Three Classics Students Present at Annual SURPS Symposium

Three students in the Classics Department recently presented at the annual Symposium of Undergraduate Research and Public Service (SURPS): Jenny Vo-Phamhi ‘20, Emma Grover ‘20, and Sophia Collelo ‘21.

Jenny presented on the commonality between the Roman empire and the modern United States in terms of the problem of human trafficking. Through her research, she showed what strategies traffickers use and the robust forces that prolong the human trafficking and how the nature of human trafficking has evolved from ancient Rome to the 21st century.

Emma presented on animal interactions in the hagiography of Hugh of Avalon. She primarily focused on the presence of the swan in Hugh’s hagiography and how it serves to align him with an eremitic and social socially marginal model of sanctity, counterbalancing Hugh’s prominence in secular society.

Sophia presented on how she has integrated Stanford’s collection of tablets with UCLA’s, Oxford’s, and the Max Planck Institute’s Cuneiform Digital Library online database, so students can study cuneiform tablets more accessibly. Additionally, she studied the tablets herself, tracing the approximate date of the tablets and what was written on them. 

Congratulations Jenny, Emma, and Sophia!