at Mt. Lykaion (2018-19), and participated in the ASCSA summer session (2015) and the Howard Comfort Summer School in Roman Pottery Studies at the AAR (2017).
Buck’s research interests primarily lie in ancient pottery production, cultural exchange between Aegean pre-palatial societies, and Indo-European studies. He also holds a strong interest in pursuing less traditional methodologies, such as experimental archaeology, use-wear analysis, and standardization analysis.
Ashton earned her B.A. from the College of William and Mary (2021) and M.A. from the University of Michigan (2022), both in Classical Studies. Graduating with honors, her undergraduate thesis explored indigenous Italic identity in 5th century BCE Paestum. She has worked as a research assistant for the School of Classics at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, as well as an intern at both the San Antonio Museum of Art and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ashton’s research interest centers around Greek colonization, the social, material, and cultural history of contacts between local populations and settler communities in the ancient Mediterranean. Ashton is particularly interested in decolonizing and Indigenous research methods in cultural heritage, archeological, and museum work.
Sam received his B.A. at the University of Texas at Austin in 2020 where he studied Classical Archaeology and Classical Languages. He is most interested in the social politics, power dynamics and religious pluralism in Republican Italy, particularly as manifested through architecture. He is also interested in non-elite political expression, and his undergraduate honors thesis focused on slaves and the ways in which they were crucial to the logistics, commercial administration and inter-fort communication on military bases in northern England. Sam has supplemented these interests with excavations at a Roman cemetery in Puglia, Byzantine and Abassid houses in Jerusalem, and a Republican garden in Pompeii, as well as doing XRF and IR Spectroscopy on Roman-era plaster from northern Israel. Sam is excited to continue to pursue and expand upon these interests.
Abigail earned her B.A. in Archaeology and Art History with a Latin minor from the University of Virginia in 2020. During her time at the University of Virginia, she conducted a multi-year, independent research project focused on cult spaces across Pompeian industries. The primary goal of her project was the completion of a comprehensive database of shrine niches and religious paintings in Pompeian commercial spaces. This ultimately culminated in a distinguished major thesis, for which she earned High Honors. During her time in Charlottesville, she also worked as an Education Intern at the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Australian Art Collection, and was employed as a Museum Assistant and docent at the Fralin Museum of Art. After the completion of her B.A., she earned a Post-Baccalaureate certificate in Classical Studies from the College of William & Mary (2021).
Abigail has completed a research assistantship in Pompeii (2018), and has excavated with the University of Michigan’s Gabii Project as a field school participant (2019). Her research interests include liminal identities in the Roman world (such as laborers, enslaved peoples, the elderly, and women), personal religion, and the materiality of domestic space. She is also passionate about museum pedagogy and accessibility of information to those outside the field of Classics.
Julian received a BA in Near Eastern Studies from the University of Michigan in 2017 and an MA in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Chicago in 2020. Their MA thesis dealt with the landscape of crocodile cults in the Greco-Roman Egyptian Fayyūm Oasis. They participated in the University of Chicago excavation of Horvat Duvshan in Israel in 2019. Julian worked for three years at the Center for Ancient Middle Eastern Landscapes at the University of Chicago on projects using Geographic Information Systems to document archaeological sites in Iraq and Afghanistan. They also spent two years performing cultural resource management archaeology surveys in the United States. Julian is a member of The Northeast Fayyūm Lakeshore Project (NFLP). In 2023 they took part in excavation of the site of Karanis in the Egyptian Fayyūm and carried out a field survey of Greco-Roman canals. Julian’s research focuses on human interaction with landscape in Egypt during the Greco-Roman period. They have presented papers on irrigation systems and trade routes in the Egyptian Western Desert and its oases. They founded a local chapter of the American Research Center in Egypt, ARCE Detroit, in 2023 and served as its first president.
Volkan received his B.Arch. in Architecture and MA in History of Architecture at the Middle East Technical University (Ankara, Turkey). His MA thesis essentially focused on assessing the role of the architectural language of the imperial cult and imagery in the transformation of the urban spaces in Roman Ephesus, which employed a kinesthetic method that incorporates the dynamics of space and movement. He has participated in several archaeological projects in Turkey: in Ephesus, Teos, Lagina Hecate Sanctuary, Ayasuluk and Notion. Volkan is interested in cultural encounters, landscape and urban studies, and the dynamic relationship between identity and the built environment.
Erica earned her B.A in Classical Civilizations with High Honors from the University of Toronto, where she received both the Dorothy Ellison graduating scholarship in Latin and the W.B Wiegand Prize in Ancient Greek. She also received her M.A. in Classics, with an emphasis on classical archaeology and material culture, from the University of Toronto. Her M.A. thesis explored craft production and the socio-economic framework of agricultural production centers in Central Crete from the Late Hellenistic into the early Roman Imperial period.
Erica's research interests center on the landscapes, systems of exchange, and economic production in the Roman Empire. With an emphasis on pottery and mosaics, Erica's work examines how increasing trade networks and cross-cultural interactions impacted production techniques and the degrees of mobility of material culture in the Roman Empire.
Erica has spent several summers conducting fieldwork in both Greece and Italy. In 2016, Erica joined the Western Argolid Regional Project as a pedestrian surveyor. Then in 2017, Erica became a member of the Villa of the Antonines field school. Erica started there as a volunteer excavator, but is now a senior staff member and trench supervisor, involved in both field excavations and analysis of finds in the lab.
