The Team | UCLA RomeLab

Professor Chris Johanson

Chris Johanson's research applies the tools and techniques of digital humanities and the analytical methodologies of classics to social historical problems. He is currently developing a hybrid, geo-temporal publication tentatively titled Funerary Spectacle: Aristocratic Display in the Roman Forum, which is a study of material and literary contexts set within a digital laboratory. As Co-Director of the UCLA Experiential Technologies Center and as a Co-Director of the Laboratory for Digital Cultural Heritage, he has collaborated on mapping projects set in Bolivia, Peru, Albania, Iceland, Spain, and Italy, and currently directs Digital Anatolia, a digital mapping project that aims to radically reengineer the archaeological site report. Phase I focuses on the Hellenistic/Roman site of Magnesia on the Maeander in western Turkey.

Marie Saldaña

Marie is currently Digital Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow in the History department of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She earned her PhD in Architecture from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2015. Her expertise in technology has contributed to several of the ETC's digital projects. In addition, Marie holds a professional M.Arch degree from UCLA and an MA in Archaeology from the University of Durham.

Matt Long

Matt Long served as the primary website developer for the RomeLab project. He designed and implemented the php scripts that control the splash page and the individual sub pages. In addition, in collaboration with UCLA’s Digital Library, he implemented the php scripts to pull Unity binary files from the Drupal CMS in RomeLab Alpha. Lastly, he modified the functionality of the virtual world narrative page by adding calls to toggle the narrative view on/off and to control GameObject’s visibility within the Unity window.

Raman Mustafa

Raman, 2014 graduate of UCLA’s M.Arch II program, created 3D mock-ups of temporary arena fencing and temporary amphitheaters using Cinema4D. He also customized Unity’s cel-shader to produce the linework look and feel of the virtual world experience.

Kathryn Chew

Kathryn created an experimental first draft of a 3D critical edition through the use of CityEngine rules and Arcmap attribute tables built by RomeLab lead designer, Marie Saldaña.

Amy Hawkins

Amy Hawkins designed and implemented the wordpress-based Humanities Virtual Worlds Consortium website. In addition, she built the Drupal Content Management System for RomeLab Alpha.

Mike D'Errico

Mike D'Errico is a PhD student in the UCLA Department of Musicology and the Digital Humanities Graduate Certificate Program. His research interests and performance activities include hip-hop and electronic dance music, video games and generative media, and sound studies. He is currently the web editor and social media manager for the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, as well as two UCLA music journals, Echo: a music-centered journal andEthnomusicology Review. As a staff music writer forurbanscene magazine, Mike reviews hip-hop and electronic dance music event series in the Los Angeles area. From Boston to LA, he has performed as a DJ, drummer, and electronic musician for various experimental music acts.

Leslie Bloomfield

Leslie Bloomfield developed wireframe mock-ups for the in-world navigation interfaces and symbology.

Guzden Varinlioglu

Through the course of Guzden Varinlioglu's undergraduate education in architecture at Middle East Technical University and her graduate education in graphic design at Bilkent University, she became interested in digital technology and its contribution to the preservation and presentation of cultural heritage. Her research period in Texas A&M University in 2010 was followed a the PhD degree from the Program of Art, Design and Architecture in Bilkent University. Her research responded to the lack of systematic methodology for the collection, preservation and dissemination of data in underwater cultural heritage studies. In 2011, Guzden received a post-doc position in architectural design computing at Istanbul Technical University. In January 2013, she started her post doctoral studies at the Center of Digital Humanities at UCLA

Jennifer Berdan

Jennifer collaborated with PI Johanson to outline the RomeLab proposal submitted to the UCLA’s Digital Library.

Lisa McAulay

Lisa McAulay, from UCLA’s Digital Library, is the project manager for the collaboration between RomeLab and the Library to host the virtual world companion to “Funerary Spectacle: Aristocratic Display in the Roman Forum” on the Digital Library’s Drupal-based publication platform.

Stephen Davison

Stephen Davison, from UCLA’s Digital Library, helped shepherd initial collaboration between the RomeLab team and the UCLA Library.

Benjamin Niedzielski

Benjamin is a Ph.D. student in the Program of Indo-European Studies at UCLA. He has an Sc.B. in Mathematics and Computer Science from Brown University and an M.A. in Classics from the University of Kansas. He has served as a programmer for a number of RomeLab projects. He also acted as a research assistant, gathering material for the project's lexicon of structure paradata.