Classical StudiesThanks to the generosity of various endowments, the Department of Classical Studies offers research funding to a limited number of Graduate and Undergraduate students. After completing their travel projects, the students are asked to share their experiences. Below are profiles from our past award winners.
Research Travel Award Winner (Undergraduate): Summer 2018 Through a generous grant from the Classics Department, I was able to spend one month this past summer working on an archaeological excavation in Vulci, Italy. This project, established and run by Duke University, brings students together from universities all over the world to experience hands-on archeological work. The team consisted of students of all ages and skill level. There were undergraduates with diverse academic backgrounds who were… read more about Helen Healey: Documentary Filmmaker for an Archaeological Excavation, Vulci, Italy »
Research Travel Award Winner (Undergraduate): Summer 2018 Thanks to very generous funding I was able to work on a second century Roman bath site in Cifali, located in the province of Ragusa, Sicily. The expedition was lead by Dr. Antonino Facella, professor of archaeology at Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, and Dr. Alexander Evers, professor of ancient history at Loyola University Chicago's John Felice Rome Center (JFRC). I was enrolled in the JFRC's Fusion program, which serves as an introduction to the field of… read more about Katherine Owensby: Second Century Roman Bath Site in Cifali, Ragusa, Sicily, Italy »
Research Travel Award Winner (Undergraduate): Spring 2018 From February 23rd to 25th, I attended a spoken Latin immersion weekend run by Salvi: The North American Institute of Living Latin Studies. The focus of the program was to strengthen both confidence and fluency in the Latin language. Also, in attendance were educators, monks, and other students from across the country. Together we participated in classes on vocabulary about daily life, and we drilled grammar constructions. We also read, discussed, and… read more about Katherine Owensby: Latin Immersion by Salvi, Claymont Mansion in Charles Town, W.Va. »
Research Travel Award Winner (Undergraduate): Fall 2017 From the 21st to 24th of October, I was at Yale University conducting research for my undergraduate honors thesis. My thesis aims to trace the institutional history of the American Society of Papyrologists and, more broadly, to study papyrology’s development in the US throughout the 20th century. Yale was indispensable to papyrology’s spread across the Western Hemisphere. In the 1930s, Russian émigré and renowned historian Michael I. Rostovtzeff imported papyrology… read more about Gabrielle Stewart: Papyrology Research, Yale University »
Research Travel Award Winner (Graduate): Summer 2017 At the center of my research this summer was a massive wall at the temple of Delphi which contains hundreds of records of the manumissions of slaves. The earliest records date to c. 200 B.C.E., the latest to c. 100 C.E. The slaves are men and women, Greeks and not. These inscriptions constitute our best textual evidence for those at the bottom of ancient society, yet our basic knowledge of the wall and the inscriptions is lacking. For example, there are many open… read more about Adrian High: Digital Humanities Summer Institute at the University of Victoria, Victoria Canada »
Research Travel Award Winner (Graduate): Summer 2017 This past August, some fellow grad students and I attended the Paideia Institute's Living Greek in Greece program, a two-week spoken-Ancient Greek program based out of the tiny seaside town of Selianitika, Greece. A group of about 30 philhellenes--ranging from high school students and undergraduates to grad students, professors, and even a poet-in-residence--gathered in the picturesque "Garden of the Muses" to read Hesiod and discuss it--all in Ancient Greek. After a… read more about Tori Lee: Paideia Institute’s Living Greek in Greece Program, Selianitika Greece »
Research Travel Award Winner (Undergraduate): Summer 2017 With the generous award that I received from the Teasley Family Antiquities Fund, I spent the summer at St. Hugh’s College at the University of Oxford doing exciting research on an existing project called “Anachronism and Antiquity” with Professor Timothy Rood. The goal of the project was to examine and contextualize ancient Greco-Roman art and literature in order to better understand anachronism as it relates to that time period. Additionally, the project studied… read more about Mycroft Zimmerman: Examined and contextualized ancient Greco-Roman art and architecture, Oxford England »
