Two juniors receive Caplan Travel Fellowships

Sydnie Chavez '20 and Sophia Evans '20 have each been awarded a Harry Caplan Travel Fellowship worth $5,000 to study and conduct research in Greece and Spain, respectively.

Chavez, a classics major, will participate in a four-week College Year in Athens course that begins in Athens, and then travels to Thera and Crete, with small day trips to other islands, where students explore archaeological sites. It focuses on Bronze Age Greece and the connections between the Aegean world with Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean. In the program she will also write a research paper ; she hopes to be able to apply what she learns in this program to her senior thesis next year.

Evans, a classics major and a linguistics major, will travel to Spain, where a number of Roman ruins still stand today, to gather the data she needs to complete a senior thesis on the syntactic changes that occur in the shift from Latin to Spanish. She will use the inscriptions on monuments, architecture, graves, and other permanent writings to investigate epigraphic evidence.

The fellowships honor Harry Caplan, Class of 1916, the late professor emeritus of classics, who was considered one of most beloved and inspiring teachers for nearly 50 years. After his death in 1980, his former students contributed to an endowment in his honor. Annual travel fellowships from that endowment are awarded to students who share his interests -- including Greek and Latin classics, ancient Jewish culture, and ancient and medieval Latin rhetoric. The fellowship grants can subsidize specific academic projects or intense and informed tourism.