Q6: 学习这些语言对你的学术研究有帮助吗？
Is studying theselanguages helpful to your academic research?
我认为我所学习的这些语言对于人文学科的研究是至关重要的。比如，英语，意大利语，法语和德语是大多数西方人文学科学术论文发表的语言，而拉丁文和希腊文则是研究古典传统的基本手段。甚至很多英美院校的艺术史研究生需要证明自己的德语阅读能力（另一种现代语言是与研究相关的英语）。比如，在约翰·霍普金斯大学，她必须通过德语和法语的翻译考试，才能顺利地毕业并且获得研究生学位。（那时，意大语比法语对我的研究更加重要，但是由于我的意大利语非常流利，我被要求在选修另一门语言）。
事实上，我选择在大学学习德语是因为我所萌发的成为艺术史学家的愿望。而我选择了古典文学专业则是由于我想成为中世纪艺术史学家的愿望，因为许多跟中世纪相关的内容都来源于拉丁文和希腊文的文献。更加巧合的是，我的博士研究里的核心内容便包含了一首拉丁诗，我已经把它翻译成了英文。The languages I have studied are vital to research across the humanities, including my own. English, Italian, French, and German are the languages in which the majority of western scholarship in the humanities is published, while Latin and Greek are basic means for the study of the classical tradition. Graduate students of art history in Anglo-American institutions often need to demonstrate reading proficiency in German—work in this language was instrumental in the field’s early development—and another modern language besides English that pertains to their research. I was required to pass translation exams in German and French, for example, to earn my MA from the Johns Hopkins University. (Italian was at that point already more relevant to my research than French, but due to my fluency in Italian, I was forced to select an alternative.)Indeed, I chose to study German in college in view of my budding intention to train as an art historian. I chose to major in classics in view of my nascent wish to train as a medieval art historian, since the medieval world produced and referred to many texts in Latin and Greek.Fittingly, the manuscript at the heart of my doctoral project contains a Latin poem that I have translated into English.Q7:为什么选择在那么多不同的国家学习呢？
不同国家提供的学习经历有什么不同吗？
Why did decide to study in so many different countries and what arethe differences between lives or study experiences in these countries?
在学习的过程中，我要选择对自身教育有贡献的学习经历而不是根据国家来决定。由于国家文化与民族传统的不同，不同国家的教授内容也并不相同。在美国和英国，艺术史的学习通常从学习文化历史开始。而意大利往往把学习鉴赏力作为基础，即对艺术品的视觉特征和风格进行详细的分析。也正是因为意大利在鉴赏力学习上的国际威望，我选择获得一个意大利的文学硕士学位来更好地进行艺术史学习。
此外，由于学术交流日益国际化，因此我学习经历的这种多样性对我的智力发展具有了一定价值。我曾在在约翰·霍普金斯大学人文研究生院这种比较小的环境中生活过。在那里，甚至社会生活都集中在学术学院的周围。我也在比较大的的环境中生活过，比如在博洛尼亚大学，那个城市除了提供学习的环境以外，也提供其他一系列的购物环境。以及在牛津大学，学院里的学生部门也提供了另一种激励。以上所有这些都帮助我评估了对于开展人文研究的环境的一些相对优势和劣势，也给予了我大量的学术与个人联系网络。
I selected my study experiences less in light of the countries in which they took place than in light of what they might contribute to my education. Still, a major part of what these experiences have added has to do with national traditions. Crucially, whereas art-historical training in the United States and even the United Kingdom tends to begin from cultural history, the foundation of this training in Italy is connoisseurship, the close analysis of works of art based on their visual characteristics or style. So strong is the connoisseurial tradition in Italy that it distinguishes scholars trained there, and so respected is this tradition internationally that I too wanted better to understand it by earning an Italian MA.
Further,since scholarly exchange is increasingly international, the diversity of the settings of my study experiences has in itself been of value to my intellectual growth. I have lived in small contexts like the Johns Hopkins University’s graduate school in the humanities, where even social life is concentrated around the academic departments. I have also lived in large contexts like the University of Bologna, where the city offers an array of outlets besides those for study, and the University of Oxford, where students’ affiliations to colleges in addition to departments provides yet another stimulus. All this has helped me evaluate the relative strengths and weaknesses of the milieux in which humanities research is presently done, as well as allowed me to form a wealth of professional and personal connections.
Q8: 你愿意和我们分享一些过去的有趣经历吗？
Would you like to share some interesting experience during your paststudy periods?