Research Travel Awards (Undergraduate): Summer 2017 With the generous support from the Quigley Fund, Yashas Manjunatha worked on the Vulci 3000 project under the direction of Classical Studies professor Maurizio Forte, with the end result being his development of a 3D app for the archaeological park. The fieldwork and digital data collection involved learning the capabilities and use of several devices and methods, including laser scanners, image modeling, spectral analysis, digital photogrammetry and remote sensing tools… read more about Yashas Manjunatha: Excavation at Vulci, Italy »
Research Travel Award Winner (Graduate): Summer 2017 This summer I was fortunate to receive a grant from the Teasley Family Antiquities Fund to attend the Paideia Institute’s Living Greek in Greece (LGiG) program, an intensive two-week program in which students of Ancient Greek strive to achieve fluency in spoken Ancient Greek through an immersive classroom environment. My journey to Greece began in early August, when I flew to Rome for a few days to visit some of my favorite classical landmarks and museums and begin to… read more about Erickson Bridges: Paideia Institute’s Living Greek in Greece Program, Selianitika Greece »
Research Travel Award Winner (Graduate): Summer 2017 For two weeks in August this year I attended the Paideia Institute's Living Greek in Greece Program in Selianitika, Greece. Paideia's goal through programs like this is to enrich the study of classical languages by having students engage in discussion in the target language as one would in a modern language course. This year the theme of the course was the works of Hesiod, so twice daily we met with our groups, guided by a resident Paideia instructor, to discuss (in… read more about Clinton Kinkade: Paideia Institute's Living Greek in Greece Program, Selianitika Greece »
Research Travel Award Winner (Undergraduate): Summer 2017 I shift where I kneel, adjusting my knee pads to minimize contact with sharp rocks and jagged root ends. As the sun warms my back, dissipating the mist curtains that had been floating between hills and mountains, and the cool wind blows through me, I pick up the brush I had set on the ancient mortar stone protruding from the ground. My excavation partner had found a context- a set of bones in the same strata, likely belonging to the same specimen. Taking a… read more about Inessa Chandra: Sondor Bioarchaeology Field School, Sondor Peru »
Research Travel Award Winner (Undergraduate): Summer 2017 With the generous award I received from the Quigley family and their newly established Quigley Endowment, I was able to participate in the Proyecto Arqueológico Renieblas (PAR) in Renieblas, Spain, and visit the Museo Arqueológico Nacional in Madrid. Co-directed by Dr. Alicia Jiménez of Duke University and Dr. Jésus Bermejo of York University, PAR is an excavation project aimed towards understanding the Roman camps at Renieblas, their chronology, and their role in… read more about Lauren Pederson: Excavation at Renieblas & National Archaeological Museum, Renieblas Spain »
Research Travel Award Winner (Graduate): Spring 2017 My experiences at the 2017 Winter School in Greek Paleography and Codicology at the American Academy in Rome are impossible to encapsulate in language, but the following is my halting attempt to do so. I had the good fortune to travel to the Eternal City nearly a week before the program began in the company of my friend and fellow Duke colleague, Laura Camp, so that we might enjoy a preemptive taste of la dolce vita. One of our most memorable experiences was a… read more about Alexander Fowler: AAR-BAV Winter Program in Greek Palaeography, Rome Italy »
Research Travel Award Winner (Graduate): Spring 2017 Thanks to a grant from the department I was able to participate in a two-week intensive program in Greek palaeography, hosted by the American Academy in Rome and the Vatican Library. Alex Fowler and I arrived in Rome a few days early to visit the Vatican Museums and the monastery at Monte Cassino, and to get my Italian back into working condition before the program started. From the 9th to the 20th of January, we stayed at the American Academy, studying under the… read more about Laura Camp: AAR-BAV Winter Program in Greek Palaeography, Rome Italy »
Research Travel Award Winner (Graduate): Summer 2016 Thanks in large part to a grant from Teasley Family Antiquites Fund, I was able to travel to Rome this past July to gather inscriptional evidence for my dissertation and participate in the Summer Program in Epigraphy at the American Academy in Rome, taught by Professor John Bodel (Brown University). The Summer Program in Epigraphy was an intensive, but incredibly rewarding ten days spent learning from top scholars in the field and from the other participants… read more about Melissa Huber: AAR Summer Program in Roman Epigraphy, Rome Italy »
