Profile

Katy Knortz is a Ph.D. candidate specializing in Classical Art & Archaeology. Her dissertation, “How to House a City: Urban Investment in Ostian Insulae,” examines the process of urban densification in imperial Ostia through the evolution of its city blocks. As part of her research, Katy uses a neighborhood neighborhood-based approach to identify how communities came to be organized in response to the private and imperial contributions that shaped their urban landscape. 

Katy is currently a team member of the Tharros Archaeological Research Project, directed by Steven Ellis of the University of Cincinnati (2022–). She has also excavated with Columbia University at Hadrian’s Villa (2019), the Apolline Project in Pompeii (2018), and Valdosta State University in Carsulae (2016). Katy is also currently part of an initiative to digitally catalog the Olcott collection of Roman coins at Columbia and has worked broadly on digital humanities projects with the media centers at both Columbia and Princeton. 

Katy holds an M.A. in Classical Art & Archaeology from Princeton University (2023), an M.A. in Classical Studies from Columbia University (2020), and a B.A. from the College of William & Mary in Anthropology and Classical Archaeology (2016). 

At Princeton, Katy has served as an Assistant of Instruction for courses on Pompeii and the Roman Empire. She has also most recently taught a course on Roman Civilization as an Adjunct Lecturer at Hunter College.