Graduate Placement 2001 to the present
As the lists below show, numerous PhDs from 2001-2013 have won tenured collegiate teaching positions, and a number of PhD’s from 2009-2017 are currently in tenure-track positions, though in recent years tenure-track jobs have been in short supply. Most recent PhDs have had one or more visiting positions as college instructors. Increasing numbers of PhDs have been teaching high school, either temporarily or as a career choice, and some are working outside of academia. In these tough times, no one starting a PhD program can be confident of having a chance at a tenure-track job teaching on the collegiate level. Still, we see the comparatively good record of our students in competing for jobs even during hard times, and the comments we receive from hiring departments about the preparation of our students who they interview, as an endorsement of the quality of our students’ training.
Additionally, you may look at our full list of Ph.D. dissertations and M.A. theses from 1894 to the present and our alphabetical list of all graduate alumni and their current positions. We encourage all former students to stay in touch with the department, letting us know how their careers and lives continue to develop.
The list gives the year of Ph.D. degree awarded, the student’s name, the dissertation title, the current position, and generally some information about positions before the current one. In each but one case “associate professor” refers to a tenured position. For positions as assistant professor, those that are tenure-track are so marked.
College and University Teaching
2001-2010
2001 |
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| Name | Dissertation Title | Current Position(s) | Previous Position(s) |
| Eric Dugdale | Prophecy and Power in Sophocles’ Electra | Associate Provost and Dean of General Education in Provost's Office and Hanson-Peterson Professor of Liberal Studies in Classics, Gustavus Adolphus College | |
| Keyne Cheshire | The form and meaning of Callimachus' Hymns 1 and 2 | Professor of Classics, Davidson College | Visiting position, Carleton College |
| Matthew Panciera | Sexual practice and invective in Martial and Pompeian inscriptions | Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Classics, Gustavus Adolphus College | Visiting position, Hamilton College |
2002 |
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| Name | Dissertation Title | Current Position(s) | Previous Position(s) |
| Jeffrey Beneker | The Theme of Erotic Love in Plutarch's Late Republican Lives | Professor of Classics and Faculty Director of the Chadbourne Residential College, University of Wisconsin-Madison | Visiting positions, The University of Iowa and University of Wisconsin |
| Lora Holland | Worshipping Diana: the cult of a Roman goddess in republican Italy | Professor and Chair, Department of Classics, The University of North Carolina at Asheville | |
| Bradley Buszard | The thematic unity of Plutarch's Pyrrhus-Marius | Associate Professor, Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures, Christopher Newport University | Visiting positions, Kalamazoo College and Michigan State University |
2003 |
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| Name | Dissertation Title | Current Position(s) | Previous Position(s) |
| Kevin Muse | Worthless Wastrels: Prodigals and Prodigality in Classical Antiquity | Associate Professor of Classics and Chair, Department of Foreign Languages & Linguistics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee | |
| Jonathan Clark | Pagan religions in the works of Jerome | No current information | Taught at Christ Lutheran High School; Davenport, Iowa |
| Richard Stanley | Literary Constructions of Youth in the Early Empire: The Case of Nero | Teaching at John Jay High School, San Antonio, TX | Visiting and then tenure-track positions in Classics, Concordia College |
2004 |
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| Name | Dissertation Title | Current Position(s) | Previous Position(s) |
| Kathryn Fiscelli | Plants of Life and Death: An Examination of Three Plants Associated with the Cult of the Dead | Assistant Director of Research Administration, UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy | Visiting positions in Classics, Duke University |
| John H. Starks, Jr. | Actresses in the Roman World | Associate Professor of Classics and Chair, Classical and Near Eastern Studies, Binghamton University, State University of New York | Visiting positions, Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, Agnes Scott College, and The University of North Carolina at Greensboro |
| Shane Hawkins | Studies in the Language of Hipponax | Director of the College of the Humanities and Associate Professor, Greek and Roman Studies, Carleton University | |
2005 |
