Maria Kovalchuk

Maria Kovalchuk
Visiting Assistant Professor (2024)
BA, Northwestern; M.Phil., Cambridge; PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Office Location: Tribble C306
Contact: (336) 758-5330; kovalcm@wfu.edu

Dr. Kovalchuk teaches Latin language and conducts research on Homer and the Hellenistic poets.  She received her BA in Classics from Northwestern, where she also played on the Big Ten Champion field hockey team.  She then spent two years working as a paralegal in Los Angeles.  Dr. Kovalchuk went on to receive her M.Phil. in Classics from Cambridge and her Ph.D. in Classical Studies (with a certificate in Global Medieval Studies) from the University of Pennsylvania.  During graduate school, she was also a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Heidelberg in Germany.  Dr. Kovalchuk’s Ph.D. dissertation examined the themes of ignorance and naivete in Theocritus.  She argues that, although the mythological heroes and heroines in Theocritus are outside of the world of pastoral, they have humorous characteristics in common with the shepherds of the bucolic Idylls.  Fun fact about Dr. Kovalchuk is that she was born in Siberia and raised in Finland and Pittsburgh.