Theodora Kopestonsky
- BKT Assistant Professor of Classics
- Detchon Center 124
- 765-361-6339
- kopestot@wabash.edu
- Curriculum vitae
Professor Theodora Kopestonsky (Dr. K) began teaching at 91成人短视频 in 2024 after spending over a decade at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She is a specialist in Greek archaeology, particularly the Classical period (5th/4th centuries BCE), and has excavated in England, Italy, and Greece. She is most interested in ritual activity at small shrines or near water in ancient Greece.
Her current research is focused on the creation, use, and meaning of small objects, especially terracotta figurines. While her work often begins at the site of Corinth with its rich history, she also studies material from other sites in Boeotia, Aitolia-Acarnania, Rhodes, and Ionia that are rich in terracotta offerings. She is finishing her monograph on the Shrine of the Nymphs at Kokkinovrysi (Corinth) and working on other small projects connected to the religious experience at ancient sanctuaries.
Dr. K teaches all sorts of classes across the discipline in Classics from ancient Greek and Latin to ancient history to culture-focused content like ancient Greek Myth and Film as well as archaeology courses. From engaging in a mock hoplite battle to re-creating a procession or modernizing ancient genres, Dr. K’s class often have an experiential aspect to them.
As an undergraduate at the University of Evansville, Dr. K studied abroad at Harlaxton College in England and got her first taste of archaeology at an Etruscan site of Poggio Civitate (Murlo) in Tuscany, Italy. During her graduate work at the University at Buffalo, she spent three years at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens as a regular member (traveling around Greece) and as an associate member working on her dissertation and exploring the museum storerooms at ancient Corinth. She has returned several times to Greece to continue her studies.
While not as musically inclined as her colleagues in Classics, Dr. K enjoys listening to popular music (especially Taylor Swift) and mining it for allusions to ancient poetry and art. When she has time, baked goods will appear in Detchon Hall and her Greek classes.
Education
Ph.D. Classics (specialization: Greek Archaeology), University at Buffalo, 2009
M.A. Classics, University at Buffalo, 2003
B.A. summa cum laude, Classical Archaeology, University of Evansville, 2000
Recent Course Offerings
Greek 101/102- Beginning Greek
Greek 302- Advanced Greek (Herodotus)
Latin 302- Advanced Latin (Ovid)
Classics/Art 103 – Greek Art and Archaeology
Classics 111 – Greek myth and Film
Classics 115/History 200 – Introduction to Greece (History survey)
Recent Presentations
“Building Memories: Engagement with Modern Monuments,” CAMWS annual meeting, Champaign, (2025)
“Small but Mighty: Terracottas in Corinthian Ritual Practice,” keynote lecture for the 13th Annual Tennessee Undergraduate Classics Research Conference, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, (2025).
“Entangled Communities: Multidimensional Use of Nymph Shrines in Ancient Greece,” CAMWS annual meeting, St. Louis, (2024)
“Nymphscapes: Watery Sanctuaries and Human Interaction in the Greek World,” Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions conference, Godscapes: Ritual, Belief and the Natural World in the Ancient Mediterranean and Beyond, Edinburgh, (2023)
“The Coroplast’s Perspective: Finding Reflections of Daily Life in Greek Terracottas,” AIA Annual Meeting, New Orleans, (2023).
Recent Publications
“Teaching Evidence Use and Interpretation with Coins,” Journal of the Numismatic Association of Australia 30 (2021): 24-46. (co-written with Lee L. Brice)
“Offerings, Ritual, and Water: The Case of the Sacred Spring at Corinth,” in Ancient Waterlands (2019), eds. Betsey A. Robinson, Sophie Bouffier, and Iván Fumadó Ortega, Presses Universitaires de Provence, pp. 51-66.
“Don’t Borrow Money from Catullus…or Rihanna,” Sententiae Antiquae blog, 15 August 2019,
“Never Out of Style: Teaching Latin Poetry with Popular Music,” Teaching Classical Languages 10.2 (2019), pp. 71-100.
Honors & Awards
Society of Classical Studies Collegiate Teaching Award, 2021.
Kress Publication Fellowship, 2018.