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Department of Classics
The University of Mississippi

Alumni

We’re so glad you’ve come looking for Classics at the University of Mississippi and we hope you remember your experiences here fondly.

Please let us know if you’re coming visit Oxford or the University and would like to reconnect with Classics, or if there’s anything else we can do for you.  And send an email to Dr. Pasco-Pranger with any news to share so we can keep extending our UMiss Classics community!

Support Classics

The Department of Classics strives to give our students an excellent education in all facets of ancient Mediterranean studies.  In addition to our regular courses, we take field trips, invite several speakers to campus each year, support students in study abroad and conference travel, and make numerous other opportunities available throughout the year.  If you’d like to support the Department in its work, please consider a tax deductible donation through the University of Mississippi Foundation.  Just put “Department of Classics” in the “Special Instructions” box.

Alumni News

Maraea Cardner (2019) is a cast member at Walt Disney World.

Ty Gill (2019) was a Fulbright teaching fellow in Spain for 2019-2020. In Fall 2020 he began the Ph.D. program in Linguistics at the University of Kentucky.

Shayne Keriazakos (2019) teaches English at the Mortimer-English Club in Hattingen, Germany.

Arianna Kitchens (2019) is Archaeological Collections Manager at the Mississippi Department of Archivves and History in Jackson.

Sonora Morris (2019) began the M.A. program in Classics at Florida State University in Fall 2019.

Nicholas Nelson (2019) began studies in Theology at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece in Fall 2019.

Michelle Rismiller (2019) earned an M.A.T. at Young Harris College in 2020.

Bradley Tune (2019) started law school at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2019.

Katherine Aberle (2018) entered the M.A. program at the UM Center for the Study of Southern Culture in 2018.

Hayden Brewer (2018) lives in New Orleans, LA and works in business development at Triton Roofing; he also continues to perform with his band, Blue Magnolia.

Taylor Ferris (2018) began medical school at UMMC in 2018.

Cara Keyser (2018) began the Master’s of Information and Library Science program at the University of Southern Mississippi in 2018.

Weston Liefer (2018) finished his J.D. at the University of South Carolina in 2021.

Hunter Myers (2018) began law school at the University of Alabama in Fall 2019.

Zac Creel (2017) spent his first year after graduation teaching Latin at his alma mater, Jesuit High School in New Orleans and began law school at Tulane in Fall 2018.

Alicia Dixon (2017) finished law school at Georgetown University in 2020, focusing on cultural heritage law. She lives in Washington, D.C.

Laura Dona (2017) finished law school at the University of Virginia in 2020. She is a Healthcare Associate at Arnall Golden Gregory LLP in Atlanta, GA.

Virginia Dorris (2017) spent her first two years after graduation with the North Mississippi VISTA Project. She began work on an M. Ed. in Community Development and Action at Vanderbilt University in 2019.

Libby Tyson (2017) spent her first year after graduation working as an AmeriCorps volunteer in Washington, DC. In 2019 she completed the graduate program in Museum Studies at the University of San Francisco, and continued to American University for further graduate study in American History. She is a 2021 Graduate Collections and Archival Fellow at National Women’s History Museum. 

Sierra Mannie (2016) worked for several years as reporter covering education at the Jackson Free Press. In 2019 she began work on an M. Ed. in Latin education at Hunter College and teaching Latin at Brooklyn Emerging Leaders Academy.

Sharon Possehl (2016) worked for two years as a special education paraprofessional in the Bentonville, AR school system, and begins a new position as a Latin teacher at Northwest Arkansas Classical Academy in Fall 2019. She and her husband Matt welcomed their third child in fall of 2016, a daughter named Calliope.

Coulter Ward (2016) studied at University of Pennsylvania for one year in the Classics post-baccalaureate program and then began a PhD program in Classics in Fall 2017 at the University of Colorado.

Chelsea Stewart (2015) studied History and Museum Studies at UNC-Greensboro, finishing an M.A. in 2019. She worked as capital campaign coordinator for Körner’s Folly, an historic home and museum in Kernersville, NC. In November 2020, she was appointed Mississippi Landmarks Coordinator at Mississippi Department of Archives & History . She lives in Jackson, MS.

Courtney Lindsey Taylor (2015) taught English, Latin, and Data Processing at Winona Christian School in Winona, MS for four years before moving to Midland, TX, to teach English at Richard Milburn Academy, a Title I charter school.

Kaitlyn Barnes (2014) earned her J.D. at Emory School of Law in 2017 and passed the Georgia bar exam in 2018. She worked as a policy fellow at the Barton Child Law and Policy Center and as of 202o is Public Policy Counsel at Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, GA.

Kathryn (Fowler) Moore (2014) finished her J.D. degree at the University of Missisippi in 2017.

Megan Fowler (2014) is pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Florida.

Vinod Kannuthurai (2014) finished an MA in 2016 in International Affairs at the Texas A&M Bush School of Government and Public Service. He currently works as a foreign affairs officer for the Department of State, and got married in 2020.

Stephen Macoy (2014) teaches History and English at Discovery Christian School in Florence, MS.

