Commencement

Commencement 2021

Three ISAW doctoral students successfully defended their dissertations during the 2019-20 and 2020-21 academic years. Andrea Trameri, who defended his dissertation on April 9, 2020, received his PhD in May 2020; Shujing Wang, who defended her dissertation on September 9, 2020, received her PhD in September 2020; and Fanghan Wang, who defended her dissertation on April 2, 2021, received her PhD in May 2021. Unfortunately, an in-person ceremony was not possible in May 2020 or May 2021 as a result of COVID-19. However, the ISAW community hosted a virtual commencement over Zoom on May 19, 2021, to celebrate the accomplishments of our three recent graduates from 2020 and 2021. We are extremely proud of Andrea, Shujing, and Fanghan, all of whom overcame challenging circumstances and produced excellent dissertations as a capstone to their doctoral work at ISAW!

Our PhD Graduates

Andrea Trameri received his BA in Classics and Ancient Near Eastern Studies and his MA in Philology, Literature, History of the Ancient World from the University of Pavia, Italy. During his time at ISAW, Andrea was the recipient of several fellowships and grants, including the Harris Grant of the American Schools of Oriental Research (2015), a travel grant from the NYU Antonina S. Ranieri International Scholars Fund (2016), and the NYU Graduate School of Arts and Science Lane Cooper Dissertation Research Fellowship (2018-19). Andrea’s forthcoming monograph, Purifying a House from Blood: A Hittite Ritual for the Ancient Gods (CTH 446), an expanded version of his MA thesis at the University of Pavia, is being published by Lockwood Press and is expected to appear in print later this year. Andrea’s ISAW doctoral dissertation is entitled “The Land of Kizzuwatna: History of Cilicia in the Second Millennium BCE until the Hittite Conquest (ca. 2000-1350).” During the 2020-21 academic year, Andrea was Professor of Latin and Literary Subjects at Liceo IIS Pinchetti in Tirano, Lombardy, Italy. In fall 2021, he will begin a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Netherlands Institute for the Near East, Leiden University.

Shujing Wang received her Bachelor of History and Bachelor of Philosophy from Peking University, China. During her time at ISAW, Shujing received several fellowships and grants, including the NYU Abu Dhabi Global Dissertation Writing Fellowship (2019-20), the NYU Provost’s Global Research Initiatives Fellowship in Washington, DC (2020), a research grant from the American Philosophical Society’s Lewis and Clark Fund for Exploration and Field Research (2019), and a conference grant from Columbia University's Tang Center for Early China (2020, with Fanghan Wang). Shujing’s ISAW doctoral dissertation is entitled “Pastoralists at the Crossroads: Late Iron Age Kurgan Burials in the Periphery of the Bukhara Oasis.” During the 2020-21 academic year, Shujing was a Joint Postdoctoral Fellow at Fudan University and NYU Shanghai. In this role, she worked on research and publications and collaborated with NYU faculty on curriculum development.

Fanghan Wang received her BA in Art History and her MA in Cultural Heritage and Art Archaeology from China Central Academy of Fine Arts. During her time at ISAW, Fanghan was the recipient of several fellowships and grants, including a travel grant from the NYU Antonina S. Ranieri International Scholars Fund (2018) and a conference grant from Columbia University's Tang Center for Early China (2020, with Shujing Wang). Fanghan's recent publications include “Artistic Representation of Granaries in Han China: A Critical Review,” Agricultural History of China 6 (2019): 122-129, and “Pattern and Idea: The Transmission of Textiles with Shaded Strips along the Silk Road,” Northwestern Journal of Ethnology 1 (2019): 71-80. Fanghan's doctoral dissertation is entitled "Art, Agriculture and Frontier: Representing Granaries in Han China (206 BCE - 220 CE)." She is currently working on several articles about agricultural implements discovered in southwest China.