Samuel Barnes

Samuel Barnes received his B.A. in Interdisciplinary Humanities with a concentration in Classics from Howard University in 2024, as well as a minor in Philosophy. Samuel is most interested in Roman historiography, particularly from Late Antiquity. His research primarily focuses on decline narratives and other historiographic methods of ancient authors and how it relates to the sociopolitical context of their respective time periods.

Email: samubarn@ttu.edu

Luc Bieri

I graduated summa cum laude from Loyola University Chicago in 2024 with BAs in Classical Studies and Philosophy and a BS in Anthropology. I am currently an MA Student in Classics with a concentration in Archaeology as well as a Latin Teaching Assistant at Texas Tech. My research interests include Mediterranean archaeology, topography and experimental archaeology as well as Platonic epistemology and the Roman reception of Hellenistic philosophy. I have presented a conference paper at the 2025 Annual Meeting of CAMWS on how Lucretius appropriates Roman religious concepts for the sake of engaging his Roman audience with Epicureanism. I have additionally participated in fieldwork in Sicily (2023) and have attended an ASCSA Summer Seminar on Hellenistic Archaeology (2024).

Email: cbieri@ttu.edu

Noah Gernenz

I received my B.A. studying Classics (focusing on Ancient Greek and Latin) and Great Texts from Baylor University in 2024. My undergraduate thesis focused on the philosophical value of stories, studying Plato’s use of myth as a complementary tool to his discourse, and I am particularly interested in studying the development of the epic tradition, both in Latin and Ancient Greek. My primary spheres of study include Greek and Latin epic and Ancient Greek philosophy, with a special interest in the Platonic dialogues. 

Email: nogernen@ttu.edu

Jonathan Granirer

I am currently an MA student and TA in the TTU Classics department. My research interests span Roman political history, the influence of Judaism on Latin literature, Manetho’s Aegyptiaca, and far-right classical reception. Across these different periods, my work is unified by a concern with how cultural capital—whether constructed by ancient authors or appropriated by modern movements—shapes who is allowed to speak and to claim authority.

I recently completed a Classics MLitt with distinction at the University of St Andrews, where my dissertation examined the reception of Greco-Roman antiquity among 20th-century American white supremacists. I earned my undergraduate degree in Classics and Political Science with distinction from the University of Victoria in 2023.

I have published on Seneca’s De Clementia and its place within the politics of the early principate in the Arbutus Review and have a forthcoming co-authored article in Classical Philology identifying a newly discovered reference to the Old Testament in Virgil’s Aeneid.

Email: jogranir@ttu.edu

Colton Levi

Colton Levi received his B.A. in English and Classical Studies from the University of South Carolina in the spring of 2024. He is currently a first-year M.A. Student and Teaching Assistant. His interests include imperial Roman epic, Roman satire, and Stoic philosophy. He is primarily interested in ecological criticism and exploring the use and treatment of nature in ancient literature. 

Email: colevi@ttu.edu

Zachary McVay

Zachary McVay graduated Summa cum Laude from Arizona State University in 2014 with his B.A. in International Letters and Cultures, with focus in the Latin language. Following graduation, he spent the subsequent decade teaching in schools throughout Arizona, in subjects ranging from Latin, to elementary grades’ Greek, Human Health, Creative Writing, French, Greek Mythology, and Art History, earning his Arizona Board of Education teaching licensure for Latin in 2021. His research interests include religion in Late Antiquity, the so-called Constantinian Shift, as well as the developments in colloquial Latin of the period as led to the formation of Romance languages. 

Email: zmcvay@ttu.edu

Haley Mimms

I’m a first-year MA student and teaching assistant. I graduated from Texas Tech University in 2023 with a B.A. in Classics and minors in Greek and Studio Drawing. In my time as an undergraduate, I spent a year studying art education then made the switch to the classics department! I received the Lionel A. Jirgensons Latin Scholarship in the spring of 2022 and the spring of 2023. My research interests include—but are not limited to— gender in the ancient world, art history, film studies, Greek and Roman religion and myth, and the occasional Greek iambic poem.

Email: Haley.Mimms@ttu.edu

Naomi Quedensley

I am currently a first-year M.A. student and Teaching Assistant. I graduated from Truman State University in 2025 with a B.A. in History and minors in Classics, Linguistics, and Spanish. My research interests, most broadly, concern the social and cultural history of Rome throughout the Republic into the Early Empire. More narrowly, I am interested in gender and sexuality, questions of agency, and the cultural contacts that took place within the Roman provinces. 

Email: nquedens@ttu.edu

Matthew Robertson

I'm a first-year graduate student and teaching assistant. I graduated from Stony Brook University in 2021 with a bachelor's degree in Anthropology. I am studying classical archaeology, as well as Latin and Ancient Greek. My interests revolve around ancient religion, mythology, Latin teaching and pedagogy, and archaeological theory and practice.

Email: rob16867@ttu.edu

Matthew Salonich

I'm a first-year classics student and teaching assistant here at Texas Tech. I earned my bachelor's with highest honors from the University at Buffalo with a major in classics and a minor in anthropology. My interests include Greco-Roman military history and archaeology. I am particularly interested in researching the military of the Mid-Late Roman Republic and the Early Empire, and their interactions during the Hellenistic period with the militaries of the Diadochi, the successor kingdoms of Alexander the Great.

Email:msalonic@ttu.edu

Gracie Singleton

I graduated summa cum laude from Millsaps College in 2023 with a B.A. in both Greek and Roman Studies and Anthropology. During my undergraduate I became a research assistant on the Ancient Graffiti Project in 2021 and in Spring 2022 I attended the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome. My undergraduate thesis explored Egyptian Gnosticism during the 2nd-3rd centuries and the role of women as compared with texts that would later become canonical. My research interests include early Christianity, mystery religions, ancient graffiti, Late Republican Rome, Middle Kingdom Egypt, and the lived experiences of people throughout the ancient world. 

Email: grasingl@ttu.edu

Ellen Stark

I am a first-year MA student and teaching assistant. I graduated summa cum laude with a BA in Classical Studies with a Latin focus and in Archaeology with a French minor from Randolph-Macon College in May 2025. My research interests include Mediterranean archaeology, specifically Greek Bronze Age material culture and long-distance trade, as well as Greco-Roman painting, and medicine. 

Email: elstark@ttu.edu

Amanda Ulloa-Sellers

I am a second-year M.A. student and graduate part-time instructor in introductory Latin. Originally from Las Vegas, NV, I received my B.A. in both Classical Studies and Communication from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2024.

My main research interest is understanding the influences of Classical tradition and rhetoric on modern Western imperialism, colonialism, and white supremacy. Through my time in the Classics department at TTU, I have also developed a large interest in equitable pedagogical practices within the ancient languages.  I am a first-generation college student as well as an individual of Latin American background and a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

In 2025, I won the CAMWS Mary A. Grant Travel Award and was privileged enough to participate in the Summer Session at the American Academy in Rome, learning how to bring the ancient city of Rome into the classroom as I begin my career as an ancient languages teacher.  Additionally, I was accepted to present a paper at the 2025 Society for Comparative Literature on the privilege of self-sufficiency in the pastoral and rural, both through Roman authors, like Virgil and Horace, and more broadly in popular contemporary media and conservative politics.

Email: aulloase@ttu.edu