Emory Undergraduate Projects

A researcher, writer, educator, and media maker, Desi Gonzalez uses digital media to encourage meaningful engagement with the arts. She is currently the manager of digital engagement at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA. Previously, Desi has worked as a designer developing educational tools at La Victoria Lab in Lima, Peru; researched digital humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Hyperstudio; produced interpretive experiences at the Museum of Modern Art; and managed and wrote web content for kids at the Whitney Museum of American Art. She has written for publications including Art in America, Art Papers, Indiewire, and The Brooklyn Rail. She has an S.M. in comparative media studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2015) and a B.A. in art history and linguistics from Emory University (2010). She served as a researcher assistant for the Samothrace project during the 2007-2008 academic year.

Chase graduated from Emory in 2011 with a degree in art history and a minor in architectural studies (and an unofficial French minor). During his sophomore year, he was a research assistant to Dr. Wescoat through the SIRE research program. After graduation, he spent two years as the business development manager at Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects. He is pursuing a Master’s in Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Chase spent two summers in Samothrace in 2014 and 2015. During the majority of field seasons, he studied the theater precinct and its relation to the Nike monument and the Altar Court. He also created 3D models and rendered images of the Nike monument for publication, an excavation site plan of the South Nekropolis, scaled hand drawings, and assisted in the revised sanctuary site map.

Having grown up in the Atlanta area, I attended Emory University for undergrad where I was an Art History major with minors in Visual Arts and Italian Studies. I was interested in art conservation and started interning in the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University, while taking art history classes on topics including ancient Greece and Rome. From that point I went to Samothrace in 2012, working in conservation on glass, ceramic, and metal objects and helping to develop a site management plan for the Western Hill. I presented the work in a SIRE poster in the fall of 2012 entitled, “Developing a Site Conservation Plan for the Western Hill of the Sanctuary of the Great Gods in Samothrace, Greece,” which was awarded Best Presentation in the Humanities and Creative Arts. I continued to work with Dr. Wescoat in 2013 and 2014 by inputting catalogue records into the new digital database, and building a conservation section of the database. The work with Samothrace provided me valuable conservation experiences, which have allowed me to get to where I am today, currently in a Master’s Degree program at the University of Delaware specializing in the conservation of objects. Since Samothrace, I have interned in conservation departments at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Museum of Modern Art, the Shelburne Museum, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. I will be at the Hamburger Kunsthalle in Hamburg, Germany this upcoming summer.

Abigail started Emory University in 2012 and graduated in the Spring of 2016. Throughout her Emory career she double majored in Sociology and Visual Arts and spent numerous summers on Samothrace. Abi’s work on Samothrace started in high school when she worked as an assistant to the different field teams. Currently, she is working on a project analyzing the Winged Victory of Samothrace’s drapery. She has built a to-scale sculptural model of the Nike then recreated the chiton and himation, traditional clothing that is worn by the Victory. After collecting wind velocity samples in the prescient of the Winged Victory on Samothrace over the course of the 2015 season, Abi used a wind machine to recreate these varying wind speeds back in Atlanta. The wind machine was used on the model back at Emory University to see how the drapery reacted with the wind.

Abigail has also assisted in photography projects for the site and is currently assisting on the design and content management of the new Samothrace website.

Abi will join the 2016 Samothrace team this August after taking courses in public health in Paris, France.

Daniel began studying at Emory University in 2012 and joined the SIRE (Scholarly Inquiry and Research at Emory) program in 2013, working alongside Dr. Wescoat and the Samothrace research team. During his sophomore year, he focused on plaster used in the Nike Precinct and analyzed the unique wings of the Nike. The 2014 spring SIRE poster was based on the ornithological research and won Best Presentation in the Humanities and Creative Arts.

In 2015, Daniel was awarded a SIRE Independent Research Grant of $2,500. During the summer he traveled to Samothrace to help with field research in the Sanctuary of the Great Gods. Involved with a variety of projects, he helped the geology team complete edits to the stone mappings and assisted the architecture and archaeology teams with a possible reconstruction of the Nike Precinct based on plaster fragments. In the fall of 2015 he presented a research poster based on the geological findings in the Sanctuary.

Daniel graduated from Emory in the fall of 2015 with a degree in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology, as well as a degree in Psychology.  Currently, he is working for Dr. Wescoat, helping the Samothrace team record and store past architectural drawings. He is also volunteering at the Depression Biometrics Lab at Emory. Daniel hopes to one day join the healthcare field.

Hannah Smagh ’15 was a double major in Ancient Mediterranean Studies and Anthropology at Emory University.  She began working with Dr. Wescoat on Samothrace in 2012 on a project on the restoration and conservation of the Winged Victory of Samothrace in conjunction with colleagues from the Louvre Museum.  After presenting preliminary work at the Spring 2012 SIRE Symposium, this project continued through the summer of 2013, culminating in a presentation at the Fall 2013 SIRE Symposium, “Restoring the Winged Victory: New Research on the Sanctuary of the Great Gods,” about the use of 3D scanning technology on the statue fragments.  Hannah continued research on Samothrace in Fall 2013 with a SIRE Research Fellowship through the Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry on dancing rites at the sanctuary.  She returned to Samothrace for summers 2014 and 2015 to work on a variety of projects for the conservation of the site.  After graduating from Emory, Hannah is currently in graduate school at Princeton University studying Greek art and archaeology, with a focus on architecture and sculpture.

Leah Neiman ‘18 began her research in the Sanctuary on Samothrace in her sophomore year as a SIRE (Scholarly Research and Inquiry at Emory) student working with Dr. Bonna Wescoat. In Fall 2015 she helped to upgrade the reconstructed three-dimensional model of the Sanctuary. In Spring 2016 Leah began focusing her research on the reconstruction of the Nike Precinct.  Specifically, she has worked with plaster fragments from a lion’s head to understand the function of the head and whether it indicates that the building surrounding the Nike statue had a roof. Leah presented her findings at the SIRE 2016 Spring Symposium. She was awarded a SIRE independent research summer grant for research on site in summer 2016, when she will continue working on the Nike Precinct Reconstruction. In addition, she will join the team exploring possible ways in a ravine in the sanctuary may have been bridged in antiquity. Leah is originally from New York, and is a double major in Ancient Mediterranean Studies and Anthropology and Human Biology, currently planning on pursuing a career in archaeology.

Marina Kate Stephens ’19 started at Emory University fall 2015 with interests in anthropology, archaeology, and international studies. She began working with Dr. Wescoat through the SIRE program her first semester. Her main interests are the human interactions in the sanctuary and the practical aspects of its construction. She presented at the 2016 SIRE Symposium with a project focused on the flow of water and construction of water pipes in the south west corner of the sanctuary. She plans to continue her research with Dr. Wescoat on site in Greece to learn more about Samothrace and figure out the mystery behind those water pipes. Marina focused her efforts during the 2016-2017 school year on the construction of the stoa, using 3D modeling and printing to better understand the design of the building. Marina will continue her undergraduate education at Emory, doing research and exploring her interests in world cultures and archaeology.

Joshua Rory Buksbaum ’19 is a Biology and Art History double major, interested in pursuing a career in orthopedic surgery. After taking Dr. Wescoat’s class during his Freshman year, he was inspired to declare the major in Art History. This year, he began contributing to the Samothrace research team. With Dr. Wescoat’s guidance he investigated the architecture of the Great Stoa of the Sanctuary, specifically researching the coursing and the tapering of the walls of the stoa in an attempt to solidify our understanding of the elevation of the stoa’s walls. Josh is traveling to the site this summer ’17 in order to continue his research on the stoa walls.