Dr. Grace Erny, Assistant Professor of Ancient Greek and Roman Studies, is the recipient of the 2026 Prytanean Honor Society Alumnae Faculty Enrichment Award and $35,000 grant in recognition of outstanding scholarship, teaching, mentoring, and service to UC Berkeley. Erny is also a member of the Participating Faculty with Cal’s Graduate Group in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology and Affiliated Faculty at the Archaeological Research Facility. Erny joins over 40 Cal faculty members, as fellowaward recipients and honorary Prytanean Alumnae, representing more than 30 disciplines and departments.
I am delighted and honored to be the 2026 recipient of the Prytanean Alumnae Faculty Enrichment Award. The award will help to support the completion of my first book manuscript, which focuses on economic inequality, social differentiation, and rural communities on the Mediterranean island of Crete in the first millennium BCE. The funds will also form a valuable contribution to my next major research project, a campaign of archaeological excavations at a unique group of rural settlements in a mountainous area of East Crete. Starting an archaeological project involves significant expenses, and I am deeply grateful for the financial assistance provided by the Cal Prytanean Alumnae.
–Grace Erny
The Prytanean Alumnae Board has awarded over $600,000 in unrestricted grants to support UC Berkeley’s mission to attract and retain outstanding early career faculty members who identify as women since 1986. Cal faculty working within and at the intersection of the Arts and Humanities are well represented among Award recipients. Previous recipients include Sau-ling Cynthia Wong (Asian American Studies, 1989); Celeste B. Langan (English, 1992); Marianne Constable (Rhetoric, Honorable Mention 1992); Katherine Bergeron (Musicology, 1995); Jennifer Miller (English, 2000); Line Mikkelsen (Linguistics, 2009); and Henrike Christian Lange (Italian Renaissance Art and Architecture, 2020).
Since 2023, Erny has been an Assistant Professor in UC Berkeley’s Department of Ancient Greek and Roman Studies. Erny was a Loeb Classical Library Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens prior to joining UC Berkeley. She received a Ph.D. in Classics (Archaeology) from Stanford University and completed her masters degree at the University of Colorado at Boulder and her undergraduate studies at Macalester College. Selection committee members championed Erny’s distinguished research and publication records; exemplary professional service and public engagement; and clarity of scholarship, mentoring, and teaching goals.
Erny’s impressive array of internal and external awards, grants and fellowships include a Mellon Foundation dissertation fellowship. Her receipt of the 2026 Faculty Award for Outstanding Mentorship of Graduate Student Instructors further reflects Erny’s dedication to training and mentoring the next generation of Cal students. In fact, students award nearly perfect scores and rate Dr. Erny’s teaching and the environment and value of her courses as excellent.
This year, Erny served as a faculty expert in UC Berkeley Arts and Humanities’ virtual alumni book club event series on David Mendelsohn’s 2025 translation of Homer’s The Odyssey. In addition, the Greek 101 course organized and Erny led a public reading of The Odyssey, presented in its entirety in English translation as a collective act of oral storytelling, over the course of more than 13 hours within a single day. UC Berkeley undergraduate and graduate students, scholars in her respective fields of expertise, and the public benefit from Erny’s stellar mentorship, teaching, and leadership.
As I continue my career at UC Berkeley - and as my partner and I expect our first child in the summer of 2026 - I remain committed to mentoring our undergraduate and graduate students, as well as supporting other women and parents in the field of archaeology and in academia more broadly. I also plan to continue to develop the outreach program with local public middle schools that I initiated in 2024, with the participation of our excellent graduate students, to introduce some of the younger members of the wider East Bay community to the joys of ancient history and archaeology.
–Grace Erny
Prytanean Honor Society Alumnae and undergraduates are elated to honor Erny, who exemplifies UC Berkeley’s motto Fiat Lux. Erny strengthens Cal’s dedication to cross- and interdisciplinary scientific innovation and discovery while strengthening educational pathways to success for all. Identified as a rising star in her profession, Erny is making exemplary, original, and impactful research contributions. Prytanean Alumnae is fortunate to honor Dr. Erny at the 2026 Annual Spring Prytanean Alumnae Meeting, where she will present her research. Furthermore, Chancellor Rich Lyons will soon host a reception in recognition of Erny and this award.