Graduate Program

The Department of Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies offers an innovative curriculum designed to foster new research in Greco-Roman studies, including cross-disciplinary scholarship in Ancient Near Eastern Studies and in a variety of other disciplines, such as Archaeology, Art History, Environmental Studies, Linguistics, Gender and Women’s Studies, History, Philosophy, Political Science, and Visual Culture. Emphasizing ways of thinking over bodies of knowledge, our curriculum helps students develop transferable skills based on critical approaches to areas in which the department excels, including the study of gender and sexuality, translation theory, intellectual history, ecocriticism, the biblical tradition, early Christianity, epic, drama, and reception.

To meet the challenges of the changing market for PhDs in the twenty-first century, students develop a personal research trajectory based on course work in the ancient languages, (Ancient Greek, Latin, and/or Biblical Hebrew) as well as training in practical applications, such as digital studies, language pedagogy, and public humanities. In contrast with many peer programs, the department allows students to supplement established methods and canonical authors and periods of Greco-Roman antiquity with currently “marginal” authors, experimental methods, and original approaches to scholarship. From the moment they enter the program, students work closely with faculty to design their own reading lists and provide significant input into their own assessment. By cultivating a fluid curriculum, the department builds upon students’ interests and capabilities, and helps them think beyond the dissertation. Our aim is to foster students who break the mold of the traditional classicist.

Outside of this constellation of values, faculty and graduate students participate in a wide range of professional networks, with affiliations in the Society for Classical Studies, the Classical Association of the Middle West and South, the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, the Society of Biblical Literature, the American Schools of Oriental Research, and the Lambda and Women’s Classical Caucuses. In addition to a world-class research library, numerous teaching opportunities, and dedicated funding for student travel and graduate-led initiatives, the department provides regular workshops in career development, which regularly include speakers from a range of backgrounds and professional orientations, both inside and outside academia. Our graduates have found employment in traditional academic positions and in a variety of other professions, from university administration and government to public humanities and the private sector.