Nicole began her academic career as a Civil Engineering major at Tufts University. She completed her degree with a minor in History after realizing her interest in the subject. She subsequently remained at Tufts to pursue an M.A. in History, specializing in Byzantine History and Late Antique religion. During Nicole’s studies, she researched and wrote papers in topics including Late Antique popular religion, Christian collective memory, Greco-Roman divination, and the Byzantine Macedonian and Comneni dynasties. She plans to continue research in these areas, with specific focus on material culture and languages, while at Columbia.
At Tufts, Nicole worked as a teaching assistant for multiple Byzantine History classes. Following her degree, she spent a year working at the Old North Church Historic site, where she taught about eighteenth-century Colonial American history and religion through the lens of material culture. She also served as a teaching assistant for Tufts University professors abroad with the Institute of American Universities, where she assisted instruction and gained experience lecturing undergraduate students at archaeological sites in Greece, Italy, and France. She will be attending the American School of Classical Studies in Athens in Summer 2021, and plans to attend Columbia’s dig at Hadrian’s Villa as well.