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| Name | Dissertation Title | Current Position(s) | Previous Position(s) |
| Kathryn McDonnell | A Gendered Landscape: Roman Women's Monuments, Patronage, and Urban Contexts in Pompeii, Isola Sacra, and Aquileia | Upper School Latin Teacher and AP Art History faculty member, Pine Crest School, Boca Raton/Ft. Lauderdale FL | Assistant Professor of Classics, The University of California, Los Angeles; Visiting positions, The College of Charleston and Cornell University |
| Norman Sandridge | Among Kings and Comrades: Jason's Leadership in the Argonautika of Apollonios Rhodios | Associate Professor of Classics, Howard University | |
| Hunter Gardner | The Waiting Game: Gender and Time in Latin Love Elegy | Associate Professor of Classics, University of South Carolina | Visiting position, College of Charleston |
2006 |
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| Name | Dissertation Title | Current Position(s) | Previous Position(s) |
| Walter McCall | Falerii Novi and the Urban Evolution of Italy from 338 to 241 BC | Project Officer with Archaeological Solutions Ltd., UK | Visiting teaching positions, Saint Mary's University and Mount Allison University |
| Hilary Becker | Production, Consumption and Society in North Etruria During the Archaic and Classical Periods: The World of Lars Porsenna | Assistant Professor of Classics, tenure-track, Binghamton University-SUNY | Tenure-track position, University of Mississippi; Visiting positions, College of William & Mary, Washington and Lee University, Oberlin College, and Davidson College |
2007 |
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| Name | Dissertation Title | Current Position(s) | Previous Position(s) |
| Jeffrey Becker | The Building Blocks of Empire: Civic Architecture, Central Italy, and the Roman Middle Republic | Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics, Binghamton University-SUNY | Fixed-term instructor and Acting Director of Ancient World Mapping Center, UNC-CH; Visiting positions, College of William & Mary, Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown University, Boston University, and McMaster University |
| Melissa Eaby | Mortuary Variability in Early Iron Age Cretan Burials | Assistant Director of the Azoria Project (Crete) | Research librarian and assistant to the director of the Institute of Aegean Prehistory Study Center for East Crete, 2008-2010 |
2008 |
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| Name | Dissertation Title | Current Position(s) | Previous Position(s) |
| Robert Vander Poppen | Rural Change and Continuity in Etruria: A Study of Village Communities from the 7th Century B.C. to the 1st Century A.D. | Vice President, Faculty of the College of Liberal Arts, Associate Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology, Archaeology and Classics Program coordinator, Rollins College | Visiting position at Rollins College |
2009 |
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| Name | Dissertation Title | Current Position(s) | Previous Position(s) |
| David Carlisle | KAI ONAP KAI Y∏AP: Dreaming in the Ancient Novel | Lecturer, University of Arizona | Visiting positions, Cornell College, Washington and Lee University, and Howard University |
| John Henkel | Writing Poems on Trees: Genre and Metapoetics in Vergil’s Eclogues and Georgics | Associate Professor of Classics and General Studies, tenure-track, Classics Program coordinator, Georgetown College | Assistant professor, the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome |
| Arum Park | Truth, Falsehood, and Reciprocity in Pindar and Aeschylus | Assistant Professor of Classics, tenure-track, School of International Letters and Cultures, University of Arizona | Fellowship, Amherst College; Visiting positions, Brigham Young University, University of Oklahoma, and Washington & Lee University |
2010 |
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| Name | Dissertation Title | Current Position(s) | Previous Position(s) |
| Erika Zimmerman Damer | The Female Body in Latin Love Poetry | Associate Professor of Classics and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University of Richmond | |
| Mark Mash | Humor and Ethnography in Herodotus' Histories | Latin teacher, Leesville Road High School, Raleigh, NC, winner of Lessville Road High School Teacher of the Year Award, 2016 and school webmaster. | |
| Christopher Polt | Catullus and Roman Dramatic Literature | Associate Professor, Department of Classical Studies, Boston College | Visiting position, Carleton College; tenure-track position, University of South Florida |
| C. Sydnor Roy | Political Relativism: Implicit Political Theory in Herodotus' Histories | Assistant Professor, Texas Tech University | Visiting assistant professor, Haverford College |
2011-2020
2011 |
