Rafail Giannadakishe/him

I am an incoming PhD student in Classics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and hold a BA in Philology, specializing in Classical Studies, from the University of Crete. My academic interests center on Greek and Latin poetry, ancient philosophy, and Latin tragedy, with a particular emphasis on the melic poetry of Pindar and Sappho, Platonic philosophy, and Senecan tragedy. My research integrates digital humanities and AI applications in Classics and the humanities more broadly, exploring how these methods can support and advance research, teaching, and humanistic inquiry. Additionally, I am interested in ancient literary representations of women and material culture.

Before joining UCSB as a PhD student, I worked as a Research Assistant on the TALOS–AI4SSH EU ERA Chair project at the University of Crete, where I contributed to research, publications, and training at the intersection of Classics, digital humanities, and artificial intelligence. At UCSB, my work will integrate philological approaches with digital and computational methods to support close reading, textual analysis, and the interpretation of ancient literatures and languages. My studies at UCSB are supported in part by the 2026–2027 Fulbright Foreign Student Program and the A. G. Leventis Foundation.