Classics Graduate Students

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 at Texas Tech. I am also a Graduate Part Time Instructor of Latin at Texas Tech as well as an editorial assistant for the journal Helios.

My research interests include Mediterranean archaeology, the archaeology of food and diet, zooarchaeology and experimental archaeology as well as the history of philosophy. I have participated in fieldwork in Sicily (2023), attended an ASCSA Summer Seminar on Hellenistic archaeology (2024) and studied the zooarchaeology and ecology of fauna in the Great Basin through ZOFE at the University of Utah (2026). I have additionally presented at CAMWS (2025) on the philosophies of Lucretius and Cicero, at SWPACA (2026) on non-elite diets in the archaeological record of early Roman London and at the Stanley J. Olsen Zooarchaeology Conference (2026) on the relationship between artiodactyl abundances and human occupation at the site of Cowboy Cave.”

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 a second-year Classics MA student and part-time graduate instructors at Texas Tech University. My research interests include Roman slavery, the influence of Judaism on Latin literature, Manetho's Aegyptiaca, and far-right classical reception. Across these areas of research, my work is unified by a concern with how hierarchy is made to seem natural, and how people navigate its constraints.

I earned my BA at the University of Victoria and completed a Classics MLitt with distinction at the University of St Andrews. The Masters dissertation that I wrote there on the role of Greco-Roman antiquity in the ideology of white supremacist groups is now forthcoming as an article in the Journal of Comparative Fascism. I also recently co-authored an article in Classical Philology identifying a newly discovered reference to the Old Testament in Virgil's Aeneid.

Email: jogranir@ttu.edu

Emmanuel Kwao Mensah

Emmanuel Kwao Mensah graduated from the University of Ghana in 2023 as a Valedictorian, earning a double-honours degree in Classical History and Civilisation and Information Studies. He is currently a graduate student in Classics at Texas Tech University and an A. G. Leventis Scholar.

As a beneficiary of the Classics Beyond Borders project—a collaborative initiative between the Department of Philosophy and Classics at the University of Ghana and the Faculty of Classics at the University of Cambridge—Emmanuel received advanced language training in Ancient Greek and Latin. Through this training, he translated Caesar Augustus' Res Gestae from Latin into Ga.

Emmanuel's research interests span race and Black studies in Classics, gender and women's studies in Euripidean and Sophoclean tragedy, Global Classics, translation studies, and reception studies. His undergraduate thesis examined “Misogyny in Aeschylus' Oresteia.”

Currently, Emmanuel is also collaborating with Professor Luke Roman and a few other Classicists on the Classics And/In Africa project, which seeks to redirect the traditionally exclusive focus of Classical Studies on ancient Greece and Rome toward the broader ancient Mediterranean as a space of diversity and connectivity, while also tracing the transmission and reception of classical antiquity in cultures and regions beyond the West. As part of this project, he presented a paper at a conference at University College London (UCL) entitled “Global Classics Project: Roadmap to an Inclusive Classics in Sub-Saharan Africa?” The paper is currently pending publication in Res Diff, a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to exploring “difficult issues” in Classics.

Emmanuel is currently developing a research project entitled “Black Classicism and the Narrative of Epistemic Segregation,” which continues his broader engagement with questions of race, knowledge, representation, and the place of Black voices within Classical Studies.

Beyond academia, Emmanuel enjoys visiting museums, travelling, singing, and cooking.

Email: emmamens@ttu.edu

Naomi Quedensley

I am currently a second-year M.A. student and Teaching Assistant in Classics at Texas Tech University. In 2025, I graduated summa cum laude from Truman State University with a B.A. in History and minors in Classics, Linguistics, and Spanish, the last of which included language study in Spain in 2023. My research interests, most broadly, concern the social and cultural history of Rome throughout the Late 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. In 2026, I presented my paper on the myth of Pygmalion in Ovid and contemporary contexts at the SWPACA conference, as well as a revised version of my undergraduate capstone paper on human sacrifice in Rome at CAMWS. 

Email: nquedens@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 currently a 2nd year MA student in Classics at Texas Tech with a focus in Archaeology. I serve as a Teaching Assistant in Classics and Archaeology courses. I graduated from Randolph- Macon College in 2025 with a BA in Classics and in Archaeology, with Minors in Latin and French. While there, I participated in excavations and ceramic analysis with the Pella Urban Dynamics Project. I also interned at Scotchtown, Patrick Henry’s historic home and museum, cataloguing their collection and assisting in museum management. In 2026, I served as a research assistant on Samothrace Lidar Project, conducting field survey and digitization of geographic and man-made features on the island. My research interests include Mediterranean archaeology, expressions of creativity, such as how one may use personal scents and perfumes or decorate ordinary household items; painting and relief styles, long distance trade and interaction, and landscape interaction.

Email: elstark@ttu.edu