Thanks 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 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 »