2024 Senior Sendoff

Above: Photo of Cohen Hall, home to the Penn Classical Studies Department

2024 Senior Sendoff

By Riley Glickman

Introduction

And just like that, the 2024 school year comes to an end. We thought it would be nice to talk with our seniors and get their takeaways on Classical Studies and Ancient History here at Penn. Congrats on graduating, and let’s dive right in!

Who are our seniors??

Doulin Appleberry

Hometown: Elkins Park, PA

Major: Classical Studies (Languages) and Economics

Favorite Classics Class you have taken at Penn? Why?

Either Odyssey and Its Afterlife or Classical Studies in Philadelphia Schools. I loved the way both courses connected the past to the present and future. All of my Classics classes have been super enjoyable and insightful, though.

Favorite Classics-related memory at Penn:

It was cool to have something I wrote published in Discentes. It was rewarding to revisit a piece I had written during my freshman year a couple years later and work to improve it.

Final reflections about your time at Penn’s classical department?

Getting a Classics major in addition to my Economics major was one of the best decisions I’ve made at Penn. I would have felt like my education was incomplete without the balance between the two. I really enjoyed the smaller class sizes in my Classics courses, and I felt like I got an insight into the way professors viewed the field of Classics. It was really cool to try to understand how my professors and fellow students think about the world and Classics’ place in modern times.

Ryan Burns

Hometown: Cincinnati, OH

Major: Classical Studies (Civilizations) and Neuroscience

Postgrad plans: I’m working in a neuroscience lab at Penn for about 2 years then going to get my PhD!

If you could be any emperor, which one would you be?

I could be Claudius because conquering the Britons would be awesome.

Favorite Classics Class you have taken at Penn? Why?

I loved Latin language composition during my freshman year with Cynthia Damon. She was a great teacher, and everyone in that class was really good at Latin so it forced me to get better.

Which ancient author would most likely be TikTok famous?

Homer because he was blind and wrote, so people would have been fascinated.

Favorite Classics Fun Fact:

Caligula threatened to make his horse a senator.

Final reflections about your time at Penn’s classical department?

I found that all my best teachers were from Classical Studies because they really cared about the students. It was by far the best department I worked with at Penn.

Lauren Davis

Hometown: Los Angeles, CA

Major: Classical Studies (Civilizations); Minor in Archaeological Science

Postgrad Plans: After graduation, I will be pursuing a Master’s degree in Conservation. I would love to learn painting/drawing or book conservation in particular, but I know that whichever path of artifact conservation I end up on, I’m sure to have a lot of fun!

Favorite Classics Class you have taken at Penn? Why?

There have been so many I’ve really enjoyed, but one of my favorites was Classicism in the Black Atlantic. It looked at Classics in a way that some curricula tend not to address quite as much — how Classics has been applied in modern academic spheres over time. I found it really fascinating to see how often Classics could be used to support both sides of philosophical and political oppositions, particularly in the context of African and African-American civil rights in the United States.

Favorite Classics-related memory at Penn:

My favorite Classics memory was my first time seeing Hadestown during a program community event in Harnwell. Of course, I was already familiar with the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice (and Hades and Persephone), but even I was brought to tears by its ending! I’ve seen it twice more since then, and it is certainly a staple on my playlists!

Which ancient author would most likely be TikTok famous?

I think Euripides would become TikTok famous — for better or worse. Given his reputation as either a misogynist or feminist icon, there could be a lot of discourse about him and his works based on how people choose to interpret them.

Favorite Classics Fun Fact:

One primary set of writing instruments used during the development of the Ancient Greek language were a reed stylus and folding wax tablet. This likely contributed to the angularity of the letters since it was much more difficult to incise curved shapes into the hardened wax.

Final reflections about your time at Penn’s classical department?

Being in the Classics program and being able to learn things like Ancient Greek provided such amazing experiences that I frankly never thought I could actually have. Although my K-12 classes never taught it (much to my dismay), I have always been in love with the world of Ancient Greece, having grown up devouring every Percy Jackson book that was released. Because of this, I knew immediately that Classics would be my major. Although my first year was online, I was excited to finally take classes in the subject that had always fascinated me. After my four years here, I have taken courses on such a wide range of Ancient Mediterranean topics, for all of which I am incredibly grateful. Being in Classics has also been an amazing opportunity to explore my other interests (which I turned into minors), and it unexpectedly led me to pursue a minor in Archaeological Science, which was one of the best decisions I’ve made during my time here.

Lauren Kim

Hometown: Sacramento, CA

Major: Classical Studies (Civilizations) and Linguistics; Minor in French and Francophone Studies

Senior Research Paper: It’s a reception project on K-Pop performance and how it illuminates understandings of divine rage and joy in the Bacchae. I received a Rose Award for it. (To be presented at the American Classical League Institute Conference this June!)

Postgrad Plans: I am taking a gap year to apply to law school.

If you could be any emperor, which one would you be?

Trajan seemed to have a fairly quiet career for a Roman emperor. Plus he’s the first non-Italian emperor, and I’m interested in questions of belonging and foreignness in my research.

Favorite Classics Class you have taken at Penn? Why?

I really enjoyed Professor Kate Meng Brassel’s Race and Ethnicity course. It was one of the first classes I took, and it really opened my eyes to how we can approach “modern” topics like race in our study of antiquity.

Favorite Classics-related memory at Penn:

I’ve loved getting to know my classmates. It’s always so interesting to me that we all ended up with vastly different research interests and concentrations, despite taking overlapping course loads.

Which ancient author would most likely be TikTok famous?

Cicero. I think he’s got the work ethic to commit to content creation, and he would love having an audience of followers.

Final reflections about your time at Penn’s classical department?

