Classics majors work closely with members of the faculty. Since its inception in 2000, the department has had an excellent record of producing outcomes and earning recognition for its efforts.

One index of the department’s quality is its success in garnering GVSU’s Glenn A. Niemeyer Award.

The Niemeyer Awards are the most prestigious academic awards presented by the University and are given annually at the Spring Awards Banquet to two faculty members, two undergraduate students and two graduate students. The Awards honor faculty and students who strive for excellence in all aspects of a well-rounded academic experience.

Since 2010, Classics undergraduates and faculty have earned five Niemeyer Awards.

2022

Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies, Rome (ICCS - Rome) Scholar: Lily Briganti.

2021

• GVSU Outstanding Senior Honors Project Award: Megan O'Neill, "Fellowship with Death: Crisis Management, Philanthropic Medicine, and the Eastern Christian Church during the Justinianic Plague Pandemic (sixth-eighth centuries CE)"

2020

• In 2020 GVSU eLearning and Emerging Technologies acknowledged the unit (in the form of a $1,000 student scholarship) for increasing accessibility of course content through Blackboard Ally.

• Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies, Rome (ICCS - Rome) Scholar: Cole Curtiss.

• GVSU Student Senate “Last Lecture” Honoree: Melissa Morison

2018

Kristin Groendyk

• Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies, Rome (ICCS - Rome) Scholar, administered by Duke University.

Jenna Weatherwax

• GVSU Padnos International Scholarship, in support of study in Athens, Greece (College Year in Athens).

2016

Abigail DeHart

• Peer-reviewed publication: "Sappho in Hindi" in Translation Review 94: 42-51.

Allie Pohler

• Manson A. Stewart Scholarship, Classical Association of the Middle West and South (CAMWS).
• Minority Scholarship in Classics and Classical Archaeology, Society for Classical Studies (SCS).

2015

The Department of Classics was recognized as the Outstanding GVSU Department at the 2015 Student Life Awards.

Prof. David Crane

• GVSU Catalyst Grant for Research and Creativity supplemented by an Early Career Stipend.

Abigail DeHart

• GVSU Glenn A. Niemeyer Student Award.
• Refereed conference paper: “Ideas of Education and Common Sense: Hutcheson and the Stoics,” delivered at Princeton Theological Seminary’s Scottish Philosophers Annual Spring Conference. Proposal awarded the George Elder Davie Prize.

Justin Ebert

• GVSU Glenn A. Niemeyer Student Award.

Megan Esparsa

• Minority Scholarship in Classics and Classical Archaeology, Society for Classical Studies (SCS).

2014

Abigail DeHart

• Josephine De Karman Fellowship (national award).

Megan Esparsa

• Excavation and Field School Award, Classical Association of the Middle West and South (CAMWS).

Kendall Farkas

• Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship (national award).

Jared Groth

• Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies, Rome (ICCS - Rome) Scholar, administered by Duke University.

Chani Jones

• Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies, Rome (ICCS - Rome) Scholar, administered by Duke University.

Prof. Charles Pazdernik

• GVSU Student Senate “Last Lecture” Honoree.

Allie Pohler

• GVSU Honors First-Year Paper Competition, Third Place: “Recontextualizing the Roman Identity in Livy’s History of Rome, Book 1.”

Prof. Diane Rayor

• GVSU Women’s Commission Women’s Impact Award, 2014.

Trevor Shaw

• GVSU Paul B. Henry Congressional Internship.

Mark ten Haaf

• Refereed conference paper: “Aristotle and the Polis in Menander’s Dyskolos,” delivered at the 94th anniversary meeting of the Southern Section of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South (CAMWS-SS) at Mary Washington University in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

2013

Abigail DeHart

• GVSU Padnos International Scholarship.

Melissa Houghton

• Member of the 2013 Summer Session of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens.

Andrew Lund

• GVSU Outstanding Senior Honors Project Award: “Prometheus Stories: Promethean Myth and Mythopoeia for Adjudicated Students.”

