The Townsend Fund

The Department of Classics (within the broader Field of Classics) is responsible for the administration of the Townsend Fund, an endowment for the furtherance of classical studies at Cornell that was established through a generous bequest made by Mrs. Prescott W. Townsend in memory of her husband, a classicist and alumnus of Cornell.

This fund has made the following programs possible:

-¬ÝTownsend Lectures. The Classics Department regularly invites a distinguished scholar of the ancient world to come to Cornell for a semester as Townsend Lecturer. The incumbent delivers a series of seven public lectures and offers a course intended primarily for graduate students.
Past Townsend Lecturers have been Michael Putnam (1985), Gregory Vlastos (1986), Marcel Detienne (1987), Geoffrey de Ste. Croix (1988), W. R. Johnson (1989), Patricia Easterling (1990), Erich Gruen (Spring 1991), Richard Sorabji (Fall 1991), Nicole Loraux (Spring 1993), Timothy Barnes (Fall 1994), Julia Annas (Spring 1997), David Sedley (Fall 2001), Franˆßois Lissarague (Spring 2002), Natalie Kampen (Fall 2002), William Slater and Katherine Dunbabin (Spring 2005)

-¬ÝTownsend Grants. The Townsend Fund enables the department to offer pre-doctoral fellowships and travel grants to graduate students. We encourage students to spend some time at other universities in North America and Europe in order to study with scholars whose work would complement and enrich their individual research interests. The Classics Department, with the support of the Graduate School, also makes available from the Townsend Endowment financial support for a sixth year. This sixth year funding is awarded at the discretion of the Classics Department to students demonstrating excellent progress.¬Ý