Rachel graduated with a BA in Classical Studies from the College of William & Mary in 2018 and went on to pursue her PhD in Classics (Language & Literature) at Stanford University. She is interested in genre, gender, and landscape in Greek and Latin poetry, with an emphasis on Augustan Latin poetry and the work of Propertius and Ovid in particular. She has a soft spot for fragmentary and neglected texts (such as the Carmen de Bello Actiaco), as well as for texts that have historically been undervalued in scholarship (such as Ovid’s Heroides). In addition to traditional philological approaches, she incorporates cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphor, and computational methods into her research, including her dissertation on the shifting metaphorical and geopoetic framework of the paraclausithyron in Augustan elegy. Rachel also engages with the material side of Classics through work on ancient winemaking practices and a strong interest in the archaeology of pre-Roman Italy. She pairs her diverse research interests with a commitment to evidence-based, student-centered pedagogy. While at CC this year, she will be offering adjunct courses in both Greek and Latin at all levels.
In her free time, Rachel runs a small apicultural business based out of her family’s farm in rural Virginia.
