The following is a partial list of national, university, school and departmental awards presented to the members of the Class of 2025. In some awards where there are multiple winners, only members of the Class of 2025 are included. read more about Department Honors and Laurels for the Class of 2025 »
Benjamin Peng is a Trinity senior graduating in 2025 with a double major in Classical Studies and Computer Science. We asked him to tell us a little bit about his experience, and about the unexpected benefits of graduating with these two very different majors.Were you always interested in Classical Studies?I came into Duke with no experience with Latin and no experience with the classics more broadly, but I've come to really appreciate the four years I've spent studying Latin, and I can honestly… read more about Introducing Trinity’s Class of 2025: Benjamin Peng »
North Carolina native Sidney Jordan has known about Duke for most of her life.“I started coming here for soccer camps when I was six or seven years old and remember thinking the campus was such an amazing place that I just wanted to be here. But at that age, how much does a kid really understand about college?”Years later, while tagging along on her older sister’s campus tour, Jordan’s perspective deepened. "Everything I saw, I liked. The academics are obviously challenging, and I wanted that, but I also loved the… read more about From Soccer Camp to the Hippocratic Oath »
Undergraduate Classical Studies students, Deven Gupta and Paul Rosu, have been named 2025 Barry M. Goldwater Scholars, receiving up to $7,500 annually toward the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board. Goldwater Scholars are students who already have an exceptional research record and are pursuing careers in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering.Read the Duke Today article HERE. Deven Gupta Paul Rosu Gupta is a… read more about Two CLST students named 2025 Goldwater Scholars! »
Two Duke University undergraduates have been honored as Barry M. Goldwater Scholars, which supports students who already have an exceptional research record and are pursuing careers in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering. Each Goldwater Scholar receives up to $7,500 annually toward the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board.Deven Gupta and Paul Rosu are among the 441 students awarded Goldwater Scholarships this year. Goldwater Scholars are nominated by their respective universities and… read more about Two Undergraduate Scientists Named 2025 Goldwater Scholars »
Message from the Chair:Dear Friends,I am very sad to report that our beloved emeritus colleague, Professor Francis Newton, passed away Friday, February 14. As many of you know, Francis joined the department in 1967. He taught for us for over thirty years and chaired the department three times. A classicist with a research focus in western manuscripts, Francis went on to become one of the world’s leading experts in Beneventan (Central and Southern Italian) script and book culture. He retired in 1998 but continued to research… read more about Professor Emeritus Francis Newton Passes »
Associate Professor of Classical Studies Lauren Ginsberg talks to the Graduate School about the importance of mentorships at Duke. She is the School's first Graduate Faculty Fellow, assisting School leadership on processes and decision-making. In the article, Professor Ginsberg notes now mentorship is different within the humanities from STEM. Read the article HERE. read more about A Mentor's Many Hats »
The department would like to take the time to thank everyone for coming to honor Tolly Boatwright with talks by her former students and colleagues on Friday, November 1 and for returning on Saturday, November 2, to hear more about the history of classical study at Duke, watching graduate students perform The Persians, and to hear stories and anecdotes from several emeriti and Tolly.On Friday, there were two sessions with three paper presentations each: Eric Adler, Department of Classics,… read more about Thank you for coming to Tollyfest and the Department Centennial! »
My name is Olivia, and I spent the summer of 2024 in Jackson, Mississippi completing an archeological field school. Asylum Hill is thought to be the largest bioarchaeological site in the United States, with over 6,000 graves lost to time on the grounds of the University of Mississippi Medical Center. These are the bodies of individuals who died at the Mississippi Lunatic Asylum between 1855-1935. Although the graves were once marked with wooden signs, those markers have rotted away, leaving stretches of unbroken, unassuming… read more about Olivia Ares: Archaeological Field School, Jackson, Mississippi »
Thanks to the Classical Studies department’s Research Travel Award, I was able to complete the 2024 Postgraduate Epigraphy Course at the British School at Athens (BSA) in Greece. Dr. Peter Liddel and Dr. Polly Low taught the class, covering all of the need-to-know topics for understanding epigraphy and incorporating it into research, and all over a period of just 10 days. One portion of the program focused on lecture-style sessions for learning about the history of epigraphy, how to work on it, and why it’s important to do… read more about Tara Wells: Postgraduate Epigraphy Course at the British School at Athens »
