The Department of Classics 2015 Student Awards Ceremony was held on Friday, April 24, in the Learning Services Building courtyard. Special thanks are owed to Dr. Philip Waddell, who organized this year's wonderful event and served as master of ceremonies. Graduate students Jesse Muñoz and Melanie Zelikovsky delivered recitations of Latin poetry. Guests of honor included Lee Thorn, who spoke of his partner Jim Doidge’s devotion to Greek and Latin before he awarded the 2015 Doidge Graduate Greek and Latin Prizes to James Geach and Jesse Muñoz, respectively.
Jesse Muñoz (Center) Receives the Jim Doidge Latin Award (L: Philip Waddell; R: Lee Thorn)
The Norman Austin Award for the Outstanding Classics M.A. Thesis went to Emily Prosch for "The Reemergence of Seals and Their Influence on Coins: A Technological and Iconographic Approach to the Bronze Age, Early Iron Age, and Archaic Periods of Greece."
Norman Austin and Outstanding M.A. Thesis Winner Emily Prosch
Ian Merrill won the newly established Erskine Caldwell Latin Translation Award for his rendition of the opening of Lucretius Book 4, as well as the Society of Classical Studies’ Zeph Stewart Latin Teacher Training Award. Jesse Muñoz won the inaugural Erskine Caldwell Greek Translation Award for his translation of the opening of Pindar’s Nemean 6. Book prizes for the Caldwell Awards included the Oxford Latin Dictionary, the Oxford Classical Dictionary, and the Liddell Scott and Jones Greek-English Lexicon.
Jesse Muñoz is Awarded the Erskine Caldwell Greek Translation Prize
The Richard Jensen and Thomas Worthen Prizes, awarded annually to the top undergraduate Latin and Greek students, went to Annie Huang (Latin) and Cam Nguyen (Greek) and Angel Bustamante (Greek).
Jensen Award Winner Annie Huang
Michael Koletsos and David Pickel received the Society for Classical Studies Outstanding Student Awards. Classical Association of The Middle West and South Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Classical Studies went to Matthew Harder and Ben Winnick. The Outstanding Undergraduate in Classics Award, which acknowledges high-level academic performance as well as excellence outside the classroom in the form of independent research and/or exemplary community service, was awarded to Grace Welch-Zaricor. Ian Merrill won the Sandra Rhead Jones Award, which is given in support of Latin teaching pursuits. The Ariana Mercedes Economou Award for Excellence in Modern Greek went to Christina Karidakis. Hellenic Cultural Foundation Scholarship winners included undergraduates Christine Ellis and Anastasia Matiatos.
2015 Classics Expected M.A. Recipients (L to R): Kazumasa Suzuki, Jesse Muñoz, David Pickel, Emily Prosch, Matt Harder, Asia Del Bonis-O’Donnell, Stephanie Hutchings, Lucca Green, Elizabeth Del Curto, Ben Winnick, Mike Koletsos, Cara Ramsey
Fifteen graduate students are expected to receive their M.A. degrees in spring/summer 2015: Asia Del Bonis-O’Donnell, Elizabeth Del Curto, Lucca Green, Matthew Harder, Stephanie Hutchings, Michael Koletsos, Sachin Maini, Jesse Muñoz, David Pickel, Emily Prosch, Cara Ramsey, Victor Republicano III, Justin Shaw, Kazumasa Suzuki, and Ben Winnick. Hutchings (Latin Pedagogy) has accepted a Latin teaching position at Great Hearts Academy in Scottsdale, and Del Curto (Classical Philology) has secured a job teaching Latin at Salpointe Catholic High School. Del Bonis-O’Donnell (Classical Archaeology) accepted a fellowship package to attend Yale University, where she will pursue her doctorate in Art History. Green (Ancient History) and Koletsos (Classical Archaeology) each accepted a fellowship to attend the University of Michigan for their doctoral studies and Pickel (Classical Archaeology) has done the same at Stanford University.
Ph.D. Fellowship Winners (L to R): David Pickel, Asia Del Bonis-O’Donnell, Michael Koletsos, Lucca Green
Special recognition went to Elizabeth Del Curto and Stephanie Hutchings for their organization and coordination of the 2015 Lectio Vergiliana. Latin GTAs Elizabeth Del Curto, Stephanie Hutchings, Ian Merrill, Jesse Muñoz, and David Pickel were honored for their important contributions to the Department of Classics curriculum.
Sixteen Classics Graduate Students presented papers at CAMWS 2015 in Boulder, Colorado; first year presenters were Shannon Ells, James Geach, Ian Merrill, Aleksandra Novikova, Roxanne Perko, Saavak Williams, Melanie Zelikovsky; second year student presenters included Asia Del Bonis-O'Donnell, Matt Harder, Stephanie Hutchings, Mike Koletsos, Sachin Maini, David Pickel, Emily Prosch, Cara Ramsey, and Ben Winnick.
Finally, the Department’s Graduate Student Representatives, Michael Koletsos and Matthew Harder, were thanked for their important departmental service, especially their excellent work in organizing this year’s exceptionally rich Graduate Student Colloquium.
Congratulations to all our most deserving student awardees this year!