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Eric Gottlieb ’25 awarded Marshall Scholarship

Gottlieb’s plans to study hermeneutic law theory follow his experiences in historical research and public service.

A headshot picture of Eric Gottlieb '25 wearing a gray quarter-zip sweater with a pink collared shirt and blue necktie underneath.

The Marshall Scholarship funds up to three years of graduate study in any academic discipline at any institution in the United Kingdom. Courtesy of Eric Gottlieb.

Eric Gottlieb ’25 was one of 36 students awarded the 2025 Marshall Scholarship, the British government announced Monday. The scholarship funds up to three years of graduate study in any academic discipline at any institution in the United Kingdom.

The 36 scholarship awardees were chosen from a pool of 983 applicants across the United States. Marshall scholars were evaluated on their academic merit, leadership potential and ambassadorial potential, which requires applicants to have an understanding of U.S.-U.K. relations.

Gottlieb is the eighth Brown student to win the Marshall scholarship in the past decade. Last year’s cohort of Marshall scholars included two Brown alumni, Jamila Beesley ’22 and Kaitlan Bui ’22. 

A history, Egyptology and applied mathematics triple concentrator, Gottlieb plans to spend the first year of his scholarship at Cardiff University in Wales, studying hermeneutic law theory — a philosophical approach to law — under Dylan Johnson, a lecturer of ancient near eastern history. He has not yet finalized his second-year plans, but said he will likely remain at Cardiff to pursue social science research methods. 

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These plans build on Gottlieb’s studies at Brown, where he is currently writing a senior thesis titled “Egyptian Christianization from the Manichaean Perspective: Evidence from Medinet Madi, 300–599 CE.” Through his research, Gottlieb hopes to explore and understand lived experiences by analyzing the textual record from Medinet Madi, an archaeological site in Egypt. 

Gottlieb’s first exposure to reading ancient texts came from ANTH 1820: “Lost Languages: The Decipherment and Study of Ancient Writing Systems,” a course he took in his first semester.

“It just scratched an itch that I never knew I had,” Gottlieb said, who came to Brown with an interest in history. 

Gottlieb also attributed his interest in historical perspectives to HIST 1381: “Latin American History and Film: Memory, Narrative and Nation,” which offered a new approach to examining history. 

“I had never understood the fundamental belief that history was like a construction of reality,” Gottlieb said. “There’s a lot of space for you as a historian to put your own agency into those stories.” 

Gottlieb’s “first taste of good historical research” came when he joined the Stolen Relations Project as a research assistant. Directed by Professor of History Linford Fisher, the project examined early modern documents to build a database recounting the enslavement of Indigenous peoples. 

Soon Gottlieb began contextualizing his studies in the sphere of public service, working as a housing policy intern for the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council. There, he helped research and develop RIPEC’s housing report that was ultimately circulated to state legislators to organize the affordable housing allocation process.

“I knew that working with other people really made me happy,” Gottlieb said. “I just tried to make as much of an impact as I could as possible.”

Gottlieb also worked as a policy intern at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C., an undergraduate research fellow at the Cogut Institute for the Humanities and a Stone Inequality Fellow for the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. He has also assisted multiple professors with research in history and Egyptology.

As Gottlieb enters the second semester of his senior year, he plans to focus on writing his thesis and hopes to reinvest his time in one of his favorite hobbies: cooking.

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He shared that if he were to cook a meal with three people from history, he would choose early medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas, American physicist Richard Feynman and Shenoute of Atripe — an early Christian figure prominent in Gottlieb’s period of study.

Gottlieb is curious what Aquinas and Shenoute of Atripe would say about his thesis and is intrigued by Feynman’s pure and unwavering fascination with physics. 

“I really appreciate people who are passionate about the stuff they do,” he said. “They intrinsically care about the stuff they learn.” 

This passion is reflected in his academic journey, Gottlieb said, adding that while his academic record might look eclectic, “it arose out of a genuine interest to try to explore my passions.”

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Hadley Carr

Hadley Carr is a university news editor at The Herald, covering academics & advising and student government.



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