2012

Jonathan Langerak

• Manson A. Stewart Scholarship, Classical Association of the Middle West and South (CAMWS).

Andrew Lund

• Refereed conference paper: “Power, Présages, and Portrayal: Suetonius’ Representation of Livia,” delivered at the 92nd anniversary meeting of the Southern Section of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South (CAMWS-SS) at Florida State University in Tallahassee.

Nick Maki

• GVSU Glenn A. Niemeyer Student Award.

Katie Oyama

• Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies, Rome (ICCS - Rome) Scholar, administered by Duke University.

2011

Prof. Peter Anderson

• Faculty of Distinction Award, GVSU Circle of Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Honor Society (ODK).

Mark Beckwith

• Outstanding Undergraduate Student, Secondary Education Department, GVSU College of Education.

Nick Maki

• Refereed conference paper: “Beyond Pleasure: Plato and the Good,” delivered at the Western Canadian Undergraduate Conference of Philosophy at the University of Victoria, British Columbia.

Dylan Moore

• Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship (national award).
• GVSU Mark A. Murray Scholarship.
• Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies, Rome (ICCS - Rome) Scholar, administered by Duke University.

Prof. Charles Pazdernik

• Faculty of Distinction Award, GVSU Circle of Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Honor Society (ODK).
• Winner (representing Classics), GVSU “Life Raft” Debate.

Prof. Diane Rayor

• GVSU Glenn A. Niemeyer Outstanding Faculty Award.

2010

Prof. Peter Anderson

• American Philological Association Award for Excellence in Collegiate Teaching (national award).

Mark Beckwith

• GVSU Honors Senior Project Award for Excellence in Collaborative Research: “Focus on Forms in the Latin Classroom.”
• Peer-reviewed publication, with Prof. Peter Anderson: “Forms-Focused Teaching for the Intermediate Latin Student,” in Teaching Classical Languages 2.1 (2010) 31-52.

Andrew Lund

• 2010 Manson A. Stewart Scholarship, Classical Association of the Middle West and South (CAMWS).

Prof. Melissa Morison

• Franklin Research Grant, American Philosophical Association.

Prof. Diane Rayor

• Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, Colorado College.

Donna St. Louis

• GVSU Glenn A. Niemeyer Student Award.

2009

Kate Allen

• GVSU Outstanding Honors Senior Thesis Award: “Form and Function: A Study of Renaissance Commentaries and the Seidman Library’s Calderinus Incunabulum.”
• Refereed conference paper: “‘What's that smell?’: Odor in Martial's Epigrammata” delivered at the 88th anniversary meeting of the Southern Section of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South (CAMWS-SS) at the University of North Carolina at Asheville.

Prof. Peter Anderson

• Margo Tytus Visiting Fellow, University of Cincinnati.

Jennifer Folkerth

• Refereed conference paper: “Memory’s Catalyst: Nature in Sappho’s Poetry,” delivered at the annual meeting of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South (CAMWS).

Donna St. Louis

• Manson A. Stewart Scholarship, Classical Association of the Middle West and South (CAMWS).

Prof. Diane Rayor

• GVSU Presidential Service Learning Scholar.

2008

Prof. Peter Anderson

• GVSU Pew Teaching Excellence Award.

Devin White

• GVSU Outstanding Honors Senior Thesis Award: “A Grammatical Commentary on St. John Chrysostom’s Discourse on the Blessed Babylas Against the Gentiles.”

2007

Jeffery Adams

• GVSU McNair Scholar.

Devin White

• GVSU Student Summer Scholar (S3).

2006

Kate Allen

• Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies, Rome (ICCS - Rome) Scholar, administered by Duke University.

2005

Charles Ham

• GVSU Padnos International Scholarship.

Prof. Charles Pazdernik

• Junior Fellowship, Harvard University Center for Hellenic Studies.
• GVSU Pew Teaching Excellence Award.

Aaron Rozeboom

• GVSU McNair Scholar.

2004

Greg Heynen

• GVSU Student Summer Scholar (S3).

Kristen Heise

• Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome (ICCS - Rome) Scholar, administered by Duke University.