At the end of each school year, our faculty and graduate students look back to reflect on highlights — professional and personal — that occurred. We also invite our alumni to share with us and their classmates any news happening in their lives and careers. We compile this information in the following e-newsletter and associated web pages. If you would like to be on our email distribution list, please contact Nicole Coscolluela.
2024-2025
Message from Chair J. Clare Woods
Welcome to our newsletter. It has been a busy year, especially in Fall semester when the department hosted two big celebrations. First, the retirement of emerita professor, Tolly Boatwright, who retired from Duke in 2020 after forty years on our faculty as a beloved teacher, mentor, and colleague. The department hosted an afternoon of talks by former students and colleagues, followed by a wonderful reception. For those former students, friends, and fans of Tolly who were unable to make the symposium, you can read my introduction for her HERE.
Also in the Fall semester, as part of Duke’s Centennial year, the department gathered to celebrate our own (more than) century of researching and teaching Classical Studies at Duke. This was a great opportunity to delve into the archives and feature some of the people who helped shape our department over the last one hundred years. In 1924, we were a faculty numbering just two professors and an instructor; by the 1960s, when what had been separate departments of Greek and Latin merged to become Classical Studies, we had grown to around fifteen faculty, boasting a breadth of expertise and ancient world knowledge. Our celebration also featured a panel of emeriti faculty. Francis Newton, Gregson Davis, Kent Rigsby, Peter Burian, and Tolly Boatwright shared their memories of the department as it used to be and entertained us with some great stories. We also enjoyed an accomplished performance by some of our own graduate students of a scene from Aeschylus’ Persians.
For many of us, the Centennial celebration was our last chance to talk with Francis Newton. Sadly, he passed away in February. We've prepared a tribute page for him, so please do spend a moment reading the memories and stories shared there. If you have a memory, story, or photograph to share, it isn’t too late to add it to our page, so do please be in touch.
Please also check out our faculty and graduate student highlights! To give just a taste: we've have a really productive year with faculty books, several articles, co-hosting an international conference in Thessaloniki, and a new scholarly website. We've also made the most of opportunities to engage with the wider public and Duke alumni. Our graduate students have given nearly a dozen conference papers and won scholarships to study and travel abroad. I'm also deeply grateful to our staff - special shoutouts to Sondra and Nicole - and faculty colleagues working so hard to mentor our graduate and undergraduate students, and perform service for the department: as directors of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies, as coordinators for department events and talks, and those of us in roles that interface with other parts of the university.
It remains to wish you all well as we embark on a new academic year.
Check out the links below for updates and highlights from our faculty and students.
Graduate Student Highlights Faculty Highlights
Undergraduate Activities and Recognition
Three seniors received distinguished awards: Sidney Jordan, Anna Port, and Benjamin Peng. Sidney and Anna graduated with highest distinction. Both also were awarded the David Taggart Clark Prize in Classical Studies, which is awarded to the senior major in classical civilization or classical languages who is judged to have written the best honors thesis of the year. Jordan's thesis, advised by Professor Lauren Ginsberg, was titled Tragic Women in Roman Comedy: Two Case Studies from Plautus. Anna's thesis, advised by Professor Cassandra Casias, was The Contest of the Athletic Female Body in the Greco-Roman World.
Sidney is taking a gap year to work at a family medicine clinic before applying to medical school. Anna is off to Cornell for a Masters degree in Archaeology and Material Studies.
Benjamin won the CAMWS (Classical Association for the Middle West and South) Award for Outstanding Accomplishment in Classical Studies. He impressed faculty with his comprehension of the Latin language. Upon graduation, Benjamin will work as a Facebook software engineer.
Commencement 2025
On May 9, 2025, the Department bid farewell to a large cohort of senior majors - 13 students! Welcoming their families, we gathered at Parizade to send them off on their next adventure. We celebrated three students in particular. Sidney Jordan and Anna Port graduated with distinction and were both awarded the David Taggart Clark Prize in Classical Studies. Benjamin Peng was awarded the CAMWS Award for Outstanding Accomplishment in Classical Studies. To read more on our Class of 2025, click HERE.
Although most of the following students were not in attendance, we would like to recognize the work of our graduated minors.
Classical Civilization Minors: Nicole Lee Heberling, Ethan Bennett Rehder, Ishan Shah, Drew Gregory Temel, Melody Irene Tzang
Classical Archaeology Minors: Anna Elizabeth Port
Latin Minors: Brighton Elizabeth Greathouse, Vincent Jixun Chen
Gratias Agimus
We are immensely grateful to friends and supporters who designate their Duke gifts to help the Department. Even as they help us accomplish our goals of furthering the love and understanding of Classical Studies, they remind us that our department continues to have an impact on those we have taught and met. We use these individual gifts primarily to support student research and course enhancement.
We also want to recognize the several endowments that are vital to the health of the department. Some were set up long ago, while others are fresh contributions, but all are vital to our mission:
- The Warren Gates Endowment
- The Anita Dresser Jurgens Endowment
- The Francis Lanneau Newton Endowment
- The Leonard and Lynn Quigley Fund
- The Teasley Family Classical Antiquities Endowment
- The Teasley-Carroll-Trope Family Faculty Support Endowment
- The Diann Miller Nickelsburg Fund
If you are interested in learning more about how you can support the department, please contact Joanna Murdoch at joanna.murdoch@duke.edu or 919-684-2123.