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| Name | Dissertation Title | Current Position(s) | Previous Position(s) |
| Elizabeth M. Greene | Women and Families in the Auxiliary Military Communities of the Roman West in the First and Second Centuries A.D. | Associate Professor, Department of Classical Studies, University of Western Ontario | |
| Derek Smith Keyser | Horror in Euripides' Hecuba and Heracles | Instructor, UNC-Greensboro | Instructor positions, Elon University and UNC-Chapel Hill |
| Daniel Moore | Earthen Architecture and Technological Change at Poggio Civitate | Assistant Professor, tenure-track, Department of Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, Indiana State University | Visiting positions, Northern Arizona University, Carleton College, and Southern Illinois University |
2012 |
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| Name | Dissertation Title | Current Position(s) | Previous Position(s) |
| T.H.M.Gellar-Goad | Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura and Satire | Associate Professor, Department of Classical Languages, Wake Forest University | |
| David Wiltshire | 'Hopeful Joy’: A Study of Laetus in Vergil’s Aeneid | Financial Team Counselor, Duke University Staff | Specialist for DukeReach and Parent and Family Programs, Duke University; Masters in Divinity, Princeton Theological Seminary |
| Elizabeth Wolfram Thill | Cultural Constructions: Depictions of Architecture in Roman State Reliefs | Assistant Professor, tenure-track, Department of World Languages and Cultures; Director, program in Classical Studies, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis | |
2013 |
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| Name | Dissertation Title | Current Position(s) | Previous Position(s) |
| Elizabeth C. Robinson | The Impact of Roman Expansion in Central-Southern Italy: The Case of Larinum | Associate Professor of Classics - Art & Architecture, and Assistant Dean for Academics, Due Santi Rome Campus of the University of Dallas | Tenure-track position, SUNY-Binghamton; Assistant professor position, the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies, Rome |
2014 |
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| Name | Dissertation Title | Current Position(s) | Previous Position(s) |
| Serena S. Witzke | Reading Greek and Roman New Comedy through Oscar Wilde's Society Plays | Visiting position, Wesleyan University | Visiting positions, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Wake Forest University, and Ohio Wesleyan University |
2015 |
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| Name | Dissertation Title | Current Position(s) | Previous Position(s) |
| John E. Esposito | Hetaireia in Homer | Lecturer, UNC Chapel Hill | Lecturer, UNC Greensboro; Worked in Information Technology, including as Digital Consultant for Sunoiksis, Center for Hellenic Studies |
| Rebecca Worsham | Discontinuous Houses, Settlement Structures, and Social Organization in Late Early Helladic and Middle Helladic Greece | Assistant Professor in Classical Languages & Literatures, Smith College | |
2016 |
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| Name | Dissertation Title | Current Position(s) | Previous Position(s) |
| Rex Crews | The Handbooks De Officio Proconsulis: Authorship and Audience | Instructor of Classical Studies, Duke University | |
| Hans J. Hansen | Pindar’s Isthmian 6: A Commentary and Literary Study | Visiting Assistant Professor, Wesleyan University | Adjunct teaching, Elon University; Visiting Assistant Professor, Amherst College |
| Robyn Le Blanc | The Public Sacred Identity of Roman Ascalon | Assistant Professor, UNC Greensboro | Adjunct teaching, UNC Greensboro |
| Erika L. Weiberg | The Trauma at Home: Wives of Returning Veterans in Greek Tragedy | Assistant Professor, Duke University | Assistant Professor, tenure-track, Florida State University |
| Zackary P. Rider | Caelum Ascendit Ratio: The Divinizing Role of Knowledge in Didactic Poetry from Hesiod to Manilius | Instructor of Latin, University of South Carolina | Adjunct teaching position, Juniata College |
| Katherine De Boer | Death and the Female Body in Homer, Vergil, and Ovid | Teaching Professor, Classics, Xavier University | Visiting Assistant professor, Indiana University |
2017 |
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| Name | Dissertation Title | Current Position(s) | Previous Position(s) |
| Daniel Schindler | Late Roman and Byzantine Galilee: A Provincial Case Study from the Perspective of the Imported and Common Pottery | Instructor, Department of Classical & Modern Languages & Literatures, Texas Tech University | Adjunct Instructor, Elon University |
| Tedd Wimperis | Cultural Memory and Constructed Ethnicity in Vergil's Aeneid | Assistant Professor, Elon University | Adjunct teaching, Elon University |
