In her 6 years teaching at Connecticut College Nina taught 16 distinct courses, helping to reinvigorate the Classics Department and inspiring numerous students to study Classics and the Ancient World. In ancient language courses, she taught a variety of authors, from Homer to Plato, and Plautus to Pliny. Her courses in translation ranged over drama, mythology, classical reception, comparative literature, and a course on ancient Greek beliefs, attitudes, and rituals regarding death. To connect the ancient material to our world today, Nina regularly took students to modern performances and exhibitions inspired by the Ancient Greeks: from Strauss’ Elektra at the Metropolitan Opera, to Trinity Rep’s black odyssey in Providence, Martha Graham’s Greek-inspired dances at the New York City Center, and the Slater Museum in Norwich, CT. As part of her upper-level Greek course on the Odyssey in 2018, Nina took her students to Greece, traveling to Athens, Corinth, Epidaurus, Mycenae, Pylos, Olympia, and Delphi, a trip designed and organized by her. This experience was life-changing for the students  as they wrote enthusiastic reviews, as well as reflections for the college website and the student paper. 

Photo Courtesy of CYA

At College Year in Athens Nina teaches Greek Drama and Ancient Greek Mythology and Religion. Her aim is to bring out the myths’ diverse interpretations and she focuses on their significance, value, and relevance in both antiquity and modern times, tracing the ways in which Greek myth has been received, interpreted, and reimagined across time. The course includes numerous field trips both to archaeological sites (the Acropolis, the Theater of Dionysus in Athens, the sanctuary of Demeter at Eleusis, the sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron) and to modern reimaginings of these myths (from Poreia Theatre’s production of Prometheus Bound to Cherubini’s opera Medea at the Greek National Opera). Nina hopes that the stories of the Greeks can help students place their own experiences within a larger framework and can eventually assist them in dealing with their personal struggles and difficulties – injustice, isolation, disease, death, loss, intergenerational conflicts, family tensions, peer struggles – issues that the Greek myths are keenly interested in and issues that we are all required to face at some point in our lives. 

CYA Spring 2022 student, Sarah Reid, discusses her experience in Nina’s Mythology course in her blog piece It was Impossible to Stay Uninterested: Studying Myth and Religion at CYA.

CYA Spring 2023 student, Meredith Neid, writes about how the study of myth helped her in gaining a better understanding of Modern Athens. Read her piece here: “Understanding Modern Athens through the Study of Greek Myth”.

CYA Fall 2024 student, Max Wright, writes about their experience studying Greek Theater in Athens and the value of seeing ancient drama live. Read their full piece here:
From Michigan to the Odeon: How Seeing Greek Theatre Live Changed My Perspective

Nina believes that studying the Ancient Greeks – their literature and culture – can instigate discussion on significant issues, can help us understand human nature and human difference, gain a deeper appreciation of ourselves and others, and think deeply about the way we operate and co-exist in our societies. Nina is also driven by her goal of teaching the Ancient Greeks to elicit sympathy and compassion for human beings across time and across the globe in order to help students become responsible citizens of the world. 

Read more about her thoughts on the value of teaching Classics in the 21st century in her piece Awakening Compassion Through the Greeks.

Nina demonstrated the significance Classics has in the modern world. 

My professor was SO enthusiastic about the material. Honestly probably one of the most passionate in their field. Her love for Greek mythology became infectious amongst the class. Her energy level was also constant almost every day, there weren’t down days/off days. 

I thought the professor did an excellent job synthesizing the important points in the class discussions while also giving us opportunity to explore and search for the answers ourselves.

Nina did a great job making the texts accessible to students. Greek mythology has been associated with elitism and upper-class learning in the past, so it’s awesome to have a professor who makes the texts accessible for students who study a variety of different subjects and who have varying levels of familiarity with ancient Greece.

Nina is also a strong proponent of interdisciplinary study. To enrich her students’ experience, to provide another perspective to the material studied, and to bring together students of diverse fields and backgrounds she has collaborated extensively with colleagues in Theater, Art History, Philosophy, Botany, Archaeology, and Sociology. At Connecticut College Nina organized a number of interdisciplinary events and collaborated, as an example, with Professors in Theater for evenings of dramatic Greek tragedy readings and with a Professor of Botany for Botanical Latin tours of the college’s arboretum. At College Year in Athens Nina seeks out collaborations with colleagues in other fields and collaborates extensively with Sociology Professor Rosa Vasilaki; together they have organized a number of team-taught field trips, while they are planning a team-taught course on Ancient and Modern Greek Values of Life and Death. Their pedagogical approach strives to connect the ancient material to modern sociological issues. Through their collaboration they aim to bring the classical material to life through the lens of sociology and to provide greater depth to the contemporary sociological material through comparisons with analogous issues in the ancient world. The two of them presented their approach during a workshop on pedagogical methods at the Society for Classical Studies (SCS)/Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) annual conference in January 2023 in New Orleans.

Photo Courtesy of CYA

At College Year in Athens

Spring 2020- Spring 2025

Spring 2024

Fall 2023 & Fall 2024

At Connecticut College

Spring 2019

Fall 2018

Spring 2018

Fall 2017

Fall 2016 – Spring 2017

Fall 2015 – Spring 2016

Fall 2014 – Spring 2015

Fall 2013 – Spring 2014

At Columbia University

Fall 2011 – Spring 2012
Fall 2009 – Spring 2010

Summer 2009

Fall 2007 – Spring 2008

Fall 2006 – Spring 2007

Fall 2005