Holy Cross Alum, Robert Dudley ’08, Receives Second Fulbright

College of the Holy Cross alumnus Robert Dudley ’08, recently earned his second Fulbright award to study in Germany. Dudley, a classics major, received his first Fulbright as an English teaching assistant in Germany after his graduation from Holy Cross. When he returned to the U.S., he began a Ph.D. program at Duke University in classics.

Dudley’s second Fulbright award is a research grant to study classics in Berlin for the next academic year. He will be studying at Freie Universität Berlin under the direction of Melanie Möller, chair of the Latin department. He will be using his research grant to complete his dissertation on Cicero's Reception of Plato in the 50's B.C.

“Classics is a worldly discipline,” says Dudley. He says countries all over the world have received the literature and material culture of Greece and Rome in distinct ways. The relevance of classics is especially true in Dudley’s research. His expertise in ancient literary criticism not only involves theories of rhetoric and style, but also interrogates how and why certain authors were read in antiquity. His dissertation examines how Cicero, as a seasoned and successful politician of first century B.C. Rome, found the letters and dialogues of Plato, written in fourth century B.C. Athens, relevant to his own dynamic world of political intrigue, ambition, and violence.

“The nature of my research is not different in kind from what I’ve done at Duke University,” explains Dudley. “But there is a cultural difference in the opportunity to live in Berlin and continue to establish rapport with scholars overseas.” Dudley is expected to finish his dissertation and receive his Ph.D. from Duke University in May 2016.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program provides grants for United States graduates to study, engage in research, or teach English in many countries around the world. Fulbright Awards offer winners the opportunity to further their academic pursuits and immerse themselves in another culture. The grants are awarded by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board and the Institute of International Education. Candidates for Fulbright grants may be college graduates, Ph.D. or graduate students, or young professionals.