Classical Studies
In its Honors Program the Classical Studies Department awards one level of Honors to student research projects. (Note: prior to Fall 2022 Highest Honors and High Honors were awarded as well.) The projects listed below have been defended successfully, and a copy of the thesis deposited in Swem Library.
Key:
- Student, "Thesis" (Honors level)
Committee Chair + Other Committee Members
2023-2024
- Julia Isabel Bowers, "Ceramics of Chthonic Cults: A Comparative Analysis of Pottery from Mediterranean Chthonic Sanctuaries" (Honors)
Jessica Paga + Molly Swetnam-Burland, Lu Ann Homza
- Isabella Mae Kershner, "Priestesshoods as Expressions of Civic Identity" (Honors)
Jessica Stephens + Alan Braddock, Mitchell Brown
- Madeleine Perry Blue Rubin, "Pompeiian Mill-Bakeries: Spatial Organization and Social Interaction" (Honors)
John Donahue + Catherine Forestell, Jessica Stephens
- Ian Scott Wilson, "A God For All Places: Experiencing a Localized Mithraism" (Honors)
Molly Swetnam-Burland + Jessica Paga, Alexander Angelov
2022-2023
- Brooke Elizabeth Braden, "Sing of Arms and Disobedience: Reading Vergil's Aeneid in Milton's Paradise Lost" (Honors)
Vassiliki Panoussi + Michael Halleran, Adam Potkay
- Ivana Sylvia Genov, "The Cult of the Nymphs: Identity, Ritual, and Womanhood in Ancient Greece" (Honors)
Georgia Irby + Molly Swetnam-Burland, Cristina Stancioiu
- Georgia Elizabeth Thoms,"The Realities of Rape: Understanding the Foundations of a Woman’s Space in Ancient Greece and Rome" (Honors)
Jessica Stephens + Vassiliki Panoussi, James Skelton
- Ryan Louis Alexander Vincent, "Man, Myth and Medicine: The Exchange of Healing Deities in the Bronze Age Mediterranean" (Honors)
Jessica Stephens + William Hutton, Jeremy Pope
2021-2022
- Meaghan Corcoran, "The Reception of Diogenes in the Second Sophistic" (Honors)
William Hutton + Michael Halleran, John Lombardini - Sydney Kennedy, "Taking Transparent Action: Decolonizing the American Collective Memory of Ancient Greece in the Art Museum" (Highest Honors)
Jessica Paga + Jessica Stephens, Christina Stancioiu
2020-2021
- Ashton Rodgers, "Between Italic and Greek: Native Identity and Hybridity in Paestan-Lucanian Tombs" (Honors)
Molly Swetnam-Burland + Molly Swetnam-Burland, Jessica Stephens, Michael Daise - Sophia Warnement, "Female Familial Relationships in Valerius’ Argonautica and Statius’ Thebaid" (Honors)
Vassiliki Panoussi + Molly Swetnam-Burland, Jennifer Gülly
2019-2020
- No Honors students this year
2018-19
- Rebecca Gaborek, "Gardens Beneath the Ash: Contextualizing Naturalistic Imagery within Pompeii's Urban Fabric"
Molly Swetnam-Burland + Lily Panoussi, Brad Weiss - Lillian Waddill, "More Than Mortal: Divine Depictions of Livia in Early Imperial Portraiture and Literature"
Vassiliki Panoussi + Molly Swetnam-Burland, Dan Cristol - Robert Yancey, "Written in Stone: SEG XXXIV 1581, its Viewers, and their Perspectives"
William Hutton + Jessica Paga, Leslie Cochrane
2017-18
- Rachel Dubit, "A Song of Arms and of the Woman: Confronting Cleopatra in the Augustan Era through the Carmen de Bello Actiaco" (High Honors)
Molly Swetnam-Burland + Sergio Ferrarese, William Hutton - Nicholas Rudman, "Founded Upon Death: A Structural Analysis of Tacitus' Annales" (Highest Honors)
Georgia Irby + Robert Nichols, Erin Minear
2016-17
- Abigail Simon, "
Texisse and Nudare: Sulpicia's Poetics and the Fashioning of Roman Elegy" (Honors)
Vassiliki Panoussi + John Donahue, Nathan Rabalais - Lauren Wood, "Kalasiris and Charikleia: Mentorship and Intertext in Heliodorus' Aithiopika" (Honors)
William Hutton + Vassiliki Panoussi, Suzanne Hagedorn
2015-16
- Dereck Basinger, "Homer's Music through Plato's Ears" (High Honors)
Georgia Irby + William Hutton, James Armstrong
2014-15
- Maura Brennan, "A Comparative Analysis of Five Greek Fountain Houses" (High Honors)
William Hutton + John Oakley and Sibel Zandi-Sayek - Victoria Jansson, "Out of Good Fortune: The Economics of Tragedy in the House of Atreus" (High Honors)
Vassiliki Panoussi + Lily Panoussi, William Hutton and Varun Begley
2013-14
- No Honors students this year
2012-13
- Brett Evans, "Looking for Reality in Latin Love Elegy" (Highest Honors)
Vassiliki Panoussi + William Hutton, Colleen Kennedy
2011-12
- No Honors students this year
2010-11
- Brent Bickings, "Was the Western Diaspora Cut off from Israel? A Case Study of Sardis and Hamath Tiberias" (Honors)
Michael Daise + John Donahue, Julie Galambush - Samuel McVane, "The Bare Necessities: Ascetic Indian Sages in Philostratus' Life of Apollonius" (High Honors)
William Hutton + John Donahue, Kevin Vose - Irene Morrison-Moncure, "13 Recommendations for the Teaching of Elementary Latin at the Collegiate Level" (Honors)
Vassiliki Panoussi + William Hutton, Jennifer Taylor
2009-10
- Megan Shuler, "Shedding Light on Roman Social Life: An Integrative Approach to Domestic Space at
Pompii and Karanis" (High Honors)
Molly Swetnam-Burland + John Donahue, Mary Voigt
2008-09
- No Honors students this year
2007-08
- Barbara Blythe, "The Rape of the Bough: The Persephone Myth in Vergil's Aeneid" (High Honors)
Vassiliki Panoussi + John Chesley, Paula Blank (defended December 2007) - Jessica Lamont, "Sacred Space and Healing: The Cult of Asklepios in Athens" (High Honors)
Barbette Spaeth + Linda Reilly, Mary Voigt
2006-07
- Emily Rossow, "Ranting and Reading: Stand-Up Comedy and the Satiric
Recitatio " (Honors)
John Donahue + John Chesley, Gary Green
2005-06
- Julie Colaneri, "The Sicilian Tyrants: Greek or Not?" (Honors)
William Hutton + Linda Reilly, Ted Perlmutter - William Hall
Georgia Irby-Massie + William Hutton, George Greenia - Leigh Oldershaw, "Roman Domestic Religion: An Archaeological Examination of the Domestic Divinities Depicted in Pompeian Lararium Paintings" (High Honors)
Barbette Spaeth + Linda Reilly, Michael Blakey - Timothy Treem
Georgia Irby-Massie + John Chesley, Noah Lemos
2004-05
- William Burghart
John Donahue + John Oakley, Phil Daileader - Julie Mills
James Baron + Georgia Irby-Massie, Noah Lemos - Robert Schwieger
William Hutton + Linda Reilly, John Conlee