For immediate release – Oct. 29, 2002
Contact: Nina Lentini (860) 439-2505
NEW LONDON — Michael W. Pawlik, a 2002 graduate of Connecticut College, has been awarded a Fulbright Grant and is spending the academic year conducting research in Latin and Italian literature at the University of Bologna. Pawlik is the son of Michael M. and Nancy Pawlik of Waterford. He graduated from Connecticut College summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa and with distinction in the major field of classics. His research in Italy combines the study of Lucretius, the Latin author of De Rerum Natura, and Dante Alighieri, who wrote The Divine Comedy. Philip Ray, associate dean of Connecticut College, said Pawlik was one of 160 students who applied for Fulbright Grants to Italy, and just 28 were awarded.
Pawlik was a student of Greek and Latin poetry and philosophy while at Connecticut College who became interested in the way philosophical subjects were treated in verse in the classical world. While reading The Divine Comedy, “I often noticed that critics were raising similar questions about the relationship between poetry and philosophy to those I had confronted in the classics,” Pawlik said. “After reading George Santayana’s book, Three Philosophical Poets: Lucretius, Dante and Goethe, I was encouraged to undertake comparative work with Dante and Lucretius, although naturally in a different direction from that taken by Santayana.”
Pawlik has been admitted to the extremely competitive doctoral program in classical languages at Harvard University and will enter the program next fall. While at Connecticut College, Pawlik often took regular advanced courses as well as individual studies. “By his senior year, as a result of his course work and his independent reading, he had read as much as many others will not have read until they’ve had a year of graduate work under their belts,” said Dirk t.D. Held, Elizabeth S. Kruidenier ’48 Professor of Classics, under whom Pawlik studied.
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program awards approximately 900 grants annually and operates in more than 140 countries.
Ranked among the most selective private liberal arts colleges in the nation, Connecticut College has an enrollment of 1,800 men and women from 44 states, the District of Columbia, and 55 countries. The college is particularly known for interdisciplinary studies, innovative international programs, paid internships, and a wide range of student-faculty research opportunities.
Founded in 1911, the college operates under an 80-year-old honor code and has no Greek system. The scenic 750-acre campus is managed as an arboretum and overlooks Long Island Sound. For more information, see www.conncoll.edu. Connecticut College is located at 270 Mohegan Ave., New London.
View the Connecticut College classics department site.
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