This summer, I was fortunate enough to participate in the Summer Session at the American School for Classical Studies in Athens with the help of travel funding from Duke’s Department of Classical Studies. The ASCSA Summer Session is a six-week program in which students travel throughout Greece visiting archaeological sites, monuments, and museums from Crete up to Thessaloniki. My nineteen peers and I, under the leadership of Professors Amy C. Smith (University of Reading) and Amelia Brown (University of Queensland), were… read more about Emma Glen: American School for Classical Studies Summer Session »
Anna at Paestum This summer, a research travel award enabled me to participate in the Classical Summer School at the American Academy in Rome. In the program, I spent five weeks living in Rome with a group of graduate students and teachers, visiting museums and archaeological sites in the city and the surrounding area. I was able to have firsthand experience of the aspects of the city’s material culture and architecture I’ve only read about or seen in photographs. Being there in person… read more about Anna Cambron: Roman Life and Material Culture »
Phoenician Graves by the Sea, Cádiz I am very grateful for the department’s travel funding, which enabled me to travel to Spain. I was based in Madrid, where I took intensive Spanish classes and began my doctoral research. I am pleased to say that I was able to progress quickly through the beginning stages of the Spanish language. My ability to read Spanish academic articles, monographs, and other publications increased by leaps and bounds, which will prove fundamental to my future… read more about Andrew Welser: Early Dissertation Research and Language Training in Spain »
Hello, I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and express how excited I am to start at Duke Classical Studies. It is an opportunity to return to my academic roots and be surrounded by ancient history and archaeology once again. Excavating in Macedonia I studied Classics and Archaeology at Johns Hopkins University, completing my undergraduate thesis on Etruscan burial patterns under Herica Valladares (now at UNC-Chapel Hill) and Emily S.K. Anderson. My fieldwork experience took… read more about Meet our new Program Coordinator, Nicole Coscolluela! »
Tori Lee ('22 PhD), current Postdoctoral Fellow at Boston University, was recently awarded the 2024-2025 Women's Classical Caucus (WCC) Leadership Award for her commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive environment within academia. While at Duke, Tori co-founded the diversity committee in the Classical Studies Department and led discussions for its anti-racist reading group. Read more about Tori HERE and the prize announcement HERE. read more about 2022 PhD Tori Lee Wins Women's Classical Caucus Prize »
In Spring 2024, FHI 25 kicked off with a series of conversations engaging some of the most significant humanities scholars of our time – all formerly or currently affiliated with Duke University – to historicize the University's significant investment in the humanities in the 1980s, reflect on what such investment made possible alongside national and international developments in the field, and propose future directions of humanities scholarship and teaching within and beyond Duke. Watch Dr. Gregson Davis' talk HERE… read more about FHI at 25: Gregson Davis, "Towards the Flourishing of 'Transcultural Humanities'" »
Lauren D. Ginsberg, associate professor of Classical Studies and an expert on Ancient Rome, answers the internet's burning questions about the Roman Empire. What did Romans snack on in the Colosseum? Why does Ancient Roman concrete differ from modern forms of concrete? Did gladiators really fight lions? This Roman expert answers all these questions and much more with WIRED's Tech Support. read more about Classicist Lauren Ginsberg Has Answers to Your Roman Empire Questions »
Professor Jed Atkins spoke on "Fostering Transformative Conversation Across Difference" along with panelists from Braver Angels, Duke Library, UNC, and UC-Boulder for the conference “Combating Hate and Violence,” Polis: Center for Politics, Duke University, November 5, 2023. read more about Jed Atkins, “The Unifiers: Fostering Transformative Conversation Across Difference” »
This week the Society for Classical Studies featured the work of our recent PhD student, Sinja Küppers, in a post titled: "Women in Roman Higher Education: Marginal(ized) Learners, Teachers, and Intellectuals." Read more about her work and future plans here! https://classicalstudies.org/scs-blog/torilee/blog-women-roman-higher-education-marginalized-learners-teachers-and-intellectuals read more about Küppers featured on the SCS Blog: Women in Roman Higher Education: Marginal(ized) Learners, Teachers, and Intellectuals »
During the summers of 2016 and 2017, a series of Unoccupied Aircraft System (UAS, aka drone) missions were flown over the Vulci plateau, an archaeological relevant site near Rome, Italy. The city of Vulci played a prominent role in Italian history and remains a pivotal piece in understanding the physical and social changes that occurred for both Etruscan and Roman cultures between ~9th century BCE and the ~4th century CE. Given the temporal and financial costs of conducting traditional archaeological excavation on a city-… read more about Vulci 3000: Multispectral drone for the reconstruction of Etruscan landscapes in Italy »
The Duke Chronicle recently profiled Duke's Transformative Ideas Program, led by Classics professor Jed Atkins, and its Living-Learning Community, co-led by Classical Languages Major Jason Murray, Jr. See here: https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2023/10/duke-university-transformative-ideas-interdisciplinary-program-sophomores read more about Transformative Ideas in the Duke Chronicle »