Gregory Callaghan is the 2018-19 Chair for Research Council. He comes to the role after several years of participating in student government at the school and university level. Starting in 2015-16, he served as the Ancient History representative to the SASgov General Body. In 2016-17, he served as SASgov's VP of Financial Operations, as well as joining GAPSA as a General Assembly representative for SAS. Last year, he served as President of SASgov, as a General Assembly representative for GAPSA, and as the Finance Deputy for GAPSA and the G12's GAP program. For the upcoming year, Greg is excited to utilize data gathered last year to advocate for improved mentorship guidelines for research students, more funding opportunities, and to increase transparency between the administration, faculty, and graduate students--all policies that hope to build on the great successes of last year's Research Council. In addition to advocacy, Greg oversees the Research Council's Travel Grants and Academic Event Fund, as well as the GAPSA-Provost Fellowship for Interdisciplinary Innovation. 

Outside of student government, Greg is a 5th year Ancient History PhD candidate. He came to Penn after completing his BA in Latin at the College of William & Mary. His dissertation, tentatively titled "Attalid Networks: Seeking Status and Acquiring Authority beyond State Capacity," combines Network Analysis with modern IR concepts and applies them to the Attalid dynasty of the Hellenistic period. Greg's work draws from as many different sources as possible (archaeological, epigraphic, literary, numismatic, etc), and he is proud of his interdisciplinary approach to the ancient world. Due to his interdisciplinarity, Greg's research is generously supported by the Penn Museum's Louis J. Kolb Society, to which he was inducted as a Junior Fellow in April 2017. 

As a means of combining the two above sides of his life at Penn, Greg notes how often conversations sparked by or at GAPSA events have helped shape and improve his research. For instance, a discussion of the principles of organizational dynamics that underpinned the ongoing GAPSA Renewal Project inspired a new analytical angle for Greg's study of Seleucid versus Attalid interactions with local communities and has become a valuable argumentative thread in his dissertation. There are so many graduate students working on so many amazing projects at Penn, and it is far too easy to silo yourself off and only hear what your most immediate colleagues are doing. GAPSA provides a fantastic opportunity to break through some of those walls and to access a much broader intellectual community. Greg encourages everyone to take advantage of that opportunity, as you never know what a conversation with someone from an entirely different field may inspire.  

If you have ideas or suggestions you would like to share about GAPSA, please do not hesitate to contact Gregory at gapsa.research@gmail.com.