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Classics Graduate Student Awarded Fellowship to Study in Athens, Greece

By Colleen Glenn

Congratulations are in order for graduate student Jonathan Meyer who has been awarded a fellowship to attend The American School of Classical Studies at Athens next year. Meyer, a Master’s student in the UK Classics Department, will spend the 2012-2013 school year in Greece studying the history and culture of ancient Greece and the Hellenic world.

“When I found out that I had won the fellowship, I was thrilled,” said Meyer. “For months I had imagined myself living in Athens and walking daily in the footsteps of Socrates. Now I knew that that dream was about to be realized.”

A student and teacher of Latin, Meyer also specializes in the Greek language and passed examinations in ancient Greek translation and Greek literature as part of the selection process for the fellowship.

“The application process is rather grueling,” said Meyer. In addition to submitting transcripts and letters of recommendation, he spent five and a half hours taking the required examinations in early February.

On March 7, Meyer received news that he had been admitted as a Regular Member to the ASCSA and awarded the Thomas Day Seymour Fellowship in history and literature.  

“The program will give me the opportunity to explore firsthand the sites and monuments of ancient Greece and to study under some of the finest experts working in the field. I hope to come away from the program with a deeper understanding of who the ancient Greeks were, how they lived, and what they accomplished.”

The ASCSA program is comprised of three terms. In the fall term, Meyer and his classmates will travel around Greece, to places such as Delphi, Olympia, and Corinth, as part of an intensive introduction to the sites, monuments and topography of Greece. During the winter term, he will study the sites and monuments of Athens and Attica, attend seminars, and conduct independent research. The spring is devoted to independent study, travel, and research. During this last term, Meyer will participate in training sessions at the American School’s excavations at Ancient Corinth.

Meyer has been to Greece twice before on class trips in high school, but is looking forward to a year of intensive study and travel before returning to UK to graduate in May of 2013.

“Jon has been a spectacular addition to the Classics program,” said Director of Graduate Studies of Classics Milena Minkova. “Not only he possesses tremendous knowledge both of Latin and Greek, but he is already an accomplished teacher of Classics on all levels. We will truly miss him when he leaves UK.”