Thea SOMMERSCHIELD

Bio

I am a Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. My research uses machine learning to study the epigraphic cultures of the ancient Mediterranean world.
I did my BA in Classics at the University of Pavia at Ghislieri College and a parallel MA in Humanities at the School for Advanced Study of Pavia (IUSS). I then moved to the University of Oxford to do a MSt in Greek and Roman History and a DPhil in Ancient History, which I was awarded in 2021.
I was the Ralegh Radford Rome Awardee at the British School at Rome (2020), Fellow in Hellenic Studies at Harvard’s CHS (2021-22), and member of Google Cloud's Research Innovators cohort (2022-23). 
Next year I will be beginning a Leverhulme EC Fellowship at the Department of Classics and Archaeology at the University of Nottingham.

My MCIF PythiaPlus project at Ca' Foscari

Unive Project website | EU CORDIS Project website

Recent Publications

2023 Sommerschield, T.,* Assael, Y., * Pavlopoulos, J., * Stefanak, V., Senior, A., Dyer, Bodel, J., Prag, J., Androutsopoulos, I., de Freitas, N. “Machine learning for ancient languages: A survey”. In Computational Linguistics, 29(2): 1-44. MIT Press [*co-first authors]. DOI link: https://doi.org/10.1162/coli_a_00481.

2022 Assael, Y.,* Sommerschield, T.,* Shillingford, B., Bordbar, M., Pavlopoulos, J., Chatzipanagiotou, M., Androutsopoulos, I., Prag, J., de Freitas, N. “Restoring and attributing ancient texts with deep neural networks.” In Nature, 603(7900) [*co-first authors]. Cover issue of 10 March 2022. DOI link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04448-z

2021 Prag, J., Sommerschield, T. “Sicilia epigrafica: dai depositi alla valorizzazione.” In R. Panvini, et al. (eds.) Beni Culturali: dai depositi alla valorizzazione. Modi, forme, esperienze, norme. Mesogheia. 117-136.

Personal Links

Personal website | LinkedIn | Google Scholar | Academia.edu | ORCiD | Twitter | GitHub

Recent press coverage

MIT Tech Reveiw (link) | Google Cloud (link) | RAI News 24 (link) | Le Monde (link) | Greek Ministry of Culture (link) | New Scientist (link) | Nature video (link) | Η Καθημερινή (link) | El Paìs  (link) | La Stampa (link) | The Guardian (link) | University of Oxford (link) | The Times (link) | DeepMind Research (link)

Teaching at Ca' Foscari

• Teaching assistant for Epigrafia latina: critica, contesto, strumenti digitali [FM0541] – Ca’ Foscari Università di Venezia (ref. Prof. Lorenzo Calvelli).
• Teaching assistant for Venice and the Classical World [ECC077] – International College, Ca’ Foscari Università di Venezia (ref. Prof. Lorenzo Calvelli).

Research interests

Greek epigraphy, ancient Sicily, Machine Learning for ancient languages, Greek religion, Greek history.

MA-PhD supervision

I have supervised and am currently supervising MA students in Greek and Roman history, Greek and Latin epigraphy and Digital Classics, and would welcome students in these areas and others, including epigraphy and in the application of digital humanities to classical studies.

Please make an appointment with me via email to discuss your interests.