Marc Chapuis is a PhD student in History of the Exact Sciences in Antiquity. After learning Latin and Ancient Greek while writing his PhD in mathematics at the University Paris VI (defended in 2017), he got degrees in Indian Studies at Paris III (where he learned Sanskrit and Prakrit) and in Chinese Studies at the INALCO. His interests include ancient astronomy and mathematics, religious studies, and social history throughout the pre-modern world with a particular focus on Tang Dynasty China.

May is a PhD student in Egyptology. She earned her MPhil in Egyptian Archaeology from the University of Cambridge and BA (Hons.) in Art History from Roanoke College, VA. She has been working as a ceramicist in Kom el-Hisn Provincialism Project and Abydos North Project in Egypt. May has also excavated in Egypt, Romania, Cambodia and Myanmar. Her research interests include the formation of the ancient Egyptian civilization, the livelihood of non elite ancient Egyptians, kingship, and the relationship between religion and politics. In addition, May is interested in exploring various digital technologies that can enhance the archaeological process. 

Jerrica is a PhD student in Assyriology. She earned her BA in History and Archaeology from Western Washington University and MA in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Chicago. Her research interests include Akkadian and Hittite narrative literature, the transmission and reception of literature from Mesopotamia into Anatolia, and studies on historical consciousness. Additionally, Jerrica is interested in translation studies and how translation work may impact the modern reception of ancient texts.

Johanna Garzon is a Ph.D. student in History of the Exact Sciences in Antiquity. Johanna pursued studies in both Astronomy and Literature at the National University of La Plata and graduated in 2021 with a thesis on mythology in Aratus' Phenomena which led to a number of publications. As she was pursuing her studies, Johanna was involved in numerous projects linked to her interests in the intersection of Science, Language, History, and Culture through which she could serve her broader communities. Johanna participated in Anthropological work in the Gran Chaco, trained instructors in the vulgarization of astronomy, and served as a member of the Department of Hellenistic Studies in La Plata. Now at Brown, Johanna plans to pursue work engaging her interests in the development of astronomy during the early Hellenistic period.

Margaret is a PhD student in Egyptology. She earned her BA in Art History and Classics from Emory University. During her studies, she also had the opportunity to excavate at Samothrace, GR. Margaret is primarily interested in how historiographical examination of 19th and 20th century Egyptological scholarship can inform our understandings of material culture, both in an archaeological context and also in the museum.  

Adrianna is a PhD student in Egyptology. She earned her MA in Middle Eastern Studies with a concentration in Egyptology from the University of Chicago in 2023. She also obtained her BA from UChicago in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and Anthropology in 2022. Adrianna worked as a Museum Educator at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (ISAC) teaching lessons about and leading tours through the ancient world. Adrianna’s research interests include diachronic studies of Egyptian religion and magic using both written and material culture.
 

Carol is a PhD student in Assyriology. She earned a BA in English and English Literature, an MA in Linguistics, and later a BA in History, all from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. Her MA thesis focused on the history and historiography of 19th and early 20th century Linguistics. For her final thesis for the BA in History she wrote about the royal discourse on literacy in 7th century BCE Assyria, particularly in Ashurbanipal’s reign. In her hometown, she helped found a teaching and research non-profit organization dedicated to the Humanities where she also worked as a language teacher and translator. Some of her research interests are literacy, knowledge production and exchange, scholarly communities, and the social roles of writing, particularly in first millennium Mesopotamia, but also in contemporary times.

Jonathan is a 5th year PhD student in Assyriology. He is a 2019 graduate of Grove City College, where he majored in History and had the opportunity to participate in archeological conservation projects in Sardinia and central Italy. His chief area of interest is first millennium BC Mesopotamia, particularly the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires. He is currently writing his dissertation on historical memory and the uses of the past in the Neo-Assyrian Empire, but he is also interested in the relationship between Mesopotamian scholarly communities and imperial administration, wisdom literature, ancient warfare, interconnections between Mesopotamia and the Biblical and classical worlds, and the later reception of Mesopotamia by historians, theologians, and travelers in Europe and the Middle East. 

Rafa is a Ph.D. candidate in Egyptology. He holds an M.A. degree in Egyptology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and an M.Sc. degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Navarra. His M.A. thesis focused on how the Demotic tales of Setne Khaemwaset reflect the Egyptians’ perception of their own relationship with the divine world. His research interests center on how the cultural contacts between Egypt and other ancient Near Eastern civilizations during the second half of the first century BCE transcended into the ideological and literary spheres.

Rafa’s dissertation will analyze a Demotic historiographic text —the so-called "Demotic Chronicle"— and investigate its modes and methods of constructing an image of the past. On a second step, the literary characteristics and compositional strategies of this text will be compared to exemplary historiographic-narrative and apocalyptic works in the Hebrew Bible from the Second Temple period (such as the work of the Chronicler and the Book of Daniel). Rafa’s work is part of the ERC-funded project: From Texts to Literature: Demotic Egyptian Papyri and the Formation of the Hebrew Bible (DEMBIB), hosted at the Humboldt University of Berlin.

Eleanor is a PhD student in Egyptology. She completed a Master of Research in Ancient History at Macquarie University, where she also earned her Bachelor of Ancient History, specialising in Egypt and the Near East. Her master’s thesis focused on the role of hieroglyphic Egyptian classifiers in constructing and communicating the status and identity of royal women in the Old Kingdom. Eleanor is particularly interested in how anthropological and queer theory can be applied to the study of gender, kingship and iconography in ancient Egypt. 

Tzu-Jang is a PhD student in Assyriology. He earned his BA and MA in History from National Taiwan University and an additional MA in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Chicago. His theses explored the chronology of the Late Shang/Early Zhou period in Early China and the calendar irregularities of the Neo-Babylonian kingdom. His research interests include astrology, astronomy, chronology, calendrics, mathematics, and technical texts, with a particular focus on the entanglement of these disciplines with ideological concerns and political realities in the ancient world. In his leisure time, he enjoys drinking tea and admiring illuminated manuscripts.