Society for Ancient Studies
The NYU Society for Ancient Studies is a cross-departmental graduate student collaborative seeking to foster an interdisciplinary community of scholars with interests in the ancient world at New York University and the surrounding area. Our members include Ph.D. and M.A. students from Classics, Hebrew & Judaic Studies, ISAW, the IFA, and Comparative Literature.
We organize several events throughout the academic year in service of our mission. We offer a monthly graduate student works-in-progress (WiP) series based on a broad annual theme; host guest lectures by noted scholars, both from NYU and the region, with interdisciplinary interests in the study of antiquity; and sponsor panel discussions featuring conversations between professors and graduate students. In seeking to cultivate a community of young scholars, we endeavor always to provide spaces to promote the ideas and voices of our graduate students.
We welcome anyone interested in ancient studies to join our mailing list and attend our events. If you are interested, email us at NYUniversitySAS@gmail.com, or reach out to us via Facebook or Twitter.
Organizing Committee
Patrick J. Angiolillo (Ph.D. student, Hebrew & Judaic Studies) studies the Dead Sea Scrolls and other Second Temple period Jewish literature, including the Hebrew Bible. He is particularly interested in theoretical investigation of early Jewish religious practice and the “lived experience” of the community associated with the Scrolls corpus.
Joshua Blachorsky (Ph.D student, Hebrew & Judaic Studies) studies questions of religious and cultural interaction between Jews and Christians in late antiquity, particularly as shown through the lens of reception history and Biblical interpretation. His current research focuses on “late” Midrashim and how best to situate these wonderful yet woefully understudied texts in their cultural worlds.
Alexandria Vawter Istok (Ph.D student, Classics) focuses her research on the social and cultural history of the late Classical world, specifically problems of translation and cultural memory at the intersection of Greek, Roman, and early Christian societies.
Del A. Maticic (Ph.D. student, Classics) studies the concept of kosmos in the ancient world, and, for the purposes of his dissertation, in early imperial Roman literature in particular. As part of this, his work explores problems of space, theories of world, and dialogues between poetry and philosophy.
Rebecca Salem (Ph.D student, IFA) studies the art and archaeology of Greece and Rome with a particular interest in early architecture in the Western Mediterranean. She has experience both as an excavator and as a specialist in GIS and photogrammetry, and has done fieldwork at Clunia, the City of London, Segni, Pompeii, the Mazi Plain, Olympia, Gabii, Selinunte, and Samothrace.
