Four students from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were selected as recipients of the 2023 Anne L. and S. Epes Robinson Honors Fellowship, which provides funding for students who propose a program of study focused on some aspect of the history and culture of Europe and the Mediterranean from 5th century B.C.E. to 1920.
The Robinson Honors Fellowship was established in 2015 by a gift from UNC-Chapel Hill alumni Anne L. Robinson and S. Epes Robinson. Its purpose is to recognize and support undergraduate students at Carolina who possess extraordinary capability and independent pursuit of their education. The program provides up to $6,000 in funding for expenses for domestic or international learning experiences that explore art, literature, music, history, politics, economics, philosophy or religion Western Europe and the Mediterranean. The fellowship is open to all Carolina students who meet the eligibility criteria.
To be chosen as a Robinson Honors Fellow, an applicant must give convincing evidence of exceptional ability and promise through the application, recommendations, and personal interview. The proposed fellowship experience should be one that will allow the recipients to study the humanities and the ideas that have molded Western society and form the foundation of Western culture.
Jordan Mundy (’23 – Fall) is from Asheville, NC and is studying political science and history. For her Robinson Fellowship, Jordan will travel to multiple cities within the UK to keep her involvement in beekeeping alive. She will seek to understand the cultural and environmental importance of beekeeping in the British Isles in both the pre-modern era and the 21st century.
Alyssa Parrnelli (’24) is from Raleigh, NC and is majoring in classics and minoring in French. This summer, with the support of the Robinson Honors fellowship, she has been accepted to an archaeological topography team and will excavate the ancient city of Gabii, near Rome. After her field experience, she will further contextualize this work by visiting sites and museums in the Bay of Naples, such as Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Rachel Sarvey (‘25), from Harrisburg, NC and is a classics major and a Greek minor. She has a particular interest in Bronze Age Aegean Archaeology and strives to gain experience studying the material culture of this region and period. Rachel will use the funds from the Robinson Honors Fellowship to support her travels to Eastern Crete to assist Dr. Donald Haggis in conducting an exploratory excavation of two sites, Ayios Antonios and Alykomouri, producing a field report from the findings.
Annie Veum (‘24) is from Apex, NC. She is a double-major in history and archaeology while minoring in Italian. Annie has an interest in the ways we can glimpse parts of the English past through the remains of medieval bodies and the treatment of their burials. For her Robinson Fellowship, Annie will travel to multiple cities in the UK to study the later Anglo-Saxon perception of pre-historical mounds through the execution cemeteries often associated with them, governmental documents, and the folkloric tales describing them. From this, I hope to gain a deeper understanding of the Anglo-Saxon perception of the past.
View the past Robinson Fellows’ projects here.
Read more about the Robinson Honors Fellowship here.
