Kristen Baxter at the Rutgers Geology Museum, March 2009.
Kristen Baxter, a fifth-year graduate student pursuing her PhD in Classics at Rutgers, will be spending the 2009-10 academic year studying as a Regular Member at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA).
Baxter also has been awarded the American School’s Martin Ostwald Fellowship to allow her to pursue her studies. The Fellowship provides a stipend plus room and board at Loring Hall on the School grounds and waiver of School fees. Kristen is the second Rutgers Classics graduate student in two years to win a Fellowship to the ASCSA; Sean Jensen held the Michael Jameson Fellowship at the American School for 2008/9.
While at the ASCSA, Kristen will be involved in a variety of activities. She will tour the major sites and museums of Greece and the islands, as well as travel to Turkey and Sicily. Plus will be taking courses on the sites and monuments of Athens and Attica, Greek Sacred Law, and Stone Tool Technology. Kristen also hopes to participate in the school’s archaeological excavations.
Having successfully completed her coursework and qualifying exams, Kristen is also currently working on her dissertation under the direction of Professor Timothy Power. Here she illuminates some aspects of the religious functions of Pindar’s epinician odes through an examination of the ways in which Pindar employs prayers within them. Throughout there is a focus on the close reading of particular odes.
Kristen Baxter received her undergraduate degree from Villanova University. At Rutgers, Kristen has taught both Latin and ancient Greek, as well as Expository Writing.
“I look forward to my time in Athens”, she tells the RU Classics Blog, “not only as an opportunity to visit the great sites of the ancient world, but as a chance to gain a better understanding of the Greek world, which may serve as a resource in both my scholarship and teaching.”
Temple of Athena Nike at Athens, ca. 1935. From the RU Classics collection of lantern slides.
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