Dr. Norman Austin (Ph.D., Berkeley) was named Professor and Head of the Department of Classics in 1980. The department expanded its faculty and programs under his headship, and the M.A. program was established in 1985.
Dr. Austin published two books during his tenure at the UA, Meaning and Being in Myth (Pennsylvania State University Press 1990) and Helen of Troy and her Shameless Phantom (Cornell University Press 1994). Dr. Austin also served as Head of the Department of Classics from 1995 until 2000, when he retired. Since retiring, he has published two papers in Arion, and finished a book, Sophocles' Philoctetes: The Great Soul Robbery, which was published by the University of Wisconsin Press in 2011. He also returned to teaching (at Florida Atlantic University). In 2006, generous donations allowed for the creation of the Norman Austin Award, which is given annually to the writer of the best M.A. thesis.
Prize Winners
- 2023: Savhanna Long
- 2022: Allyson Blanck and JuliAnne Rach
- 2021: Elise Larres
- 2020: Julia Pare and Miranda Lovett
- 2019: Daniel Ruprecht
- 2017: Travis Hill
- 2016: Lauren Alberi
- 2015: Emily Prosch
- 2014: Najee Olya
- 2013 (tie): Amanda Cookson-Carver and Evelyn Rick
- 2012: Natalie Gleason
- 2011: Aaryn Brewer
- 2010: Lucinda Jaffe
- 2009: Carrie Bieging
- 2008: Maggie Cohn
- 2007: Joey Williams