Congratulations to Yanxiao He, PhD candidate in NELC, who has won the Erich S. Gruen Prize for a graduate research paper from the Society for Classical Studies for his paper "Sophytos, the Western Sea People, and Popular Performers on the Indian Ocean."
The Gruen Prize committee unanimously selected this paper as noteworthy for "its use of ancient Greek, Roman, and Chinese evidence as well as modern scholarship about K-Pop. Highlighting the role of popular culture in the ancient world, He argues that wandering performers transmitted Mediterranean culture to Central Asia and China through embodied performance. The paper will receive a cash prize of $500."