I’ve come to love Classics because of how it can be flexibly applied to so many topics, sub-fields, and methodological approaches. Although I may not study Classics in a formal academic setting again, it’s an experience I’ll carry with me into my future professional endeavors.

Hanzhao Kuang

Hometown: Guangzhou, China

Major: Classical Studies (Civilizations), Philosophy, Psychology, Psychoanalytical Studies

Research Paper: Lucretius and his Epicurean Background: Poet or Philosopher

Postgrad plans: Figuring out what to do with life

If you could be any emperor, which one would you be?

Caligula. I would actually like to see what would happen if Caligula were a good emperor.

Favorite Classics Class you have taken at Penn? Why?

Topography and Monuments of Ancient Rome. This class is so interesting and multidimensional. It also has a museum component. Great class.

Favorite Classics-related memory at Penn:

Writing SRP with Professor Ker. Shout out to Professor Ker who has helped me since my freshman year.

Which ancient author would most likely be TikTok famous?

I think Ovid might be. He is quite creative and produced a lot of works.

Final reflections about your time at Penn’s classical department?

I really cherish my time at Penn with the Classical Studies Program. Although I have spent a lot of time in other majors, Classics is always special to me. I have thought about a world where I only take Classics, but I have not thought about a world where I don’t take Classics. I always felt that I didn’t spend enough time in Classics, which is partly why I decided to do the SRP. I was really glad to speak about my research in front of my fellow seniors and professors. It has been a great four years.

Olivia Lee

Hometown: Chesterton, IN

Major: Classical Studies (Civilizations) and English; Minor in Digital Humanities

Postgrad Plans: Getting a Masters at NYU Tisch in Interactive Telecommunications

If you could be any emperor, which one would you be?

Well, I just took a BuzzFeed quiz to see. Apparently, I’m Augustus because I’m good at navigating complex situations 😀

Favorite Classics Class you have taken at Penn? Why?

Greek and Roman Magic. I just found the topic really interesting, and it led me to take other related classes, like Jewish Magic.

Favorite Classics-related memory at Penn:

Ancient Greek at the same time while Wes Hanson was teaching. He was probably the best / most inspiring language teacher I had while at Penn.

Favorite Classics Fun Fact:

“Cicero” is derived from the Latin for chickpea.

Final reflections about your time at Penn’s classical department?

Penn Classics gave me a lot of strong friendships as well as opened me up to Digital Humanities and Digital Archaeology. These are the fields that I plan to continue working in, and I hope to incorporate Classics as much as possible. After four years, I see the world from an interdisciplinary perspective, and it’ll serve me well in the future.

Noah Lewine

Hometown: Brooklyn, NY

Major: Ancient History and English

Postgrad Plans: I’m headed to NYC to be a paralegal before maybe going to law school. Still not totally sure!

If you could be any emperor, which one would you be?

Augustus, for sure. Success, long reign, died in bed in his 70s. Not bad for an emperor.

Favorite Classics Class you have taken at Penn? Why?

Private Life in Ancient Rome with Professor Bowes in the fall of 2019. It was the class that started it all for me. It got me into the major and prompted me to go to Italy for a summer for an archaeology field school. I just loved the concept of the class, and I loved the freshman seminar.

Which ancient author would most likely be TikTok famous?

Caelius Apicius set the stage for those influencers who do videos like “what I cook as a private chef for a billionaire in the Hamptons.”

Favorite Classics Fun Fact:

The Panathenaea would have involved the slaughter of about 60 cattle. That’s maybe 12000 kilos, or 26500 pounds of meat, slaughtered in one day, in open air, in the middle of the summer. That’s pretty crazy to me to imagine.

Ashley O’Neill

Hometown: Manhasset, NY

Major: Classical Studies (Languages) and Finance (Wharton)

Postgrad Plans: After a Classics-themed postgrad “odyssey” in Greece and Rome, I will be moving to Charlotte, NC to work for Wells Fargo in Finance!

If you could be any emperor, which one would you be?

Nero. If you’re going to be an emperor, you might as well be a crazy one!

Favorite Classics Class you have taken at Penn? Why?

Ancient Greece! Professor McInerney taught it so well, and I loved every single lecture!

Favorite Classics-related memory at Penn:

Moderating at Penn Certamen (and helping to organize the event!)

Which ancient author would most likely be TikTok famous?

Catullus. He’s delusional, and I feel Gen Z would relate.

Final reflections about your time at Penn’s classical department?

Penn’s Classical Studies program has been so rewarding. I am so grateful for this tight-knit community, and I look forward to giving back in the years to come.

Erin Schott (our fearless leader here at Discentes)

Hometown: Philadelphia, PA

Major: Classical Studies (Civilizations) and English

Postgrad plans: I am attending the University of Chicago for law school.

If you could be any emperor, which one would you be?

I would pick Marcus Aurelius so that I could take a more Stoic approach to life (hopefully stress less) and adopt a successor rather than have my chaotic son take over.

Favorite Classics-related memory at Penn:

Last semester, I enjoyed the roundtable discussion with Professors McInerney, Murnaghan, and Rose. It was great to discuss contemporary issues of the discipline, and I appreciated how the event was a dialog between students and faculty.

Which ancient author would most likely be TikTok famous?

Vergil gets my vote. His pastoral poetry could definitely become popular with Cottagecore TikTok.

Favorite Classics Fun Fact:

At its peak in the 19th century, the Colosseum was home to over 400 species of plants, and it still has over 200.

Final reflections about your time at Penn’s classical department?

What a wonderful community of students and professors. I’ve loved my time at the Penn Museum, having Insomnia cookies at Faculteas, and learning about the ancient world alongside people who share my fascination for it.