Commencement 2019

This article first appeared in ISAW Newsletter 24, Spring 2019.

Three ISAW doctoral students successfully defended their dissertations during the 2018-19 academic year. Anthony SooHoo, who defended his dissertation in fall 2018, received his doctoral degree on January 28, 2019. Maria Americo and Zoë Misiewicz, both of whom defended their dissertations in spring 2019, attended the Graduate School of Arts and Science Doctoral Convocation, where Leon Levy Director Alexander Jones congratulated them and presented them with their traditional doctoral hoods on May 20th at the Beacon Theatre. The official conferral of Maria and Zoë’s doctoral degrees took place on May 22nd at the NYU All-University Commencement at Yankee Stadium. Maria was selected from the entire 2019 graduating class to serve as a Class Representative for the Graduate School of Arts and Science at Commencement. We are extremely proud of ISAW’s 2019 graduating class, all of whom have received and accepted offers of tenure-track faculty positions!

Our PhD Graduates

Maria Americo received a BA in Latin from Hunter College, where she was valedictorian of the class of 2012. During her time at ISAW, Maria was the recipient of several fellowships, including the NYU Provost’s Global Research Initiatives Fellowship in Washington, DC, for fall 2017 and the NYU Graduate School of Arts and Science Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship for Academic Year 2018-19. In addition, Maria was selected as Class Representative for the Graduate School of Arts and Science at NYU’s May 2019  Commencement ceremony.

Her ISAW doctoral dissertation, which she defended on April 11, 2019, is entitled “An Analysis of Ninth-Century Reception of Claudius Ptolemy’s Astronomy in the Arabic Tradition.” According to Maria’s advisor Prof. Alexander Jones, “Maria might best be described as an ‘extended classicist,’ who controls not only the sciences and intellectual history of the Greco-Roman world but also the reception of Greek science into the Islamic world.” Reflecting on his experience working with Maria as a member of her dissertation committee, Prof. Robert Hoyland noted, “Maria’s intellectual curiosity, passionate enthusiasm for her chosen topic and good sense of humor made her a joy to work with and they are qualities that will indubitably make her an excellent teacher and very popular with her future students.”

This fall, Maria will begin a tenure-track Assistant Professorship in the History Department of St. Peter’s University in Jersey City, N.J.

Zoë Misiewicz received a BSc with a specialist in Mathematics and its Applications and a major in Classics from the University of Toronto, as well as an MA in Classics from the University of Toronto. From 2009 to 2011, Zoë was the recipient of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship. Zoë has gained extensive teaching experience during her time at ISAW; while completing her degree, she taught in the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and sta tistics at the State University of New York at Oneonta as a Visiting Assistant Professor and Dissertation Fellow (2015-17) and as a Lecturer (2017-19).

Her ISAW doctoral dissertation, which she defended on April 29, 2019, is entitled “John Lydus and Mesopotamian Celestial Omens in Late Antiquity.” According to her co-advisor Prof. Alexander Jones, “Zoë’s dissertation, investigating an early Byzantine compilation of divination texts, written in Greek but claiming to derive from lost Roman and Etruscan documents, and tracing its complex relationship with Mesopotamian omen texts dating back to the early first millennium BCE or even earlier, is a paradigm of what ISAW is about—a project drawing deeply on resources from the disciplines of Assyriology, Classics, History of Science, and History of Religion.” Additionally, co-advisor Prof. Beate Pongratz-Leisten notes that Zoë’s dissertation is “an exemplary model for how to pursue history of reception rather than subscribing to a purely comparative method or a diffusionist approach.”

This Fall, Zoë begins a new position as tenure-track Instructor and Supervisor of Calculus Gateway Courses in the Mathematics Department of the State University of New York at Oswego.

Anthony SooHoo received a BA in Anthropology from the University of Chicago, an MA in Philosophical Resources from Fordham University, an MDiv and Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the Weston Jesuit School of Theology, and a Licentiate in Ancient Near Eastern Studies from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome.

His ISAW doctoral dissertation, which he defended on September 20, 2018, is entitled “Violence against the Enemy in Mesopotamian Myth, Ritual, and Historiography.” According to Anthony’s advisor Prof. Beate Pongratz-Leisten, his dissertation, which draws on the fields of anthropology, psychology, and the history of religion, is “an exemplary work on intermediality, a kind of research that only within the last two decades emerged as a field of study in its own right.” Prof. Roderick Campbell, who served as a member of Anthony’s dissertation committee, worked closely with Anthony on anthropological theories of violence in connection with the discourse and practice of violence in ancient Mesopotamia and fondly recalls their “exciting brainstorming sessions on the ambiguity and semantic range of violence, its entanglement with questions of personhood and agency, cultural context and legitimating discourse.”

Anthony is a Priest in the Society of Jesus and, since October 2018, has been Professore Lettore at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome.

Photographs from the Commencement Celebration in ISAW's Oak Library:

Maria Americo, Alexander Jones, Zoë Misiewicz Ursula Brosseder, Andrea Trameri, Sebastian Heath, and Shelby White Marc LeBlanc, Aida Gureghian, and Allan Corns Diane Bennett and Claire Bubb Zhonglin Zhang, Mi Wang, and Roderick Campbell Beate Pongratz-Leisten, Anthony SooHoo, and Lorenzo d’Alfonso