Tara Wells,

Tara (she/her) is a PhD candidate in her 6th year in Duke's Classical Studies program. Tara received an MA from the University of Maryland - College Park (2020) and a BA from Oberlin College (2018), both in Latin & Greek. However, Tara’s interests and skills range far beyond philological work as she also has vast experience working with material culture and participating in archaeological and historically-focused programs and projects. Some recent highlights include being a Regular Member at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA) and serving as a ceramics specialist on the Pompeii I.14 Project (director Allison Emmerson), with previous experiences at the ASCSA, American Academy in Rome, Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome, American Excavations at Morgantina, Hellenic Education and Research Center in Greece, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Nasher Museum at Duke University, and Duke’s Center for Multicultural Affairs. She has also assisted in teaching study abroad programs in Rome. Tara is grateful to have received many generous funding awards to support these opportunities, from her home departments as well external organizations including the AIA, SCS, CAMWS, Eta Sigma Phi, the Andrew M. Mellon Foundation, and the American Friends of Herculaneum.

Tara is an ancient historian interested in the representations of intersectional marginalized identities with a focus on race/ethnicity, gender, and social/legal status (enslaved, elite, etc.), across the ancient Mediterranean (ca. 5^th c. BCE – 2^nd c. CE). Her work combines literary, material, and visual evidence to understand social, cultural, and historical information surrounding identity in the ancient world. For her dissertation, Tara is exploring depictions of migrant women, many enslaved, in 5^th-3^rd c. BCE Greece through media of Greek tragedy, funerary stelae, and sculpture. Tara aims to illuminate the ways in which the women's multiple marginalized identities may have complicated their experiences, which Tara uses to challenge traditional binary approaches to identity.

Overall, Tara hopes to amplify the voices of perspectives long ignored in the field, both who is included in our scholarship as well as who the scholars are. As a multi-racial disabled woman, Tara is passionate about making the study of Classics and academia at large more accessible and inclusive of traditionally underrepresented identities in the field; she takes pride in leading and participating in various DEI efforts such as serving on departmental committees and field-wide organizations (esp. Mountaintop Coalition!), speaking on and organizing panels about disability and race in ancient studies, and informal mentorship and community-fostering among fellow scholars of marginalized identities in the field. She is is currently co-editing an upcoming issue of Res Difficiles, The Journal, titled “‘REZ Diff’: Indigenous Perspectives in Classics,” after organizing a successful SCS panel in 2023 on the same topic.

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