Allison Grenda is a fourth-year Communication Studies major and Art History minor undertaking a research project in the Art History department under the direction of Professor Sharon Gerstel. She is inspired by this field due to its ability to relay the histories of past peoples and different societies through material culture, which she sees as a highly authentic version of history and one that is often unintentional, therefore allowing average people to tell their own stories through the objects of their lives. Allison’s interests lie largely in ancient and early medieval art and architecture, and she is currently researching the transition of domestic architecture at the Athenian Agora from Late Antiquity to the Early Byzantine period. While Athens thrived as a major urban and cultural center under the Roman Empire, its grandeur and status largely decreased in the later centuries of the first millennium AD as a Byzantine outpost. Through focusing on the span of Michael Chionates’ rule as bishop of Athens, Allison is analyzing the archaeological remains of the neighborhoods around the Agora (the main marketplace and civic center of Athens) in order to ascertain how imperial changes and identity shifts were reflected in the houses of the Byzantine Athenian people, and what this can tell us about Greek culture at the time. After graduation in June 2017, Allison plans to take a gap year during which she will visit her site of the Agora in Athens before continuing her research and attending graduate school to pursue a career as a curator, museum educator, or professor.