About

Background | Work Experience | Awards and Grants | Acknowledgements

Background

Born in Dubuque, Iowa, and living in Minnesota for most of my childhood, I became interested in the study of ancient Mediterranean religions thanks to two major events: participation in an evangelical church community in high school, and being so horrible at Spanish that I took Ancient Greek to fulfill my college language requirement. Together, these set me off on the study of biblical and classical literature and eventually imbued an interest in exploring the histories of textual transmission, marginalized and minoritized people, and legacies of violence in the Christian tradition.

I started at St. Olaf College (Minnesota) with a Bachelor of Arts and three majors: Religion, Classics, and Ancient Studies. From there, I moved to the east coast for a Master of Arts in Religion at Yale Divinity School, where I gained a love for Coptic and papyrology. Finally, I ended up at Harvard University for a PhD in the Committee on the Study of Religion, focusing on Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean.

Beyond this, I sang in Tactus Ensemble, Georgetown Chorale, and Harvard-Radcliffe Chorus, and organized in small ways for the Harvard Graduate Student Union, which now has their second contract.

In my free time, I enjoy singing, cross-stitching, foraging, reading investigative journalism, and making doughnuts.

Work Experience

Over the years, I have worked in various corners of academic and para-academic life.

As a PhD candidate, I have taught and assisted in teaching at Harvard Divinity School and Harvard College (General Education Program; History Department), as well as at Northeastern University in the Philosophy and Religion and African American Studies Departments and at Boston College in the Theology Department.

Alongside teaching experience, I have worked in various capacities with libraries, academic publishers, and museums. At Yale University, I functioned as a circulation assistant at the Yale Divinity School Library and a processing and cataloging assistant at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. At the latter, I worked primarily to catalog Coptic manuscripts, Ethiopic scrolls, and the Lafayette and Ben Franklin collections. I have also worked as an editorial assistant for the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library (Harvard University Press) in the publication of Byzantine Greek, medieval Latin, and Old English volumes, as well as with Harvard Theological Review as part of the production staff. Beyond these, I have interned as a research assistant at the Harvard Art Museums in the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art, particularly supporting the Egyptian gallery.

I have also spent many years working in college residential life—most extensively as a First-Year Proctor in Harvard Yard and a Residential Tutor at Lowell House in Harvard College. In these positions, I have acted as primary academic advisor to dozens of students and participate deeply in undergraduate life (this year, as the music tutor and speeches tutor). I have also served in a Non-Residential Tutor position at Harvard and as a Junior Counselor at St. Olaf.

Other forms of employment aren’t part of the academic repertoire, but were important to my formation: selling Yankee candles and kitsch at the Market on Oak, making Blizzards at Dairy Queen, baling hay, landscaping, being a summer janitor at elementary and middle schools, security and bouncing for undergraduate and graduate student bars and clubs.

Selected Awards and Grants

Jens Aubrey Westengard Summer Research and Travel Grant (2018, 2022)

• Awarded twice by Harvard University: once to participate as a volunteer preservationist on a first-century CE archaeological site at Migdal, Israel ($1000 USD), and once to visit papyrological archives at various libraries in the UK, Belgium, and Germany ($900 USD)

GSAS Completion Fellowship, Harvard University (2021; declined; $38,000 USD)

Summer Research Grant, GSAS Graduate Student Council (2020)

• Awarded by Harvard University to study Syriac at Beth Mardutho Syriac Institute ($800 USD)

Gochman Dean’s Fund for Innovation and Development (2018)

• Awarded by Harvard University and used to attend the Sixth Summer School in Coptic Papyrology at the Institut de Papyrologie de la Sorbonne ($2,500 USD)

Two Brothers Fellowship, Yale Divinity School (2016)

• Used to participate as a volunteer excavator on a fifth-century CE synagogue at Huqoq, Israel ($4,000 USD)

Acknowledgements

No graduate decree or academic career occurs in a bubble. I have been extremely lucky to have a range of mentors and peers support me with my research and teaching.