Gabrielle Epuran is a senior at Columbia College in the B.A./M.A. program majoring in Classics. With an interest in how moral and literary systems relate to one another in the ancient world, she conducted research under the mentorship of Professor Kathy Eden in Summer 2022. Her culminating paper argues that Aristotle's Poetics, Ethics, and parts of the Politics share common conceptions of physis, techne, and phronesis, specifically in how these terms relate to questions of historical vs. individual development. This past summer, she conducted another research project on whether or not Book III of Herodotus's Histories can be considered "credible" in light of what Aristotle and Quintilian have to say about credibility in narrative. Her findings are still a bit nebulous, but she thinks that Herodotus would have probably wanted it that way. As an MA student, she will continue to pursue her interests in moral and literary systems of antiquity and relate these to her interest in Renaissance philosophy.
Gabrielle plans to use the wisdom of the ancients to pursue a career as a fiction writer. She is currently trying to publish a novel and finish a small-budget movie that she made with other friends at Columbia (who, sadly, also have no film-making experience). In her spare time, she runs a moral and political philosophy debate society and enjoys watching movies at the Metrograph.