Alumna Profile: Deb T. ('05) in Athens, Greece

I graduated from UE with a major in Archaeology and a double minor in Classical Studies and Anthropology. I was also the Archaeology Club president (and president of my sorority!) and really enjoyed the wide range of scholastic and social events that UE had to offer. Also, UE’s strong endorsement of study abroad programs got me more interested in having the life of a travelling archaeologist. In the fall of 2003, less than a year before the 2004 Olympics, I spent a semester in Athens, Greece with the College Year in Athens Program (CYA). Combining what I learned in the basement of Hyde Hall with on-site instructional classes solidified my decision to become a classical archaeologist.

After graduating from UE, I immediately went on to graduate school at Florida State University, along with three other Aces from the Archaeology program (Philip Griffith, Maureen M., and Lafe Meicenheimer). I was admitted into the Classics Department at FSU, where I earned my MA in Classical Archaeology, and was accepted into the PhD program with a full scholarship, allowing me to teach courses in mythology and Latin. I spent the 2010-2011 school year in Greece as a regular member of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens (ASCSA) and received the Philip J. Lockhart Fellowship from the ASCSA, which provided room, board, and a stipend for travels in addition to a Thompson Fellowship from FSU's Classics department. In the fall semester, I, along with other students at the ASCSA, traveled all over Greece – from Vergina to the Mani – giving on-site presentations and learning more about ancient sites from excavators, as well as the modern culture and its recent history.



Deb gives a presentation on the Delphi Charioteer at the Delphi Museum.

In the spring semester, I worked in the Corinth and Mycenae museums, beginning work on my dissertation entitled "Pots in the Periphery: Ceramic Analysis of Mycenaean Cooking Vessels and its Implications for an Integrated World-Systems Model." With the help of my advisor, Dr. Daniel Pullen (FSU), my dissertation involves stylistic, microscopic and chemical analyses of cooking vessels from several Mycenaean (1500-1100 BC) sites, including Mycenae, Zygouries, and Kalamianos, the recently-discovered site under co-directorship of Dr. Daniel Pullen (FSU, Classics) and Dr. Thomas Tartaron (University of Pennsylvania).


Deb working on pottery in the Corinth Museum.

I am now in the fourth year of my PhD at FSU, having earned my candidacy just last year, and am writing this blog entry from Athens, Greece. Even this far away from UE, I still find connections with my alma mater: I’m working on the same vessels from Zygouries that Dr. Thomas did for his dissertation; I continually get asked if I know “so and so” from UE, even though he/she graduated in ’92; I even ran into several Aces on our trips: Vince Valenti, who joined the ASCSA trip to the Argolid, and Melissa Eaby, who is now working at the Institute for Aegean Prehistory (INSTAP) on Crete. Back at FSU I am classmates with a UE alumna (Hillary C.) and we often talk about going to teach at a school like UE when we graduate. It seems I can’t go anywhere without being reminded of my days as an Ace.

I want to take this opportunity to thank Drs. Thomas, Kaiser, and Ebeling, as well as Dr. Berry in Anthropology and Dr. Ware in Religion, for their support and encouragement to follow the path that I am taking today. I know that the undergraduates at UE are in good hands! GO ACES!

(Left: Deb in front of the Treasury of Atreus, Mycenae)

Alumnus Profile: Andrew R. ('94) in Princeton, NJ

I double-majored in archaeology and writing at UE, and co-founded the Archaeology Club (now SAHA) as well as the literary magazine Pendulum (now the Evansville Review). To satisfy my love of both archaeology and publications, I spent alternating summers excavating at Poggio Civitate (Murlo) and interning at Archaeology magazine. I also served as the copy editor for the University Crescent (when it was still a newspaper) and edited the English department's poetry chapbook, On Time.


 A.R. wears his pottery-reading cap at Isthmia.

After graduating in 1994 with the first class of students to complete the new four-year program in archaeology, I headed to graduate school at the University of Missouri - Columbia, where I studied under Kathleen Slane and Bill Biers, the author of the introduction to Greek archaeology textbook used at UE. During my two years at Mizzou I worked at the Museum of Art and Archaeology and had a summer internship at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. I kept my interest in publications alive by designing and publishing the book of abstracts for the biannual graduate student symposium shared with the University of Kansas.


Graduating in 1996 with an MA in Art History and Archaeology, I excavated at the site of Isthmia, serving as a photographer, database administrator, and pottery reader. I was able to analyze the pottery and stratigraphy from under the Roman Bath's mosaic to place it in the time of Hadrian, a date that was suspected but not yet confirmed. One of my photographs of human remains from the site will be appearing in the Isthmia 9 volume to be published in 2011 by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.



I next spent ten years as a museum software professional managing database software rollouts, documentation, and implementation in the US, Canada, and the UK. In 2007 I joined Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, specialists in Greek and Latin textbooks. My core responsibilities were to manage all digital publications and to create a long-term strategy to support our textbooks online. I designed a Latin iPhone app and created the first social network, eClassics, for exploring technology and Classics pedagogy. My obsession with online gaming and language education led to a conference paper given in Trondheim, Norway, which is to be published in 2011 as part of the conference proceedings.

In August 2010 I became the Director of Publications for the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (offices in Princeton, NJ) where I am finally able to join my love of Mediterranean archaeology, print publishing, and digital publishing into a highly satisfying career. I manage the production and publication of the Agora and Corinth excavation reports (the "blue" and "red" books) as well as for other affiliated sites like Isthmia, Lerna, Samothrace, and others. I also work with the journal Hesperia and the Hesperia Supplements. As a person with one foot squarely in traditional publication and the other in digital environments, I am discovering ways to support our print publications online while at the same time planning a future of born-digital books, articles, and tools for archaeologists and researchers. Combine all of that with a plucky office dog named Hector and a free, annual trip to Greece, and you have the recipe for a perfect job. I've never been happier or this busy.


Corinth XVIII Part II is shocking reading!



Thanks to the attention and instruction of Pat Thomas, Erik Nielsen, Allison Griffith, and Shirley Schwarz, I was fully prepared for graduate school and beyond. It's my pleasure that I get to publish some of Dr. Thomas's research, and I look forward to publishing the future work of others who are currently UE undergraduates.