At Connecticut College Nina also oversaw the college’s Foreign Language Fellows initiative through which advanced-level language students and international students designed and ran extracurricular events of various sorts in several foreign languages. As part of this initiative she helped organize the college’s International Children’s Expo, an outreach program through which college students worked directly with over 100 local public school children in introductory language workshops. The goal of the program was to create opportunities for collaboration between the local and academic communities. In addition to organizing the expo, Nina discussed pedagogical approaches with the Latin and Ancient Greek college students and helped them run their workshops. An article about this event can be found here.

Photo Courtesy of CYA

Being passionate about outreach programming for Classics, Nina was appointed Public Engagement Coordinator for the Society for Classical Studies (SCS) in January 2019. In this position, she is a member of the Classics in the Community Committee and also oversees the SCS’s outreach initiative, “Ancient Worlds, Modern Communities” (formerly Classics Everywhere). This initiative encourages interdisciplinary collaborations between Classics and other fields and supports programs that engage individuals, groups, and communities in critical discussion of and creative expression related to the ancient Mediterranean. Nina writes regular posts for the SCS blog about the programs the initiative supports. In January 2022, 2023, and 2024 Nina together with the Chair of the Classics in the Community Committee, organized panels on this initiative during the SCS’s annual meeting. You can read about the 2022 panel here and the 2023 panel here. 

For the SCS Annual Meeting in January 2025 in Philadelphia Nina co-organized with James Ker, Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, a performance of the Martha Graham Dance Company at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre in downtown Philadelphia, as well as a panel accompanying the performance on “Dance and Myth: The Reception of the Greeks by Martha Graham”. The performance which included two of Graham’s Greek-themed dances, Cave of the Heart (1946) and Errand into the Maze (1947), was part of the society’s efforts to honor and celebrate Graham’s contribution to the study of ancient Greek culture. Nina gave introductory remarks and participated in a talk-back with the Company’s artistic director and dancers at the end of the show. More information about the performance and Graham’s Greek-themed works performed in Philadelphia can be found in Nina’s essays Martha Graham meets Ancient Greece in Philadelphia (co-written with Prof. James Ker) and Medea and Ariadne Reimagined: Honoring Martha Graham’s Deep Engagement with Greek Myth. Ronnie Ancona wrote about the performance here and Merilyn Jackon wrote a review for the dance magazine Fjord here.

Following the impactful performance of the Martha Graham Dance Company at the 2025 Annual Meeting, Nina and James Ker are co-organized a new performance for the 2026 AIA/SCS Joint Annual Meeting in San Francisco: the Odyssea by We Players, San Francisco’s premier site-integrated theatre company. The performance took place on Friday, January 9, 8:00–10:00pm in the Yosemite Ballroom at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square. More information about the Odyssea performance can be found here and in Benjamin Haller’s review here. 

In 2022 Nina conceived her own outreach project and started producing a series of presentations on Martha Graham and Greek mythology that integrate engaging talks, classical philology, and live dance. The series, titled “Martha Graham and Greek Myth”, aims to bring Nina’s academic research to the public at large.

A captivating speaker, Nina was invited to give the keynote speech at the Medical Conference “POSEIDON” on Artificial Reproductive Technologies in Estoril, Portugal. Her talk, “Poseidon, Myth, and Approaches to Fertility in Ancient Greece”, which opened the conference, presented Poseidon as a symbol of sexual potency and discussed approaches to ancient infertility, as well as fertility gods, rituals, and treatments.

In January and May 2023 Nina gave a series of public talks on Martha Graham and Greek Myth at Pyrna, a cultural organization that promotes life-long learning and personal development. These talks are geared towards and open to the broad public. More information can be found here. 

Nina also serves as a Smithsonian Journeys Expert for select trips to Greece, delivering lectures and sharing her expertise amongst Smithsonian’s intellectually curious travelers. In October 2024 she accompanied a group on a Ponant cruise in the Southern Aegean and delivered lectures on Martha Graham’s engagement with Greek myth, ancient Greek religion, the ritual of sacrifice, and Greek tragedy. Numerous Smithsonian travelers expressed their excitement for Nina’s contribution on the trip:

“What an inspiration and joy Nina’s lectures were! Nina’s passion for Martha Graham’s work and her scholarship on Classical Studies came together in one of most exciting presentations I have enjoyed in a very long time. As decades pass, we humans can become complacent and take the contribution of visionaries like Ms. Graham for granted: as if, somehow, the way she revolutionized dance was inevitable. Nina’s lecture jolted us out of such a stupor. The lecture was profound yet accessible. Nina explored with us the relevance of ancient myth to our modern existence and how Ms. Graham brought it all to life with her choices in art direction and costuming, as well as movement. It was the talk of everyone on the cruise.” – Deborah Brayton

“Nina’s ability to present new ways of seeing and thinking were inspirational. She is a gifted communicator and scholar who makes you understand how the myths and dramas of the ancient Greeks remain deeply meaningful to our lives today. What a fabulous addition to a journey through the Greek Isles. I am so grateful she was on our trip!” – Myrth York

“Our Smithsonian/Ponant trip to Greece was truly one of the best experiences of our lives. One of the highlights of our trip was Nina. Her knowledge, expertise and enthusiasm were unparalleled. Not only did we enjoy her lectures as a Smithsonian Expert, we were also fortunate to benefit from her insights during our excursion to Delos. We hope to return to Greece again in the future and will definitely try to schedule our trip when Nina is the Smithsonian Journeys Expert again.”  – Mary Burlington and David Statz