在我过去的学习中有一个有趣的经历，那就是我在2017年夏天参观了伯尔尼（瑞士的一个城市）的Burgerbibliothek市政府图书馆。那时我还在约翰·霍普金斯大学进行硕士学习。作为一个把Liber adhonorem Augusti（《西库里斯的奥古斯丁·德·雷布斯》是一部带插图的拉丁叙事史诗）作为一个长期研究课题充满好奇的人，我急切地希望看到珍贵脆弱的手抄本，尤其是因为这几年来对它的访问实际上已经停止。尽管那次我没有被允许去查阅Liber，但是我拥有了机会能够向图书馆工作人员介绍自己并且获得了一些我之前并不了解的相关辅助文献。通过与图书馆员工建立直接关系，我大大增加了在未来获得观看手稿的机会的可能性。现在，Liber ad honorem Augusti 已经成为我的博士项目，我希望在本学年末可以被允许进行进一步咨询这本手抄本。An interesting experience from my past studies was my visit to the Municipal Library—the Burgerbibliothek—of Bern during the summer of 2017, as I worked toward my MA from the Johns Hopkins University. Having become curious about the Liber ad honorem Augusti as a longer-term research topic, I was eager to see where the fragile codex is held, especially since access to it has been virtually halted in recent years. Though I was not allowed to consult the Liber on that occasion, I was able to introduce myself to the library’s staff and gain hold of relevant secondary literature of which I had not been aware. By forming a direct relationship with the staff, I in any case wished to improve my chances of accessing the manuscript in the future. Now that the Liber has become my doctoral project, I hope to be permitted to consult it by the end of this academic year.Q9: 你在约翰·霍普金斯大学的助教工作中具体做了什么呢？你从中得到了什么机会呢？
What did you do duringyour assistantships in Hopkins? How to get this kind of opportunities?
根据约翰·霍普金斯大学对我的硕士毕业要求，我在硕士学位期间非同时地担任了两个本科课程的助教。学校要求其中一个必须是与我的中世纪艺术相关的专业，而另一个则没有这种要求。这种助教经历是为了让将来有可能从事教师职业的学生做好准备。在2016年秋季学期，我被要求参加一门有关古罗马艺术的课程，并于2017年春季学期，参加一门有关中世纪地中海艺术的课程。由于我的古典主义学习背景，我被选为了第一门课程的助教。我之所以被选为第二门课的助教，是因为它与我所发展的研究课题相关。作为助教，我需要为所有的作业打分，监督所有的考试，并在必要的研究中指导学生。偶尔也会教授课程，来代替缺席的教授或作为练习。
As a requirement toward my MA from the Johns Hopkins University, I served as teaching assistant for two non-concurrent undergraduate classes, one of which had to be within my specialty of medieval art and one of which did not.Assistantships are designed to prepare students for possible teaching careers.I was assigned to a class on ancient Roman art in the fall of 2016 and one on medieval Mediterranean art in the spring of 2017. I was chosen for the first one, which was outside my area, thanks to my background in classics; I was chosen for the second one specifically for its relation to my developing interests. As teaching assistant, I graded all assignments, proctored all exams, advised students in any required research, and occasionally taught course material, either as a replacement for the absent professor or as an exercise.
Q10: 为什么选择在以色列参加志愿者活动呢？这带给了你什么？
Why decided to have avolunteer experience in Israel? What did it bring to you?
在2012年和2013年夏天，我在以色列的霍尔瓦特·奥姆利特（Horvat Omrit）现场并获得了考古领域的经验。作为一名志愿者，虽然不需要支付住宿费用，但是我的工作也并没有报酬。在这种情况下，我依旧在通过实地考察扩展我的古典专业中展现了巨大的兴趣。之后，我被选为威廉姆斯学院团队的一员。这个团队为赫勒诺-罗马神庙建筑群的国际发掘做出了贡献。也就是在Omrit，我第一次开始与地中海文明（今天是我的主要研究领域）进行了具体接触。同时也把这次作为一次千年文化相遇，把这个课题当作了有前途的研究主题。在第二个夏天，我的参与度得到了加强。我被提升为挖掘工作的助理主管，我和团队一起参观了另一处古代中世纪的黎凡特遗址。我的主要职责是对这处的发现进行分类。我在Omrit进行的所有工作都提高了我对于艺术素材和背景方面的敏感性，也让我想成为一个艺术历史学家的愿望更加的强烈。
I gained archaeological field experience at the site of Horvat Omrit in Israel during the summers of 2012 and 2013. I was a volunteer in the sense that, while my stays were paid for, my work was not remunerated. On both occasions, I showed interest in expanding upon my classics major through fieldwork. I was then selected to be part of a team from Williams College that contributed to an international excavation of a Helleno-Roman temple complex. It was at Omrit that I first engaged concretely with the Mediterranean—today my widest area of study—as a millennial scene of cultural encounter and a promising research topic. My engagement intensified as I visited other ancient and medieval Levantine sites with the team and was promoted, during my second summer, to assistant supervisor of a section of the excavation. The greatest of my responsibilities in this role was to catalogue finds from the section. All of my hands-on work at Omrit heightened my sensitivity to art’s material and contextual aspects in view of my growing intention to become an art historian.
