Selected Undergraduate Research Outcomes in the Department of Classics, 2007-2021

Classics students have the opportunity to work closely with members of the faculty on self-directed research projects. The department has an excellent record of producing outcomes and earning recognition for these efforts.

High quality work of this sort enables students to stand out and to demonstrate success in seeking employment and post-graduate study. GVSU Classics graduates go on to pursue a strikingly wide range of opportunities.

 

2021

Kaitlyn Siersema

• Visual resources and relational database, Department of Classics Visual Resources Collection

 

M.E. McPhee

• Student Scholars Day panel presentation: "The Foundations of It All: General Education from 1963-1987"

 

Jacob Petrosky

• Student Scholars Day panel presentation: "ΠΟΛΥΓΛΩΣΣΟΣ: On Language Education at GVSU from Founding to Present"

Joanna Stairs

• Student Scholars Day panel presentation: "Student Services Throughout the Years: 1963 - Present"

Griffin Wilson

• Student Scholars Day panel presentation: "Why We Do It: Values and Goals of GVSU In the 60’s Through 80’s"

 

2019

Meghan O'Neill

• Student Scholars Day oral presentation: "Forster at the Symposium: The Reception of Platonic Philosophy and Classical Sexual Schemata in E.M. Forster's Maurice."

Abi Avery

• Student Scholars Day panel presentation: "Classical Myth Reception: Queering Sophocles."

Amanda Gasior

• Student Scholars Day panel presentation: "Classical Myth Reception: Pygmalion Murder Mystery."

Emily Heyburn

• Student Scholars Day panel presentation: "Classical Myth Reception: The Power of Persephone."

 

2018

Justine Cucchi

• Student Scholars Day oral presentation: "Developing Visual Literacy Skills in Classics."

Audrey Fox

• Student Scholars Day poster presentation: "The Blessings of Liberty? Freedom in Contemporary Political Discourse."

Emily Heyburn

• Student Scholars Day poster presentation: "The Art of Translation: Not Just Words on a Page."

Megan Kruskie

• Student Scholars Day oral presentation: "Understanding Late Antique and Early Islamic Spain: Roman, Visigothic, and Moorish Influences on the Iberian Peninsula."

Sydney Strablow

• Student Scholars Day poster presentation: "Woman v Woman: Gendered Rhetoric and Exemplary Discourse in Roman History."

 

2017

Megan Kruskie, Clayton Latham, and Tabitha Sherk

• Student Scholars Day group oral presentation: "From Ancient Honey to Modern Medicine."

 

2016

Abigail DeHart

• Peer-reviewed publication: "Sappho in Hindi," in Translation Review 94: 42-51.

 

2015

Abigail DeHart

• Refereed conference paper: "Ideas of Education and Common Sense: Hutcheson and the Stoics," delivered at Princeton Theological Seminary’s Scottish Philosophers Annual Spring Conference. Proposal awarded the George Elder Davie Prize.

 

2014

Megan Esparsa

• Student Scholarship Day Presentation: "Cena Vettiorum: Negotiating Social Mobility in the Early Roman Empire."

Aurora Hennigar

• Assisted Prof. Melissa Morison (GVSU) with research in Corinth, Greece.

Michelle Lenartz

• Honors Senior Project and Student Scholarship Day Presentation: "Enhancing Site/Visitor Interaction at Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli, Italy."
• Assisted Prof. Melissa Morison (GVSU) with research in Corinth, Greece.

Allie Pohler

• GVSU Honors First-Year Paper Competition: “Recontextualizing the Roman Identity in Livy’s History of Rome, Book 1.” Third place award.

Mark ten Haaf

• Refereed conference paper: “Aristotle and the Polis in Menander’s Dyskolos,” delivered at the 94th anniversary meeting of the Southern Section of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South (CAMWS-SS) at Mary Washington University in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

 

2013

Joshua Arnold

• Student Scholarship Day Presentation: “Orators and Empire: Aper’s First Speech in Tacitus’ Dialogus De Oratoribus.”

Abigail DeHart

• Student Scholarship Day Presentation: "A Long Journey Home."

Megan Esparsa

• Student Scholarship Day Presentation: “A Career Guide for Prospective Gladiators.”
• Excavated at Villa Vergigno, Italy. Supported by Excavation/Field School Award, Classical Association of the Middle West and South (CAMWS).

Kendall Farkas

• Excavated at Villa Vergigno, Italy. Supported by Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship.

Melissa Houghton

• Directed Reading in Roman Architecture: Urban Planning in Roman-era Corinth.
• Member of the 2013 Summer Session of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens.

Erin Koren

• GVSU Honors First-Year Paper Competition: “Overcoming Conflict in Homer’s Iliad.” Second place award.

