Meet our first years!
The incoming cohort has settled in and was nice enough to share a little bit about themselves with the social media team. Join us in welcoming our newest graduate students to UT!
Michele Mitrovich
Michele comes to us from New York City, where she studied Classical Archaeology and Art History at Hunter College and CUNY. She’s interested in Bronze Age Aegean archaeology, Minoan iconography, and Aegean and Near Eastern interactions, and says that her love of ancient Greek art began when she found some children’s books on mythology during her childhood days in Russia. When she’s not doing archaeology, Michele enjoys doing photography and painting.
Her favorite thing so far this year is the people, “who are the nicest, sweetest, smartest and the most fun!” Aw, thanks Michele! Asked what classical figure she would like to have dinner with, Michele said the Minotaur: “I think he was a tragic hero who was completely misunderstood by his contemporaries. I would have loved to convert him to a wholesome vegan diet and release him from his labyrinth prison.”
Ethan Ganesh Warren
Ethan earned a BA in Classics from the University of Rochester in May before moving down south to Texas, where he’s interested in Elegy, Augustan poetry, and Digital Humanities. Like Michele, Ethan was lured into Classics by a children’s book, namely D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths. He says he’d choose a dinner with Sappho over any other classical figure because she first inspired him to learn Greek and because “there’s so much we don’t know about her!”
Oh, and Ethan is a national champion quidditch player.
Erin Brantmayer
After earning a BA in history in her home state of West Virginia, Erin moved to Boston for her masters in Classical Archaeology at Brandeis University. Michele has company in the Bronze Age — Erin is interested in the eastern Mediterranean in the period, as well as cultural and religious connections between Greece and the Near East and digital archaeology. Like Ethan, Erin would choose Sappho as her Classical dinner date (“I have questions”). A woman of many talents, Erin can weld, bake, and play the bass guitar.
Erin’s grandmother inspired her interest in classics. From the Greek island of Samos, her yia yia taught her Greek history. Erin says she learned about Greek mythology in Sunday school, and then became interested in archaeology through a field school experience.
John Anderson
Hailing from Sydney, Australia, John studies ancient philosophy. But he skips over the ancient philosophers in favor of Aristophanes when it comes to his classical dinner guest of choice, saying, “I hope he could tell me a crude joke or two.” John became interested in classics after starting an undergraduate degree in languages and then narrowing down his four languages of choice to Latin and Greek by his senior year.
Asked how he’s handling the Texas culture shock, John said, “ I have been astounded by the amount of Texas pride and burnt orange. At the same time I somehow seem to be involuntarily collecting Texas paraphernalia (‘Made in Texas’ baseball cap is one) and burnt orange clothing items (and even a burnt orange bicycle).” #hook’em, Johnny.
Katherine Handloser
Originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, Katherine graduated from Louisiana State University in May. An unapologetic Vergil fan, Katherine chooses him as her ideal classics-themed dinner companion, not just because the Aeneid is her favorite work of classical literature, but also because Vergil might “be kind of neat.” Katherine comes by her Latin prowess honest — her dad is a Latin teacher, and over the years, she’s seen her interest in classics grow. When she’s not studying Vergil, tragedy, reception studies, and comparative mythology, Katherine loves to play video games; her favorite game is Hollow Knight and she “will talk about it endlessly if someone lets [her].”
Zafeirios Adramerinas
Zafeirios studied at Aristotle University in his hometown of Thessaloniki, Greece. Originally drawn to classics by his interest in the history and comparative study of Indo-European languages, he also works on archaic and classical Greek literature, focusing on Homer and archaic epic. Zafeirios is ambitious: given the chance, he’d have dinner with Socrates and try to commit their conversation to writing as a dialogue. How’s Zafeirios liking Austin? He finds all the green spaces and parks, “welcoming, pleasant and relaxing.”
A hearty welcome to all our new graduate students!
by Grace Gibson, third year graduate student
