Catalogue

Classical Studies

classicalstudies.bard.edu

Faculty

Lauren Curtis (director), Ranjani Atur, Thomas Bartscherer, Robert L. Cioffi, Richard​ H. Davis, Jay Elliott, Daniel Mendelsohn, James Romm, David Ungvary

Overview

Classical Studies is an interdisciplinary field of study encompassing the civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome. Students seek to understand the languages, literatures, histories, and visual and material cultures of the premodern Mediterranean world—from the Bronze Age to the dawn of the Middle Ages, from the Iliad and Odyssey to Saint Augustine, and from Greece, Italy, France, and Spain to North Africa, the Middle East, and the Greek-speaking kingdoms of the Indian subcontinent. These ancient societies are approached from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including linguistics, art history, archaeology, anthropology, and philosophy, while also considering the long and complex legacies of ancient Greece and Rome in art, language, politics, and culture from antiquity to the present day.

Bard offers full-tuition scholarships to academically outstanding students committed to majoring in Classical Studies. Majors can also apply for funds to help support classics-related summer projects, especially summer language courses.

Requirements

Students pursue one of two tracks, Classical Languages and Classical Civilizations. In Classical Languages, students focus on the ancient languages and their literatures (primarily Greek and Latin, which are offered regularly, but also Sanskrit and Hebrew, which are offered sporadically). At the same time, they also gain a foundational understanding of ancient Mediterranean history and culture. Students should choose this track if they love language (the traditional term for ancient language study, “philology,” means “love of language”), and want to read ancient authors and approach ancient evidence in the original languages. 

Students in the Classical Civilizations track focus on the history, cultures, and literatures of the ancient Mediterranean world. While their work is primarily conducted in English, they are encouraged but not required to take Latin or Greek at some point. Students should choose this track if they want to focus on the texts and material culture mainly through the methodologies of history, art history, philosophy, and literary studies in English. Some students may further choose to connect the ancient Mediterranean world to a broader context of ancient civilizations (e.g., the Middle East, India, and China), or to postclassical literatures and cultures from Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages to the contemporary world. For more details on requirements, including sample paths of study, see the Classical Studies website.  

Recent Senior Projects in Classical Studies

• “An Empire in Ivory: A Study of Roman Luxury Trade at Ancient Gabii”
• “The Murdering Mother: The Making and Unmaking of Medea in Ancient Greek Image and Text”
•  “Oaths, Phantoms, Contagion, Truth: The Crisis of Logos in Fifth-Century Athenian Culture”

Courses

All Classical Studies courses are open to majors in both tracks, as well as to nonmajors interested in learning more about the ancient Greek and Roman worlds and their legacy in the present day. Each year, introductory courses in ancient Greek and Latin language are offered. Our 100-level courses in ancient history and culture, The Greek World: An Introduction, and The Roman World: An Introduction, are offered in alternate years and provide a foundational overview of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, and how and why we study them. 

Greek and Latin language courses at the 200 and 300 level help students become more fluent readers of texts in the original languages by introducing them to a range of authors and literary forms such as epic, drama, prose fiction, historical writing, and lyric poetry. Regularly offered seminars in history and culture at the 200 and 300-level include courses on The Fall of the Roman Empire, Alexander the Great, Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World, Classical Mythology, Ancient Fictions, and Ancient Philosophy.