Research Travel Award Winner (Undergraduate): Spring 2016 Elizabeth wrote her senior honors thesis on depictions of Odysseus’ death in literature, beginning with The Odyssey. She worked from the outside in, starting with Dante, retracing his steps, looking at the classical tradition around Odysseus, and then going past Dante to who he inspired. In Oxford, she learned more about Dante’s own experiences with Odysseus, combining the classical and Medieval/Renaissance knowledge. There is an illuminated manuscript at the… read more about Elizabeth Djinis: Conducted senior thesis research in Oxford, England »
Research Travel Award Winner (Graduate): Summer 2016 Thanks to a generous grant from the Teasley Family Antiquities Fund, I was able to spend my summer sharpening necessary skills at the American Academy in Rome’s summer program in Latin Epigraphy under the direction of John Bodel (Brown University), as well as beginning research on my dissertation in both Italy and Spain. For ten days, our small, but eager group of aspiring epigraphists learned how to read, interpret, and publish Latin inscriptions. Not only did we have… read more about Courtney Monahan: AAR Summer Program in Roman Epigraphy, Rome Italy »
Research Travel Award Winner (Undergraduate): Summer 2016 This summer I was in Greece thanks to a generous grant from the Teasley Family Antiquities Fund. I spent two weeks as a participant in the Paideia Institute’s “Living Greek in Greece” program. The Paideia Institute (http://www.paideiainstitute.org/) offers programs in both Ancient Greek and Latin wherein students approach them as “living,” that is, spoken languages. To that end, we read passages from numerous prose authors each morning, sections of Homer’s Odyssey… read more about Zach Heater: Attending the Living in Greece Program, Selianitika Greece »
Research Travel Award Winner (Graduate): Summer 2016 This summer was a very productive one for me. In May, I visited the British Museum in London, which had a fantastic exhibition on Sicily, which had an amazing cross-section of material from prehistory to the Norman conquest. This exhibition served as the perfect preface to a six-week field season at Morgantina in central Sicily (http://morgantina.org). The first three weeks of June, I worked as an excavator for the Contrada Agnese Project (http://themagazzino.org/) as… read more about Timothy Shea: Conduct research in Great Britain and participate in Duke's Morgantina excavation, Sicily Italy »
Research Travel Award Winner (Undergraduate): Summer 2016 This past summer, I was fortunate enough to receive a research grant from the Teasley Family Antiquities Fund to travel to Italy with George Mellgard (Duke undergraduate). In Italy, we conducted research on the way in which the Ancient Romans viewed women in life and in death. Our research centered on the epitaph Allia Potestas, which is unique in nature because of it featured personal details about the deceased, atypical of other contemporary epitaphs… read more about Jacob Weiss: Research on Latin inscriptions in Italy, Rome & Perugia »
Research Travel Award Winner (Undergraduate): Summer 2016 The Teasley Family Antiquities Fund enabled me to conduct hands-on research for my senior thesis as well as finally get to see the eternal city. My thesis focuses on the inscription of Allia Potestas, a freedwoman. The inscription is unique in its length, style, and content and gives the reader a lens into ancient idealization of freedwomen. Consequently, my research in Rome focused on exploring the inscriptions and tombs of various freedmen and freedwomen in Italy… read more about George Mellgard: Contextualize the artifacts in their original setting in Rome and Perugia, Italy »
Research Travel Award Winner (Graduate): Summer 2016 During the summer of 2016, I was able to accomplish all of my goals with the support from the classics department’s Summer Research Travel Grant. The objectives for my summer research were threefold. First, we were to begin excavation in a 15 by 20 meter area near the western forum, which would support or disprove my GPR (ground penetrating radar) interpretations. Next, I aimed to assess the overall site as a viable area on which to concentrate my research surrounding… read more about Katherine McCusker: Duke's Vulci Excavation, Vulci Italy »
Research Travel Award Winner (Undergraduate): Summer 2016 Receiving funding to go to Italy allowed me to pursue a remarkable opportunity. Italy is a land of fantastic ruins and still-undiscovered treasures. Seeing sites at first hand, being able to walk through the ruins of Pompeii or wander the corridors of the Coliseum, I marveled at the expertise and scale of ambition of the Ancients. I was able to reconcile everything that my textbooks taught me but could not fully convey the reality. One of the most memorable things… read more about Benedict Parfit: Duke's Vulci Excavation, Vulci Italy »