Our Management
David Danzig
I am a Doctoral Candidate studying Ancient Near Eastern History at New York University's Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. SASA came together in my mind as part of my response to my growing realization over the last several years of the accelerating decrease in Ancient Studies. My experiences in universities, my passion for the ancient world, and my talent for bringing people together to work on projects led me to take action and found SASA. I am so proud to be part of a team of wonderful individuals, committed to sharing the ancient world and Ancient Studies with the public. I am also the Lead Researcher on the Shanati Project, supported with a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which is working to reconstruct the daily ancient Babylonian Calendar. My scholarship focuses on mining ancient texts to build understandings of how immigrant identities developed in their new contexts. I live in New Jersey with my wife and three beautiful children.
Lauren Kubosch
Although my work life has turned away from ancient studies since I received my BA in Classical Civilizations, I have always been passionate about ancient history and wanted to find a way back into the field. Through SASA I have been able to re-connect with academia, and in a way that highlights inclusivity, outreach, and education at every level. Working with amazing scholars in various ancient history fields through SASA encourages me even more to promote the importance of ancient studies, to further explore my passion in the field, and strive towards inclusion and innovation in ancient studies as a whole to keep these important fields alive and thriving! I love to travel and document not only ancient sites, but also artifacts and collections I see to share and help spread the knowledge and interest in the ancient world.
Valeria Zubieta Lupo
I am an Assyriologist with a focus on Hittitology. My current research interests are Hittite and Mesopotamian medicine, as well as the perception of diseased and disabled within the Anatolia of the second millennium. Right now I am working on a book about Hittite medical recipes. My experiences in the study and research of the ancient world made me very passionate about inclusivity and accessibility to education. I am very interested in understanding the current state of ancient studies, its problems, and weaknesses to hopefully bring a positive contribution to achieve a better future for the field and its people. And through SASA I have been able to combine each one of these passions.
John Haberstroh
I want to make the ancient world more accessible for everyone! I got involved with SASA because I want to inspire young people and life-long learners to pursue areas of interest in the ancient world, whether casually or in higher education. I am a PhD Candidate in History at UC Riverside. My research and teaching interests focus on the ancient Mediterranean with special interests in collective Greek identity, race and ethnicity, ancient athletics, religion, archaeology, and mythography. The Ancient Near East and the Late Antique worlds are burgeoning areas of interest for me—there is so much to learn with so little time! I have traveled to Greece, Turkey, and Italy several times, and I even lived in Athens for eight months in 2017-2018 (read about some of my travelers on my blog). These travels were foundational for my love and study of ancient Greece. Many great mentors along my educational journey encouraged me to pursue a PhD, and I want to pass on that curiosity and wonder to my students and the general public.
Kate Minniti
I am a PhD Candidate in Classical Archaeology in the Department of Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies at the University of British Columbia. I have a Master’s Degree in Art History and Archaeology from NYU and one in Egyptian Archaeology from UCL. I have been working as a field archaeologist around the Mediterranean for a decade, and since 2015 I am a senior member of the NYU-UniMi excavation in Selinunte (Italy).
My main research field is the study of Mediterranean connections during the Iron Age; my dissertation is an analysis of the reception, use, and meaning of Egyptian and Egyptianizing imports in Sicily.
I am also a gamer, and have become extremely active in researching how video games (mis)represent the Ancient World and archaeology - which is why I first got involved with the SASA archaeogaming project! I think it is important to recognize the impact that games have on the portrayal of Antiquity, and to address the positive and negative aspects of this new medium, without forgetting the fun that comes with playing!
Flor Fustinoni
I am an Italo-Argentine currently based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with BA and MA in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology from the University of British Columbia. I have been lucky enough to excavate in Cyprus for one summer as a student and in Israel for four summers as a staff member, and to participate in a variety of academic events during my time as a student, and love sharing my experience with others. I am currently working outside of academia, in the world of language schools, but am always looking for ways to continue being involved, so when I learned of SASA, I jumped at the chance to be a part of it. I love the ancient world and have since I was very young, and I am very glad to be part of an initiative focused on introducing the ancient world to a larger audience.
Abaan Zaidi
I am a teacher-in-training based in the UK and (surprise surprise) absolutely love history! I completed my BA in History (Ancient & Modern) from the University of St Andrews in 2019 and my MPhil in Assyriology from the University of Cambridge in 2020. I want to make the past as interesting and accessible as I can and am passionate about driving change within the education sector. Too often history is seen as a boring, useless, or irrelevant subject. I want to change that, and share the past that I know and love - that is vibrant, immediate, and mind-bogglingly *weird* - with as many people as possible.
