New scholarship for Classical Studies students

A new scholarship will be available starting in 2020 for upper year students majoring in Classical Studies at Nipissing thanks to a generous donation by a faculty member’s estate.

The Dr. Ilse Mueller Memorial Scholarship in Classical Studies will be awarded to a third-year or fourth-year Classical Studies student with a minimum average of 85% and who has plans to pursue graduate studies.

The endowed award was made possible through a planned gift donation through Dr. Ilse Mueller's estate.

Dr. Mueller immigrated to Canada from her native Hamburg, Germany in the late 1960s having never attended a post-secondary institution. She began her post-secondary studies later in life, taking her bachelor of arts in Classical Studies from York University in the early 1990s. She then went on to a doctoral program in Ancient History at the University of Chicago and took her doctoral degree in 2000. After a brief appointment at Laurentian University, Dr. Mueller was hired at Nipissing in 2002 as a professor of Classical Studies. Between 2002 and 2016 Dr. Mueller worked tirelessly to transform the Classical Studies programme from a minor degree to a full specialised honours degree.

Dr. Mueller's published research was in the area of Roman Social History with a special focus on marginalised groups such as widows, orphans, slaves and the poor.

Tragically, Dr. Mueller died in October 2016 after a cancer diagnosis.

It was Dr. Mueller's wish that a large portion of her estate be devoted to helping deserving students realise their full academic potential so they might continue to contribute to our understanding of the ancient world. In particular, Dr. Mueller believed in a hands-on approach to learning about antiquity and to this end The Dr. Ilse Mueller Memorial Scholarship in Classical Studies has been endowed to help the scholarship recipient defray the cost of attending archaeological Summer field schools at a several Greco-Roman sites.