Hailing from Beijing, China, I graduated with a BA summa cum laude in Classics from Middlebury College, Vermont, and also studied in Harare, Zimbabwe and at the Sorbonne in Paris. My research focus for the MSt course at Oxford was on ancient pastoral poetry. I studied the development of the genre from its Hellenistic beginnings to the representative Latin works by Virgil and later imperial poets. For my dissertation, I attempted to delineate the bucolic elements in Ovid’s early collection of elegy Amores, where the poet incorporates and engages with the pastoral tradition as a means to communicate his unique brand of erotic poetry. For my other two pre-submitted essays, I wrote on the idea of deification of political and poetic personae Virgil’s fifth Eclogue, and the perception of sexuality in the poems of Calpurnius Siculus. I also took a class on textual criticism of Seneca’s Medea, where I practiced reading manuscripts, analysed conjectures for uncertainties in the text, and acquainted myself with the style of Senecan tragedy.
I am extremely honored to be part of the Ertegun community, which has been a constant source of help, fellowship, mirthfulness and consolation in difficult times. At Ertegun House, I met many inspiring people and made lifelong friends. I would like to thank our wonderful Director Ed and Administrator Jill, and will remain grateful for the privileges and opportunities made possible by Mica and Ahmet Ertegun and the rest of the board.