Research Fellows

The Classics department offers several opportunities for undergraduates to participate in research. These include the Shiff fellows, the Eunice M. Lebowitz Cohen (EMLC) fellows, archaeological fieldwork opportunities, EMLC Classical Studies Artifact Research Collection (CLARC) interns, and other varying EMLC prizes.

The Eunice M. Lebowitz Cohen Fellowship in Classical Studies

The Eunice M. Lebowitz Cohen Fellowship in Classical Studies is an exciting offering from our most generous donor. Classical studies majors (and in some cases, minors) are eligible to compete for one of four slots as year-long Lebowitz Cohen Fellows. In this, the program's third year, we will select up to four fellows who will work toward completion of a classics research or creative project, in conjunction with a Classicist Faculty Mentor (one from our current faculty or, in special cases, a classicist from another department). You create the project. Here are some possibilities to give you a sense of how narrowly-defined, ambitious or academic your project can be:

  • Read one writer or one work in depth, in Ancient Greek or Latin, and write a research paper

  • Design a new classical studies course, complete with bibliography and syllabus

  • Annotate an epic or other major work of history, science or literature for uploading as a webpage on the classical studies website

  • Compile a source book on one aspect of Classical history and host a spring symposium on the topic

  • Compile a portrait of a famous Roman or Greek using all of the Classical fields: art, archaeology, architecture, drama, history, language, literature, philosophy, poetry, prose, etc.

  • Read or translate Greek and Latin poetry and put together a bi- or tri-lingual spring reading of poems for the Brandeis public

  • Create a Trojan Horse, Roman temple or Greek theatre

  • Stage a Greek or Roman play in the original language or in English, using your own or another's translation

  • Compile a source book of modern poems with classical themes; analyze their derivation and reliance on Classics to express the Modern

  • Research a group of objects from the Ancient Artifact Study Center

Each fellow will meet with their mentor on a monthly basis throughout the academic year, and is expected to complete a tangible project to be submitted no later than the mid-May deadline. Fellows and mentors will meet as a group for dinner twice each semester to discuss the rigors of research, the serendipitous discovery, what to do when your research carries you away from your work and academic scholarship in general. The last of these events gives fellows an opportunity to present their research to the group.

The fellowship stipend is $750; reimbursement for modest research expenses will be considered. Applications are due at the end of March, with selections announced in mid-April. The program officially runs each academic year from fall through spring.

A list of current Eunice M. Lebowitz Cohen Fellows can be accessed on our Prizes & Awards page.

Homeric Multitext Project

One of the projects that undergraduates choose to focus on is the Homeric Multitext project with Professor Leonard C. Muellner. Focusing on a digital publication of Byzantine era Iliad manuscripts, undergraduates compile a complete edition of the unpublished works. Venetus B, one of the manuscripts, includes a whole host of ancient commentary (called scholia), the primary sources to which we do not have. This commentary can only be found in these Byzantine manuscripts, and it includes interesting annotations about the origins of words, compares this version of the Iliad to other, slightly different versions, and overall gives us a really solid idea of what kind of variants of the poetry exist as a result of it being passed down through oral tradition for thousands of years. This Venetus B work is a part of the larger goal of the Homeric Multitext project, which aims to provide a comprehensive database of all Homeric scripts, free for public access. The access also provides comparisons online, where one can view multiple versions side by side.

Classical Studies Artifact Research Collection (CLARC)

Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow supervises the work of CLARC interns in a pre-professional program designed for students interested in museum work generally, artifact preservation and conservation, creation of a digital object database, photography, and collection management. At most universities, such opportunities would only be available to graduate students. Undergraduate interns are able to create final projects reflecting their skills.

Fieldwork Opportunities

The Department of Classical Studies offers several fieldwork opportunities for both undergraduates and graduate students. Please see our Fieldwork Opportunities page for more information.

Funding for Interns and Fellowships

Most scholarships and fellowships offered to undergraduates who have matriculated at Brandeis are coordinated by the Undergraduate Research and Creative Collaborations (URCC). See their website for further information about scholarships and fellowships to support your research in classical studies.

If you plan to conduct Classical research at Brandeis, in addition to the Eunice M. Lebowitz Cohen Fellowship program, you should consider the following programs run by URCC: