Classics Dept. Website Navigation Map (updated:
11/22/06)
Welcome page:
The Department of Classics invites students to share in the
study of the language, literature, and culture of ancient
Greece and Rome and the civilizations they helped to
shape. We offer an undergraduate major and minor,
including honors option, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees.
Because we are a small and collegial department, students
have the opportunity to work closely with distinguished
faculty and to develop individualized or collaborative
research programs.
News and Events
MONDAY DECEMBER 4 - 3-6 PM
2006 UCLA-USC Greek Seminar
Imagining the Greek Past: Art, Archaeology and Artists
at Work
“Epic Reconstructions: Homeric Palaces and Mycenaean
Architecture”
Bryan Burns - Department of Classics, USC
“The Art of Antiquity: Piet de Jong as Artist of the Past”
John Papadopoulos - Classics & Archaeology, UCLA
“Bronze Age Greece in the Modern Graphic Novel”
Eric Shanower - artist (author, “Age of Bronze”)
Humanities Conference Room
Royce Hall 314 (Parking Lots #4, 5 off Sunset Blvd)
UCLA - Los Angeles, CA. (maps at ucla.edu)
- Employment Opportunities
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA – LOS
ANGELES, CA
The Department of Classics at the University of Southern
California seeks to appoint a tenure-track assistant or
tenured associate professor in Latin literature and Roman
cultural studies. The area of specialization is open, but the
search committee will give particular consideration to
candidates who demonstrate an ability to contribute to
interdisciplinary research and teaching within and beyond
the Department of Classics. The successful candidate will
be expected to teach at all levels, undergraduate and
graduate, including the general education program.
Candidates must have Ph.D. in hand before the start of the
appointment in August 2007. Submit credentials, including
C.V., letters of reference (names of referees in the case of
currently tenured applicants), and writing sample to
Thomas Habinek, chair and professor in the Department of
Classics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles,
CA 90089-0352. The department will begin reviewing
applications as of November 15, 2006; the position will
remain open until filled. USC is an AA/EOE employer.
- Past Events
Fall 2006
Maud Gleason (Stanford)
Thursday, November 9
The Identities of Herodes Atticus: Marriage and
Commemoration in a Bi-Cultural Context
Tom McGinn (Vanderbilt; American Academy in Rome,
Andrew W. Mellon Professor-in-Charge)
Tuesday, November 14
workshop on Augustan Legislation
The event is co- sponsored by the Classics Department and
the Center for Law, History and Culture.
- Faculty Bookshelf
[content to be submitted by 12/15]
Undergraduate Program
The undergraduate classics major gives students an
understanding of the cultures, languages and literatures of
ancient Greece, Rome and the Mediterranean world.
Classics is a broadly interdisciplinary field. Most courses
focus on ancient Greece and Rome, but students in the
department also study the interactions among various
ancient cultures, from the prehistoric Near East to the late
antique Mediterranean, and the impact of classical cultures
on later societies.
USC is a member of the Intercollegiate Center for Classical
Studies in Rome and of the College Year in Athens
program, and Classics majors are encouraged to spend a
semester in Rome or Athens. USC undergraduates are also
welcome to participate in the local chapter of the Senior
Classical League.
The classics degree requirements are also designed to
encourage students to explore courses in allied fields such
as religion, history, comparative literature, and art history.
A major or minor in classics can also be very successfully
paired with degrees in a range of other fields. Our students
have been known to combine their study of classics with a
number of other majors and minors, including pre-med,
religion, cinematic arts, and political science.
To declare a major or minor, and to monitor the fulfillment
of degree requirement, students should consult Luis
Ramirez in the Office of College
Advising, CAS 120. To discuss long range plans and
interests, students should meet with Professor Daniel
Richter , the department's faculty
mentor for undergraduate students.
- Courses
Spring 2007
[DESCRIPS to be added by 12/15]
o Past Courses
Fall 2006
[DESCRIPS to be added by 12/15]
- Why Study Classics?
Classics used to be conceived of the as the study of “Dead
White Men by Live White Men.” Such a picture, however,
describes neither the ancient nor the modern reality of the
discipline of classics. Classics is the study of the
civilizations which flourished in and around the ancient
Mediterranean Sea – a world characterized by
extraordinary ethnic, linguistic, religious, and cultural
diversity. To study classics is to engage with the rich
variety of the remains of these ancient civilizations: their
art, literature, philosophy, music, theater, politics. Because
Classics is a discipline that takes as its subject entire
cultures, classicists engage with a variety of modern
academic fields. In this sense, classics is among the most
all-encompassing and flexible of disciplines in the
humanities.
But the best reason to study Classics is the material itself.
Ancient art, literature, architecture, science, philosophy and
law have survived the millennia partly due to chance but
also because of their enduring power to inspire thought.
The classical tradition is good to think with – engaging
with the remains of the ancient world offers a means of
thinking productively about issues which are timeless:
mortality, desire, the nature of political communities, the
difference between the human and the divine, the impact of
the past on the present. What is more, through the study of
Latin and/or ancient Greek, classics students develop
linguistic and analytical skills which serve them well in a
variety of future professional contexts.
So yes, majoring or minoring in classics might make you a
better lawyer, doctor, investment banker, or web designer,
but also, like all fields in the humanities, the study of the
ancient world has unlimited potential to make you a more
thoughtful, articulate, and critically astute human being.
- Degree Requirements
Major in Classics
All classics majors are required to take two of the following
three introductory courses: CLAS 150 The Greeks and the
West
CLAS 151 Civilization of Rome
COLT 150x Literature and Western Civilization.
In addition all majors must have completed one of the two
elementary language sequences (including GR 220 or LAT
222).
All majors must take seven additional courses from the list
maintained by the classics undergraduate advisor. Of these
seven, at least five must be courses offered by the Classics
Department (i.e., CLAS, LAT, GR), and at least six must
be numbered 300 or above. In selecting courses from allied
fields (anthropology, art history, comparative literature,
English, history, Judaic studies, linguistics, philosophy,
political science, religion, gender studies), the student must
work closely with the classics undergraduate advisor.
Course work in departments other than classics must be
approved in advance by the undergraduate advisor in order
to count for major credit.
Students are reminded that they must have a total of 32
upper division units (8 four-unit courses) to graduate at
USC, and 24 upper division units (6 four-unit courses) in
their major.
Special note to students anticipating graduate study in
classics:
Students interested in attending graduate school in classics
are advised to take as many courses in Greek and Latin as
possible. Most graduate programs expect at least 3 years of
either Latin or Greek and 2 years in the other language.
Minor in Classics
The Classics minor requires one language course at the
beginning-level (100-level) or above; four upper-division
courses; and one course from either A or B:
A
CLAS 150 The Greeks and the West
CLAS 151 Civilization of Rome
CLAS 280 Classical Mythology
B
Second and third semester Latin or Greek courses (Greek
150, Greek 220, Latin 150, Latin 222)
Special note concerning advisement:
Because of the great flexibility built into the Classics major
and minor, students are encouraged to have their course
schedule approved by the undergraduate adviser regularly
(every semester for majors).
To monitor the fulfillment of degree requirement students
should consult Luis Ramirez in the
Office of College Advising, CAS 120. To discuss long
range plans and interests, students should meet with
Professor Daniel Richter , the
department's faculty mentor for undergraduate students.
- Study Abroad and Summer Opportunities
Study Abroad
USC offers students amazing array of opportunities to
spend a semester studying abroad. Students who have
participated in these programs regularly claim that living
and learning in a foreign country gave them an entirely new
perspective by experiencing classical monuments and
historic places in person.
