Prospective Students

I welcome inquiries from students interested in research at the intersection of ancient languages, computational linguistics, and machine learning. I also work closely with students pursuing projects in archaic Greek, Homeric epic, and related areas of classical literature.

PhD students I advise are typically admitted through Classics, Linguistics, Data Science, Education, or interdisciplinary graduate programs, depending on the focus of their work. I am currently accepting PhD students and encourage prospective applicants to reach out if they believe their research goals align with mine.

My Research Areas

Computational approaches to ancient languages: I study the structure and semantics of ancient Mediterranean texts through computational methods, including modeling Homeric verse, developing digital tools for low-resource ancient languages, and applying geospatial and statistical techniques to classical corpora.

Low-resource AI and language technologies: My work investigates how language models function under conditions of data scarcity. This includes research on word embeddings, dataset design and curation, and neural architectures that support under-resourced, endangered, and historically marginalized languages.

Higher-education research and digital pedagogy: I analyze pathways into humanities majors (particularly for transfer and nontraditional students) and study how learners acquire coding and computational methods in humanities contexts. My research also explores AI-supported, skills-based models for equitable humanities education, drawing on curriculum history, digital pedagogy, writing-to-learn approaches, and the public role of language education.

Working with Me

I expect my graduate students to be active scholars throughout their program and to approach their work with curiosity, initiative, and a collaborative spirit. Students in my group are encouraged to pursue research articles, present at conferences, and participate in ongoing projects in the Lab. Much of our work is team-based, and I frequently co-author with my graduate students on papers, digital projects, and public scholarship.

Graduate students working with me have built impressive research portfolios during their time at UCSB. They have published at international conferences, delivered national presentations, contributed to datasets and digital tools, and received recognition for their work, including awards at campus-wide AI symposia. Many pursue interdisciplinary projects that bridge Classics, linguistics, education, and AI. I encourage my students to explore a wide variety of academic and professional paths.

Contact Me

Prospective PhD applicants are welcome to get in touch. Please use the form below to introduce yourself, describe your research interests, and explain how you see your work aligning with mine. I am unable to review full application materials in advance, but I’m glad to discuss program fit and answer general questions.