Faculty and Speakers

Robert Holschuh Simmons earned his Ph.D. in Classics at the University of Iowa, following a BA in Classics and English at St. John’s University (MN) and an MAT in English from Minnesota State University (Mankato). He taught English for three years at Omaha (NE) North High School, taught eighteen different courses over eight years of teaching at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and has taught fifty different courses over ten years at Monmouth College (IL), where he is Professor. He has won awards at Monmouth for excellence in advising, service, and scholarship; from the Classical Association of the Middle West and South (CAMWS) for teaching excellence and career achievement; from the American Classical League for innovative pedagogy; and from CAMWS, the Society for Classical Studies, and Eta Sigma Phi for outreach excellence. His participation in this institute extends from the hands-on work he does in classes like Sports in Greece and Rome, which have extended into biennial Classics Day festivals at Monmouth, each of which includes more than fifty events and stations at which visitors can engage in such activities as a range of ancient Olympic events, Roman-style stone-carving and mosaic creation, and ancient-style grain-grinding. He is also the author of Demagogues, Friendship, and Power in Classical Athens: Leaders as Friends in Aristophanes, Euripides, and Xenophon, is the president of the Illinois Classical Conference, and is the Lake Michigan Region vice-president of CAMWS.

As co-director, Bob will be primarily coordinating the efforts of the many contributors on Monmouth's campus, and will be the main teacher of ancient Olympic athletic events and other matters connected directly to the Games.

Nathalie Roy studied classics at Louisiana State University and archaeology at the American Academy in Rome and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. She currently teaches Latin, Roman Technology, and Myth Makers at Glasgow Middle School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In 2021, the Louisiana Department of Education named her its State Teacher of the Year for her innovative efforts to merge STEM and classics, an experience that took her to the White House where she met President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden. Students in her classes reproduce the products, processes, and stories of ancient Roman and Greek everyday life through experimental archaeology and STEM challenges. Their most recent hands-on history lesson involved building a Roman road through their school's campus to learn about ancient engineering and the everyday lives of soldiers. In the spring of 2024, National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions named Nathalie one of its Grosvenor Teacher Fellows; for the next two years, she will be developing student-led activities related to archaeology outreach. A National Board Certified teacher, Nathalie loves to show teachers how important it is for students to experience aspects of ancient life through hands-on experimentation. You can access free lessons on her Website.

As co-director, Nathalie will be coordinating and teaching the hands-on history projects during the afternoon segments of the institute. She will also be running the project Website and Google Classroom and assisting participants in developing their own lessons.

Michael Posey currently teaches Latin at Mountain Brook Junior High School in Mountain Brook, AL, but he has taught World and Classical Languages in several secondary schools throughout the US.  In his teaching tenure, he has been recognized five times as a National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) grant recipient.  Most recently, Posey was selected for the Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms (2021), a program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.  He considers himself a lifetime learner!

Professionally, Posey serves as a Writing and Steering Committee member on the National Latin Exam and is Chair of the Pegasus National Mythology Exam. He has been a featured presenter at several local, regional, and national professional conferences on utilizing online formative assessments and incorporating current educational technology in the world language classroom.  Posey has traveled extensively in the Americas and Europe and is most passionate about introducing students to meaningful global opportunities and world-connected learning.

Micheal will direct the research efforts of participants as our K-12 Liaison. In addition to serving on the application committee, Micheal will help to advertise this K-12 learning opportunity through relevant national and regional organizations for Classics/Latin.  Also, as the K-12 Liaison, Micheal will work collaboratively with participants in their research efforts and preparation of final presentations.

Olivia Matlock is a graduate student at the University of Kansas and is pursuing her master’s degree in Classics with an emphasis in Latin. She graduated from Monmouth College in 2022 with a degree in Classics and English. She was very involved in the Classics department at Monmouth, working closely with professors and students with events such as Classics Day IV and V. From August 2022 to May 2023, she was a middle school teacher of English grammar, Latin, and science at St. Regis Academy in Kansas City, Missouri. In her program at the University of Kansas, she is a teaching assistant for Greek and Roman mythology (Fall 2023) and Roman Oratory (Spring 2024). She hopes to graduate in 2025 and begin teaching at the high school level.

She will assist with all hands-on events and will live in the dorm with participants as an on-call resource.

Megan Dailey will be a rising senior at Monmouth in the summer of 2024, majoring in Classics and Social Sciences Education, minoring in Art and History, and competing in track and field. She was extensively involved in Monmouth Classics Day in 2021 and 2023, was the chief student force in planning for a national Classics honors society meeting in 2023, was the student assistant for a pre-school-year intensive session on Ancient Technology in 2023, and was the school-wide Freshman Woman of the Year in 2022.

She will assist with all hands-on events and will live in the dorm with participants as an on-call resource.

Nava Cohen, currently a doctoral student in comparative literature and Classics at Northwestern University, spent over twenty years teaching Latin to students in all grades of elementary school in public and private settings in the Chicagoland area. Nava plays numerous roles within the national and local classics communities, serving as the chair of the American Classical League's Exploratory Latin Exam, as Illinois state legate for the Society for Classical Studies, as Engagement Chair of the Illinois Classical Conference, and on the planning committee of the ICC/NLU Latin Pedagogy Workshop, among assorted other roles, both formal and informal. Her research interests include the pedagogy of reading Latin and Greek, the reception of ancient literature in contemporary adolescent fiction, and the ethics of reading ancient text, specifically how we integrate modern understandings of justice and equity with an implicit respect for text and author. In June 2023, Nava was honored with the American Classical League Merens Award, recognizing sustained and distinguished service to Classics.

