A book written by a University of Winnipeg classicist has won a biennial national award named after his late colleague.
Dr. Peter J. Miller has won the Classical Association of Canada's Mark Golden Book Award.
Dr. Peter J. Miller, Professor and Chair in the Department of Classics, received the Mark Golden Book Award at the Classical Association of Canada 2026 annual conference at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont. last month.
Dr. Golden's work on ancient childhood and sport set the stage for my work and that of many social and cultural historians working on ancient Greece today.
Dr. Peter Miller
The award recognized Dr. Miller's book, In Praise of Greek Athletes: Echoes of the Herald's Proclamation in Epinikian and Epigram (Cambridge, 2024).
The award is presented every other year to the best scholarly monograph published by a Canadian Classics professor in the past four years. Dr. Miller is the third recipient of the award since its inception in 2022.
"Many, many great books have been published by Canadian classicists in the last two years including by my colleagues here at UWinnipeg so it's an honour to have In Praise of Greek Athletes recognized," Dr. Miller said.
"I'm very proud of the book, which makes a novel contribution not only to epinikian poetry (songs for athletes who won at the ancient Olympics and other athletic festivals), but also to epigrams (inscribed poems), which have been far less studied by classicists. I hope others find my work a starting point to look into these incredibly interesting and unusual texts and to integrate them into their social and cultural contexts."
The award's namesake is Dr. Mark Golden, who taught at UWinnipeg from 1982 until his retirement in 2015, when he was appointed Professor Emeritus. Dr. Golden served as Honorary President of the Classical Association of Canada from 2018 until his death in 2020. The Globe and Mail described him as "Canada's foremost Classics scholar".
Internationally recognized for his work on childhood, sport, and gender in ancient Greece, Dr. Golden was also known for his wit, congeniality, and ardent support of Classics research in Canada.
"Dr. Golden's groundbreaking work on ancient childhood and sport set the stage for my work and that of many social and cultural historians working on ancient Greece today," Dr. Miller said. "His work combined erudite scholarship with readability and humour; it's a rare academic book that you just can't put down, but Mark's are certainly in that category."
