Dr. Jacob A. Lollar 

I spent my time as a Humboldt and Calder Fellow collecting and collating the second-century “Acts of Thekla” in the Syriac language. During my time in Germany, I collected thirteen manuscripts—nine of which had never been edited—and compared and translated them for a critical edition and study of the Syriac version of the Acts of Thekla. I have since submitted a complete draft of my upcoming book, Thekla in Syriac: The Acts of Thekla and Its Reception in the Syriac Traditions, which will appear in the “Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum” series at Mohr Siebeck (Tübingen). The funding I received via the William M. Calder III Memorial Fellowship in Classical Studies allowed me to purchase images of manuscripts from the “Scriptorium Syriacum” repository under the protection and preservation of the Chaldean Catholic Order of Ḥormizd in Erbil, Iraq, and enabled me to bring my wife Sarah and our two daughters Kora and Maryn to Germany with me. I firmly believe that integrating familial support into academic research is vital to success. I am grateful to the Humboldt Foundation and to the memory of Professor Calder and hope to continue his legacy of strong academic scholarship in Classics and Ancient History through my work.