Alumni

People who have studied Latin, Greek, Classical Studies and Classical Archaeology at the University of Washington have gone on to work in fields including education, law, journalism, business and entrepreneurship, and the sciences.  UW Classics Ph.D.s are teaching at institutions across the U.S. and Canada. 

We enjoy hearing what our former students are up to!  Fill out the alumni update form to send us your news.

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Recent Alumni News

Thielke

Alumnx Profile: Stephen Thielke (MA ’95)

by James J. Clauss Stephen Thielke grew up in Shoreline and graduated from Reed College in Portland in Classics in 1992.  He had taken summer classes at the UW, including intensive Greek in 1990.  After Reed, he received the Lionel Pearson Fellowship from the APA, and studied as a visiting scholar at King’s College, Cambridge.  In 1993, he joined the graduate program and recalls with great fondness classmates Alex Bram and Chris Chinn (both Reedies), Owen Ewald, Brady Mechley,… Read more
Geoff Sumi

Alumnx profile: Geoffrey Sumi (BA ’86)

Geoffrey Sumi graduated from UW with a degree in Classics (with College Honors) in 1986. Prof. Bliquez's Honors seminar in Classics shifted Geoff's focus from Engineering, his intended major, to Classics and things snowballed from there. He recalls (fondly) studying Plautus and Terence with Prof. Dunn; Livy and Tacitus with Prof. Clauss; the Greek tragedians with Prof. Halleran; Lucretius with Prof. Blondell; Horace, Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid with Prof. Harmon; Herodotus and Aristotle with… Read more
Tom and Joyce Morgan

Reflections on Thomas Morgan, MD, MA in Classics ‘89

A great friend of the UW Department of Classics, Thomas Morgan, MD, MA in Classics (’89), passed away on December 9, 2024. Here is his obituary in the Seattle Times, and below are a few UW Classics faculty members’ reflections on Tom. Larry Bliquez: In the fall of 1978, I was informed by Dan Harmon, who was chair then, that Thomas Morgan, a retired doctor, had enrolled in my Elementary… Read more
Joel Kalvesmaki

Alumnx profile: Joel Kalvesmaki (BA '99)

by James J. Clauss Joel Kalvesmaki, after graduating from UW with a major in Classics in 1999, went to Washington, DC and received his MA and PhD at Catholic University of America in 2006. Thereafter he served as editor of Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks until he left in 2019 to pursue a second career as a programmer with the Government Publishing Office. He is currently editor for the Journal of the Text Encoding Initiative, the series editor for … Read more
mark nugent

Mark Nugent (PhD '10) Receives SCS Excellence in Teaching Award!

Mark Nugent (UW Classics PhD '10), Associate Teaching Professor at the University of Victoria, is the recipient of a 2024 Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Classics at the College Level from the Society for Classical Studies. Congratulations, Mark!  Read a description of his teaching excellence.
philly skyline

UW at SCS/AIA 2025!

As always, UW will be very well represented at the annual conference of the Society for Classical Studies/Archaeological Institute of America, to be held in Philadelphia in January 2025. See below for talks and panels by UW graduate students, faculty, and alumnx! Friday Jan 3, 2025 First Paper Session (8:00am–10:30am) SCS-7: HYBRID: Greek Law and Oratory Sarah Brucia Breitenfeld, University of Pittsburgh (UW PhD ’22), “Fugitivity and Space in Apollodorus’s A… Read more
Cathy Callaway

Alumnx profile: Cathy Callaway (PhD '90)

by James J. Clauss Dr. Cathy Callaway (BA University of Wisconsin 1978, MA University of Missouri 1982, PhD University of Washington, The Oath in Epic Poetry, 1990) recently retired from her position as Museum Educator at the Museum of Art and Archaeology at the University of Missouri-Columbia, which she held from 2006-2022; she had been editor of the Museum’s journal Muse since 2018. In addition to her recent publications “Reverse Ekphrasis: The Visual Poetics… Read more
cover of melissa funke's book

Melissa Funke (PhD '13) publishes Phryne: A Life in Fragments

Congratulations to Melissa Funke (UW Classics PhD '13), whose first book, Phryne: A Life in Fragments (Bloomsbury 2024), was just published! Melissa is currently an Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of Winnipeg. Here is a description of the book: "How did Mnesarete, a girl from Boeotia, turn into Phryne the famous beauty, and… Read more
chiara

Alumnx profile: Chiara Sulprizio (BA '99)

by James J. Clauss Chiara Sulprizio, BA Classics UW 1999, received her PhD also in Classics at the University of Southern California in 2007, with a Graduate Certificate in Gender Studies. After teaching at Loyola Marymount University, Hamilton College and the University of Southern California, she is now Senior Lecturer in the Program in Classical and Mediterranean Studies at Vanderbilt University. In 2020 she published Gender and Sexuality in Juvenal’s Rome: Satire 2 and Satire 6… Read more
chicago

UW at the 2024 SCS/AIA!

As always, UW will be well represented at the 2024 annual conference of the Society for Classical Studies/Archaeological Institute of America, which will be held in Chicago. See below for talks and panels by UW graduate students, faculty, and alumnx!  All times are CST. … Read more
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