| Jessica Lauren Wise | Gender, Rhetoric, Authority: Ovid's Fasti and Augustan Thought on Women | Visiting lecturer, Wellesley College | Visiting assistant, professor position, Colorado College |
2018 |
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| Name | Dissertation Title | Current Position(s) | Previous Position(s) |
| Catharine Elizabeth Judson | Protogeometric and Geometric Crete | 2-year Marie Curie Fellowship at the Centre de Recherches en Archéologie et Patrimoine, Université libre de Bruxelles | Visiting Assistant Professor of Art History, Stockton University |
2019 |
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| Name | Dissertation Title | Current Position(s) | Previous Position(s) |
| Emma Nicole Buckingham | Identity and Material Culture in the Interplay of Locals and Greek Settlers in Sicily in the Early Archaeic Period | Visiting Assistant Professor of Classical Archaeology, University of Missouri | |
| Cicek Tascioglu Beeby | Spatial Narratives of Mortuary Landscapes in Early Iron Age Greece | Joukowsky post-doc, Brown; Visiting Research Scholar, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at NYU | |
| Keith Penich | Vision and Narrative in Apollonius' Argonautica | Visiting lecturer, UNC Chapel Hill | |
2020 |
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| Name | Dissertation Title | Current Position(s) | Previous Position(s) |
| Brian McPhee | Blessed Heroes: Apollonius' Argonautica and the Homeric Hymns | Visiting Assistant Professor, Classical Studies, Indiana University | |
| Matthew Schueller | Public Entertainment Venues as Urban Network Actors in Roman Macedonia and Thrace | Adjunct position in Classical Studies, William and Mary 2021-22 | |
2021
2021 |
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| Name | Dissertation Title | Current Position(s) | Previous Position(s) |
| Nathan Smolin | Christ the Emperor: Roman Emperor and Christian Theology in the 4th Century AD | Teaching Assistant Professor of Classics and Director of the Elementary Latin Program, UNC Chapel Hill | |
| Hannah Sorscher | Unconventional Families in Roman Comedy | Teaching at Tübingen, Germany | |
| Emma Warhover | Humor in the Historical Works of Tacitus | Cultural Program Coordinator, Classics Department, Colorado College | |
High School Teaching
We do not accept students seeking a terminal M.A., but some leave after completing a master’s degree. Many of those students move on to teach high school. Some doctoral students who are in the process of writing their dissertations also teach high school, pursuing this either as a temporary position, or as a career. We include a list of such students below. Students interested in earning a Master of Arts in Teaching with an emphasis in Latin may do so through UNC’s School of Education.
| Richard Davis Jr., M.A. 2001 | Head of Classical and Modern Languages Department, instructor in Classics, The Hotchkiss School |
| Jonathan Clark, Ph.D. 2003 | Taught at Christ Lutheran High School, Davenport, Iowa |
| Chris Cudabac, M.A. 2004 | Latin teacher, Myers Park High School; after teaching Charlotte (N.C.) Latin High School and high school in Raleigh, N.C. |
| Matt Henstridge, M.A. 2003 | Walnut Hills High School, Cincinnati, Ohio |
| Jennifer Gray Palmore Hoffman, M.A. 2002 | Latin teacher, East Chapel Hill High School |
| Amanda Mathis, A.B.D. 2008 | Hill Country Christian School of Austin (Texas); also taught at Baylor University, 2008-2010 |
| Sean Mathis, passed master’s exams in 2006 | Head of Latin department at Hill Country Christian School of Austin (Texas), after teaching high school in Raleigh, N.C. |
| Mark Mash, Ph.D. 2010 | Leesville Road High School, Raleigh, N.C. |
| Carrie Mash, A.B.D. 2005 | Leesville Road High School, Raleigh, N.C. |
| Mary Draper, A.B.D. 2004 | St. Thomas More Academy, Raleigh, N.C. 2004-2012 (currently completing her dissertation) |
| Andrew Spencer, M.A. 2009 | Providence High School, Charlotte, N.C. |
| Derick Alexandre, A.B.D. 2010 | Hill (High) School, Pottstown Pa.; also taught at St. Anselm’s College |
| Cameron Paterson, M.A. 2008 | Stratford Academy, Macon Ga. |
| Sarah Landis, M.A. 2009 | Mt. Carmel Academy, New Orleans La. |
| Jetta Peterkin, M.A. 2010 | Blair Middle School and Ruffner Academy, Norfolk Va. |
| Patrick Dombrowski, A.B.D. 2015 | Enloe High School, Raleigh, N.C. |
| Pablo Molina, 2016, Ph.D. | Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts, Natchitoches, Louisiana |
| Elizabeth Artemis Clark, 2017, Ph.D. | Lakewood Montessori Middle School, Durham, NC |
| Will Begley, 2018, Ph.D. | Thales Academy, Rolesville, NC |
| John Benjamin Beeby, 2019, Ph.D. | Thales Academy |
| Andrew Ficklin, 2021, Ph.D. | Trinity School of Chapel Hill and Durham, N.C. |
| Kelly McArdle, 2021, Ph.D. | Excelsior Classical Academy, Durham, N.C. |