USC is a member of the Intercollegiate Center for Classical
Studies in Rome and of the College Year in Athens. Both
programs are selective, and students should consult with
the undergraduate advisor in order to prepare themselves as
potential candidates for both application and participation.
Classics majors have also chosen to study in such places as
London, Edinburgh, and Berlin.
The Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in
Rome (the "Centro") [ADD link:
http://www.aas.duke.edu/study_abroad/iccs/faculty.html]
offers a unique experience for serious undergraduate
classics majors to experience ancient Rome first-hand. The
core of the program is an intensive course on ancient
Roman topography, history, art and architecture. This
course is taught in a combination of classroom lectures, site
visits (frequently with "behind the scenes" access to areas
tourists don't get into), and fieldtrips outside Rome proper
(e.g. Tuscany, Pompeii, Sicily). Centro students also take
courses in Greek, Latin, Italian and/or
Renaissance/Baroque art history.
The College Year in Athens [ADD link:
http://www.cyathens.org/index.asp?menu=1] offers year-
and semester-long programs for classics majors and others
interested in studying the ancient and modern
Mediterranean (they have summer courses too, see below).
Their courses cover a range of topics in ancient Greek
civilization as well as studies of South East Europe,
Western Asia, and the Middle East from the founding of
Constantinople (330 CE) to the present. Fieldtrips to major
sites relevant to ancient, Byzantine and modern Greek
history are integral to the CYA program.
The USC Office of Overseas Studies
can provide specific information on
affiliated study abroad programs, financial aid information,
and specific application procedures.
Summer Opportunities
Thinking about studying ancient sites first hand this
summer? Maybe working on an archaeological excavation?
Check out these options:
Archaeological Institute of America, Fieldwork
Opportunities Bulletin:
http://www.archaeological.org/webinfo.php?page=10016
(Volunteer and field-school listings for the following
summer's excavation season are regularly updated over the
fall and winter months, so check back on the AIA site from
time to time as more excavation directors post info on their
projects).
College Year in Athens, Summer Courses:
http://cyathens.org/cya/home.htm
American Academy in Rome Classical Summer School:
http://www.aarome.org/summer/
- Senior Classical League
[TEXT, AND PICS?, to be submitted by 11/30]
Graduate Program
The graduate program in classics at USC aims to train
students to become scholars, teachers, and interpreters of
ancient Mediterranean civilizations, of the Greek and Latin
languages and literatures, and of the traditions that have
developed from them. In order to prepare students to work
in a variety of intellectual contexts, the department seeks to
provide both a traditional, substantive training in classical
philology and the intellectual flexibility that will enable
them to make the world of the past available to audiences
of the present.
Prospective students are encouraged to contact the
department at the address provided in the contact link
above for more information about the graduate program, as
well as to consult the information posted on How To
Apply[link].
The Program
The department offers the Ph.D. in Classics (Greek and
Latin) and the M.A. in Greek, Latin, and Classics.
Collateral offerings are available in related departments,
such as Comparative Literature, History, Philosophy, Art
History, English, Religion and Anthropology.
The graduate program offers mastery of traditional
philological and linguistic skills as a basis for the study of
ancient cultures, with emphasis on literature and visual and
material culture. Students are encouraged to explore
interdisciplinary approaches to classical studies and the
relations between classics and other fields. Courses in
related departments are recommended and degree
requirements permit students to develop individual
interests.
Admission Requirements
An applicant for admission will normally have an
undergraduate major in classics, but programs may be
arranged for promising students who do not. The student
should have an undergraduate record satisfactory to the
department. All applicants are required to take the verbal
and quantitative general tests of the Graduate Record
Examinations.
Summer Seminar Abroad
USC Classics graduate students regularly participate in
intensive two-week summer seminars abroad taught by one
of the department's faculty members. In 2006, 14 graduate
students accompanied Claudia Moatti to Rome to study the
development of Rome as a capital from the second century
BCE to the third century CE. The 2007 summer seminar
led by Bryan Burns will focus on sanctuaries and sacred
sites of Greece [? – need to confirm this].