Nava will help advertise this K-12 learning opportunity through relevant state and local organizations for Classics/Latin and will serve on the application committee.

Kirsten Day, Ph.D., is a professor and chair of classics at Augustana College, where she also contributes to the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program. She is the author of a book (Cowboy Classics: The Roots of the American Western in the Epic Tradition) and several articles on the reception of classics in contemporary film and television, as well as the editor of two special journal issues dedicated to Classics and cinema. Among many different classes she has taught are several on the material culture of Greece, in association with the study abroad program she has directed since 2012, and several courses on women’s lives in antiquity. Her experience with weaving and ceramics, in addition to a range of other topics relevant to this Institute, make her a valuable hands-on assistant. 

Danielle Steen Fatkin, Ph.D., is Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs and Associate Professor of History at Knox College. Her area of scholarly focus is ancient religion, on which she has published several articles, and on which she has taught “Greek and Roman Religions” (an intermediate-level class) and “Ancient Mediterranean Religions” (an advanced undergraduate research seminar). She will teach about the religious context of the Games and everyday life in Olympia. Danielle’s childhood obsession with all-things Roman led her to study Latin, Roman history, and Roman archaeology. One of her college professors suggested that she try excavating at Caesarea Maritima, a site on the coast of Israel. Ever since, she’s spent as much time as possible learning about the Roman empire and the people that constituted it. Whether exploring the Roman Forum, investigating Byzantine houses in Jordan, reconstructing the beliefs of Herod the Great, or retracing the routes of community parades through ancient cities, Danielle’s research has long focused on the religious practices that held together ancient Mediterranean communities. Danielle will help institute members understand the role of religion in the Olympics and everyday Greek life.

Eric Engstrom, Ph.D., is an associate professor of biology, co-director of the Educational Farm and Educational Garden at Monmouth College, and a lifelong Classics enthusiast. His research interests focus upon both plant evolutionary development and bacteriophage biology, and his teaching interests encompass plant biology, genetics, and sustainable agriculture. He will teach us about ancient cultivation of grain and legumes, and about ancient beekeeping.

Professor Daniel W. Leon is an associate professor of classics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His main area of research is Greek and Roman historical narrative, particularly as it reflects intercultural relations and the political uses of the past. Additional interests include Hellenistic history, Roman Egypt, epigraphy, papyrology, and medieval Greek scholarship. He is the author of Arrian the Historian: Writing the Greek Past in the Roman Empire (University of Texas Press, 2021) and numerous articles on Greco-Roman literature, history, papyrology, and epigraphy. He has also taught Sports and Society in Ancient Greece and Rome, ancient Greek at all levels, and the Society for Classical Studies Material Culture Seminar; that seminar included a unit on papyrology. As a teacher, he encourages students to 'learn by doing' whenever possible. That can mean anything from arts and crafts projects to writing a commentary on an ancient Greek text to walking around on the battlefield at Plataea.

He will lead a workshop on processing papyrus reeds into paper during the first week of the institute.

Mr. J. Richard “Rick” Sayre retired from Monmouth College in 2018 after 20 years as library director of Hewes Library. He received his BA in History from Phillips University, in Enid, Oklahoma, and his Masters in Library Science from the University of Oklahoma. Prior to Monmouth College, Sayre served as a librarian at the Oklahoma College of Osteopathic Medicine and Surgery in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at Indiana University Libraries in Bloomington, Indiana, and another 16 years as library director of his alma mater, Phillips University. He lives in Galesburg with his wife, Mary Phillips, who is also retired, most recently as the curator of Monmouth College’s Art Collections. In retirement, Sayre devotes much of his time as a volunteer on the Board of the Carl Sandburg Historic Site Association in Galesburg, as the association’s Treasurer, Webmaster & Museum Store manager.

Rick will be discussing the fascinating saga of Monmouth College's storied "Canopus Stone," one of three plaster casts made in 1871 of the trilingual stele discovered in Tanis, Egypt in 1866 and hailed by scholars as second in importance to the Rosetta Stone in the translation of hieroglyphics.

Ralph Patterson, PhD, Ralph Patterson holds a BS in Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics from UNC, and completed the coursework for an MS in Physical Chemistry, and an MAT from Western Carolina University. He is pursuing an MS in Data Science with a focus on AI at Eastern Pennsylvania University. He has served as a Science Department Head and classroom educator with the Cherokee Indian Reservation and has taught various subjects online via Outschool. Currently, he is the Laboratory Manager for the Physics and Engineering Department at Monmouth College, overseeing lab operations and augmenting the student experience with innovative research opportunities and perspectives.

Janis Wunderlich, MFA, is an internationally renowned figurative ceramic artist. Her ceramic sculptures are on display in museums around the world, including Yingge Museum in Taipei, Taiwan and American Museum of Ceramic Art in CA. While known for her highly detailed storytelling forms, Wunderlich, who holds a BFA from Brigham Young University and MFA from The Ohio State University, has research interests in ancient ceramic art and tracing human innovation through ceramic materials and processes. She is an associate professor of art at Monmouth College in Illinois. Janis will be leading hands-on activities and demonstrations of ceramic materials and techniques that hearken back to ancient ceramic practices.