SASA is delighted to welcome Julie Levy to the team as our new Programming Coordinator!
This role helps connect all of our teams and support their work to ensure continued progress on all fronts. As we’ve been looking to fill this role for so long, we are so happy to have such a competent, engaged new Programming Coordinator!
Julie was first introduced to SASA via our Archaeogaming projects. Julie had been interested in Archaeogaming and ancient world reception in gaming for quite some time, and having met several SASA members through that interest at panels, events, and online in the realm of academic Twitter, she felt like she should reach out. After speaking to our former Fundraising Team Leader, Tine Rassalle, Julie contacted the director, and less than a week later she was onboarded.
More than just an educator, Julie has a range of working experience. In addition to her many years teaching and researching as a graduate student, she also worked as an editor, project manager, and video essayist. As the new Programming Coordinator, her project management skills are particularly apt. SASA has many diverse and exciting projects happening all the time, and it's a tough job to make sure everyone is supported the way they need to be - but one that she is more than up to the challenge on.
Julie has extensive experience in Ancient Studies. With three degrees in Ancient Greek and Roman studies, focusing primarily on Ancient Greek poetry and comparative linguistics and history, her expertise is significant. Whether giving talks on comparative mythology, ancient Greek wedding rituals, Roman tragedy, the reception of Greekness into Roman literature, or the reception of Greek and Roman antiquity in modern gaming, Julie is an expert in the Classical World and its reception. Right now, she runs a YouTube channel where she gives scholarly commentary while livestreaming video games and makes video essays on ancient world topics.
As well as an inspirational educator and team player, Julie is a glowing example of what a modern independent scholar can do. Having left her PhD program ABD (all but dissertation) in protest over graduate student working conditions, Julie maintained connections through the internet. This ensured that she could still be invited into academic spaces for talks and projects that would once have been barred to her. This is a perfect example of SASA’s aims - to continue to support the growth of academic spaces for those outside of the traditional academic requirements.
SASA is founded on our collective passion for Ancient Studies, and Julie has characterized that as supporting her mission statement here at SASA. In her words, “we're all working together out of love for our subject, so I'm here to support everyone in that goal”.
Julie hopes that her work with SASA will give me experience working in a larger non-profit environment than she has ever had the chance to serve in before. Career-wise, she “couldn't ask for a better fit”: working with a large non-profit where she can exercise her scholarly and logistics skills fits her resume to the ground, whether she continues into nonprofit work or returns to academia. For herself, she says that she is looking forward to making forays into areas of ancient world studies that I haven't had the chance to explore. SASA's aims of portraying the ancient world as a whole, human place and of making that place accessible to the average person are some of her dream goals. All told, Julie is an excellent fit here at SASA and we are incredibly excited to have her aboard.