In 2023, the fourth year of the SCS Erich S. Gruen Prize, the selection committee received submissions from graduate students across North America showcasing a range of exciting new approaches to race, ethnicity, and cultural exchange as they pertain to the ancient Mediterranean. All contributors are thanked for carrying on this important research, one testament to Erich Gruen’s enduring impact on the field and the Prize’s success in motivating and rewarding new inquiry into interconnections among ancient peoples.
Of these submissions, anonymized before review, the committee particularly commends Lylaah Bhalerao’s contribution, “Peopling the Black Mediterranean in Antiquity: The ancient African woman, racialization and reclamation,” with an honorable mention for its innovative application of critical fabulation to the Black Mediterranean. A student at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at NYU, Bhalerao interweaves threads from Black Studies, Critical Race Theory, and her own family roots in Guyana to deliver a powerful response to African women in first-century CE art, informed by her academic research and her work as a tour guide for the exhibition Pompeii in Color.
The committee unanimously awards the 2023 SCS Erich S. Gruen Prize, with a cash prize of $1000, to Rachel Morrison, a student in classics at UCLA, for her paper “‘Was Terence a Gentleman?’ Terence the Freedman, An American Comedy.” This meticulously researched, finely polished exploration of a crucial phase of classical reception explores how “readers’ identification of slavery with race conflated Terence’s enslavement, manumission, dark skin, and Afer cognomen” to reimagine “an ancient comedian in American racial ideology’s image.” Morrison’s paper sheds new light on the role this Roman/African author played in early American abolitionist debates, opening new vistas onto Greco-Roman antiquity’s implication in racecraft, anti-racism, and the construction of modernity.
The committee thanks and commends all applicants, above all Rachel Morrison, for work that enhances our understanding of multiculturalism in and around the ancient Mediterranean, in honor of Erich Gruen’s continuing contributions to the field.
Support the Gruen Fund
SCS has established the Gruen Fund to support this important new prize. Thanks to the generosity of donors, the prize is now $1,000. You can donate to the endowment for long-term support of the prize. Donations can be made via this online form on the SCS website. SCS is a 501(c)3 public charity and donations may be tax deductible.
Volunteer to Serve on the Gruen Prize Committee
Please contact Kris Seaman (kseaman@uoregon.edu) if you are interested.