Steven Krepp

• Internship: “AP students in a differentiated learning environment,” East Kentwood High School.

Katie Liebig

• Honors Senior Project: "Annotated Bibliography of Classical Mythology for Children."

Melissa Ludke

• Excavated at Poggio Civitate, Italy.

Nick Macksood

• Student Scholarship Day Presentation: “Aurelius and McLuhan: A Study in Ancient and Modern Communication Theories.”
• Honors Senior Project: "Wanderlost." Travelogue/creative writing.

Riley O'Brien

• Honors Senior Thesis: "Re-Imagining the Art in the Honors College."
• Excavated at Poggio Civitate, Italy.

Katie Oyama

• Honors Senior Project and Student Scholarship Day Presentation: “Seneca’s De Otio and Student Engagement.”

Chehallis Robinson

• Excavated at Villa Vergigno, Italy.

 

2012

Megan Esparsa

• Grand Rapids Honors Student Research Conference: “Divine Inspiration as a Tactic of Resistance Against the Roman Order: Sicily, Spartacus, and Sertorius.”

Kristen Goodwin

• Honors Senior Project: “Menander’s Dyskolos: A Stage Translation.”

Andrew Lund

• Honors Senior Project: "Prometheus Stories: Promethean Myth and Mythopoeia for Adjudicated Students." 2013 Outstanding Senior Honors Project Award.

• Refereed conference paper: “Power, Présages, and Portrayal: Suetonius’ Representation of Livia,” delivered at the 92nd anniversary meeting of the Southern Section of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South (CAMWS-SS) at Florida State University in Tallahassee.

Amber Strick

• Student Scholarship Day Presentation: "Petrographic Analysis of Iron Age Ceramics from Urartu.”

Lauren Vignali

• Honors Senior Project: "Debating the Role of Women in Ancient Greek Cuisine: Evidence from Art and Literature."

Hillery York

• Student Scholarship Day Presentation: "Exhibiting Holland’s Legacy.”

 

2011

Nick Maki

• Refereed conference paper: “Beyond Pleasure: Plato and the Good,” delivered at the Western Canadian Undergraduate Conference of Philosophy at the University of Victoria, British Columbia.

 

2010 

Mark Beckwith

• Honors Senior Project: “Focus on Forms in the Latin Classroom.” 2010 Honors Senior Project Award for Excellence in Collaborative Research.
• Peer-reviewed publication, with Prof. Peter Anderson: “Forms-Focused Teaching for the Intermediate Latin Student,” in Teaching Classical Languages 2.1 (2010) 31-52.

Melanie Coughlin

• Classical Tradition project: “Ovidian Views on Gender During the Early Roman Empire.”

Jonathan Hatter

• Honors Senior Project: “Every-man’s Orthodoxy: An Exploration of the Poemata Arcana of Gregory of Nazianzus.”

 

2009 

Donna St. Louis

• Honors Senior Project: “Martial and Piron: A Study in Epigram.”

Timothy Flanders

• Honors Senior Project, with Jonathan Hatter, “Doctrina Iacobi Nuper Baptizati: A Translation.”

Jennifer Folkerth

• Refereed conference paper: “Memory’s Catalyst: Nature in Sappho’s Poetry,” delivered at the annual meeting of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South (CAMWS).

Kate Allen

• Honors Senior Project: “Form and Function: A Study of Renaissance Commentaries and the Seidman Library’s Calderinus Incunabulum.” 2009 Outstanding Honors Senior Thesis Award.
• Refereed conference paper: “What's that smell?': Odor in Martial's Epigrammata" delivered at the 88th anniversary meeting of the Southern Section of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South (CAMWS-SS) at the University of North Carolina at Asheville.

Michelle LeMieux

• Honors Senior Project: “Is Aeneas truly pius?”

 

2008

Devin White

• Honors Senior Project: “A Grammatical Commentary on St. John Chrysostom’s Discourse on the Blessed Babylas Against the Gentiles.” 2008 Outstanding Honors Senior Thesis Award. 2007 Student Summer Scholarship (S³).

Jacqueline Binder

• Honors Senior Project (jointly supervised with the Department of History): The influence of the classical tradition on American architecture in the upper Mid-west.

 

2007 

Brittany Hunter

• Honors Senior Project: “Civis Romanus Sum: The Scope and Significance of Citizenship in the Roman Empire. A three-unit study designed for use in upper level high-school Latin classes.”

Aaron Rozeboom

• Honors Senior Project: “The Rhetorical Implications of Clementia in Cicero’s Caesarian Speeches.” 

Renee Mayes

• Honors Senior Project: Curriculum resources on Roman cuisine for teaching classical civilization.