Tags
  • David C. Frederick Honors College
  • Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences
  • Department of Music
Accolades & Honors

Thyra-Lilja Altunin Wins Beinecke Scholarship

Third-year student Thyra-Lilja Altunin has been awarded a Beinecke Scholarship of $34,000 to support her graduate education.

Altunin is set to graduate in April 2021, with majors in the  Department of Music, under the music and cultural history track, and the Department of Classics Greek language track in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. She is also minoring in classics, under the Latin language track. She is also pursuing certificates in Western European Studies and Medieval and Renaissance Studies.

The scholarship, which was established in 1971, is meant to “encourage and enable highly motivated students to pursue opportunities available to them and to be courageous in the selection of a graduate course of study in the arts, humanities and social sciences.” This is the fourth consecutive year a Pitt student has received the scholarship, and Altunin is one of 18 scholars nationwide to be awarded this year.

In 2018, Altunin completed a research fellowship through Pitt Honors, where she worked on an analysis of the accentuation patterns that appear in the Bankes Homer papyrus. She is also president of the classical civilizations club and a Nationality Rooms Tour Guide with Quo Vadis.

Altunin said that she plans to complete a masters and PhD in classics, with a focus on the reconstruction, study and performance of ancient music.

“I hope that the Beinecke Scholarship will help me to become involved with institutions where scholars have already been doing research in these areas and which have access to original documents and resources that I could use in my research,” Altunin said.