Charlie Pritchard (2014) finished medical school at UMMC in 2018 and is completing his intern year at Brookwood Baptist Health in Birmingham, Alabama. In July 2019 he will start a radiology residency at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Charlie writes: “I get a little reminder of the classics everyday since I can see the Vulcan statue from our apartment (unfortunately his bare behind is facing us).” Charlie also got married in 2018, and managed to visit some Roman sites in the UK during his honeymoon

Gabby Coggin (2013) earned a MA in Anthropology at the University of Mississippi in 2015, doing a mixture of cultural anthropology and archaeology. Her thesis treated the influence of cultural changes and power regimes on religious architecture in Syracuse, Sicily. She worked for the College of Liberal Arts at UM for several years and now works for the Division of Outreach as the program coordinator for Study USA.

Jessica Gradolf (2013) completed a Masters in Library and Information Science at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2016 and is now a librarian at Jefferson Parish Library in New Orleans.

Joe Higdon (2013) finished his JD at Duke in 2017 and was admitted to the bar in Texas. He currently is an associate at Vinson & Elkins in Houston.

Will Mays (2013) is a Juris Doctor candidate for 2016 at the University of Mississippi School of Law. He also seeks his business law certification with an emphasis on intellectual property and entertainment law.

Chris Miller (2013) finished an MA in Classics at Columbia in 2015.

Patrick Mooney (2013) finished an MA in Medieval History at UT Knoxville in 2016; he teaches Latin at a BASIS charter school in Prescott, AZ. He and his wife, Tiffany, welcomed daughter Eleanor in early 2019.

Doug Odom (2013) finished a Master’s degree in Higher in Education Administration at the Peabody College at Vanderbilt University in 2017. He is currently an analyst for mTrade in Oxford.

Colby Roberts (2013) finished his JD at SMU Dedman School of Law in 2016 and is now an attorney for Friedman and Feiger in Dallas, TX.

Vince Stroup (2013) taught Latin and myth to middle school students at the Washington School in Greenville, MS for two years after graduation and taught Latin at Oxford Middle School from 2015 to 2017. He and Elle Leatherman Stroup (2015) have started a small farm (Bona Terra Farm) south of Oxford; they also have three children now! You can follow the farm’s blog at theclassicalfarmer.com.

Tara Whitfield (2013) taught Latin at Harker Heights High School in Texas for several years. In 2017 she joined her husband in Arizona as he completed the Military Intelligence Captain’s Career Course, and in summer 2018, they moved to Pyeongtaek, South Korea, where taught English. In 2020, they returned to the U.S., and she is now teaching Latin in the Fairfax County, VA public schools.

Lauren Fassero (2011) earned an MS in neuropsychology at the University of Edinburgh in 2014; she continued her education in Biomedical Sciences at UMMC in Jackson, MS and works there as a research scientist.

Tyler Pittman (2011)  graduated from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 2014 and practiced law for several years in Tupelo, MS.  He reports: “I’d like you all to know that I consider Latin and Greek as some of the most beneficial instruction I could have received. From English grammar to analytical thought, studying those languages has helped me immensely in law school and practice.” He married in 2017, and in 2019 joined the US Marine Corps.

Alex Vega (2010) earned an M.A. in Classics from FSU in 2012. He currently teaches Latin and History at The Country School in Easton, MD.

Bram ten Berge (2009) completed his PhD in Classical Studies at the University of Michigan in 2016 with a dissertation on the relationship between the major and minor work of Tacitus. In 2013-2014, he was a regular member of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. He taught at Kalamazoo College in 2016-2017 and is now a tenure track assistant professor at Hope College in Holland MI. He married in 2013 and he and his wife Maggie welcomed a daughter in 2020.

Sam Watson (2009) completed an MMath at Cambridge on a Gates Cambridge Scholarship in 2010, and a PhD in Math at MIT in 2015. He is Director of Graduate Studies at the Brown University Data Science Initiative. He and fellow UM alum Nora Anne Watson have been married since 2007.

Allen Hays (2008) taught high school science in Arkansas for several years after graduation. He completed an M.S. in Educational Leadership at Arkansas State in 2016 and is now working on his Ph. D. In Fall 2017 he began a position as assistant professor and direction of the Delta STEM Education Center at Arkansas State-Jonesboro. Allen writes: “Who would have thought that a degree in classics would lead to a career in science and administration in education… go figure. That just goes to show that the well-rounded curriculum the Ole Miss Classics degree offers can take one in any direction.”

Douglas Ray (2007) finished majors in Classics and English, and then earned his M.F.A. in creative writing also at The University of Mississippi (2010). He taught for several years at Indian Springs School in Birmingham, Alabama, and now at Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio. He has published two books: He Will Laugh, a collection of poems, and The Queer South: LGBTQ Writers on the American South, both available from Sibling Rivalry Press.

Kyle Tadlock (2006) majored in Classics and History. He earned an M.A. in History at North Carolina State University in 2012 and is currently at the Ohio State University finishing a PhD in Ancient History, working on the complex relationship between tyrants and mercenaries in Archaic and Classical Sicily. He reports: “I wouldn’t be doing any of this had I not fatefully taken Latin as a freshmen with Dr. Ajootian those many years ago.”  He’s happy to talk to current students or alums about pursuing degrees in ancient history in general or at N.C. State or Ohio State: tadlock.6@buckeyemail.osu.edu

Keep in touch!

Email Dr. Pasco-Pranger, mpranger@olemiss.edu, with your news and we’ll add it to the site.