.
- Courses
Spring 2007
[DESCRIPS to be submitted by 12/15]
o Past Courses
Fall 2006
[DESCRIPS to be submitted by 12/15]
- Program Requirements
Master of Arts in Classics
The department does not accept applicants for a Master of
Arts degree in classics. The M.A. degree is intended only
as a transitional degree in the process of completing
requirements for the Ph.D. in classics.
Work toward the M.A. consists of six four-unit courses (24
units) and a thesis and oral defense, or the M.A.
comprehensive examination. Two of the survey courses are
required and five of the six courses must be taken in the
classics department. Under the guidance of a faculty
committee, the student elects those courses appropriate to
individual areas of special interest and previous academic
preparation.
Doctor of Philosophy in Classics
Sixty units of course work are required. Of these ordinarily
at least 48 will be taken in the USC Department of Classics.
The final two years of the five-year program are reserved
for dissertation preparation. In each of the first three years a
student will sit for a portion of the preliminary
examinations, with all preliminary exams to be completed
by the end of the third year. In addition, in each of the first
three years students present an individual research project
before a jury of internal and external examiners. A
substantial dissertation prospectus will be submitted within
six months of the completion of course work, and an oral
examination offered by the student's 5-member guidance
committee will be based on the prospectus.
- Graduate Calendar
Exam Dates Fall 2006:
● Greek history exam: Saturday, Sept. 16, 10:00am
● Greek language translation exam: Oct. 7, 10:00am.
● Greek literature and culture exam: Oct. 21,
10:00am.
- Current Students
[USE CURRENT for now if needed; updated content
(biographies and pictures) to be submitted by 11/30]
- Dissertations
[USE CURRENT for now if needed; updated content
to be submitted by 11/30]
- Awards and Job Placement
[updated content to be submitted by 12/15]
- How to Apply
[can use this text for now, but subject to revision after
11/28 program meeting]
Graduate study in classics requires reading knowledge of
Latin and Greek. In general we expect at least three years'
coursework in one language and two in the other. If you
have any question about the appropriateness of your
experience in the languages, please consult the graduate
advisor, Susan Lape .
We offer full financial support to qualified applicants.
The application process has two tracks. You must submit
certain formal information and pay an application fee to the
University; and you must submit most academic
information directly to the department.
To apply to the university, please use the on-line
application system found at the Graduate Admissions
Web site. In order to be considered for competitive
fellowships at the university level, applications should be
completed by December 15th. January 15, 2007 is the final
deadline for applications to be considered for departmental
fellowships.
To the department, please send the following:
- a letter of application (see below)
- three letters of recommendation
- a writing sample (on which see below)
- a list of texts read in Latin and Greek
- the results of the GRE examination (a photocopy will do)
- an original or a photocopy of an undergraduate transcript
Your statement of purpose for the Graduate School
application should explain both why you wish to pursue
graduate study in classics and, more specifically, why you
wish to do so at USC. We admit a small number of students
each year in order to offer them full financial support; we
therefore seek to find individuals whose interests best suit
our program.
The writing sample can be an essay written for an
undergraduate course, either as it was submitted or as
reworked. It should display your skills as a reader and
writer, and your engagement with Latin or Greek texts, as
relevant. Ideally, it would provide a guide to your skills at
translation, too. Send an essay you are proud of.
When to send
We will assemble files and review materials as they arrive;
the final deadline for departmental applications is January
15.
The admissions committee will meet in late January to
review all complete files and successful candidates will
then be invited to campus. We admit only as many students
as we can fully fund. For that reason, the admissions
committee maintains a list of alternates and the final roster
for the year is not closed until mid-April. Please contact the
graduate advisor with any questions about the status of
your application.
Financial Aid
We support everyone whom we admit with five-year
package that combines fellowship support and teaching
assistantships. These packages generally combine two
years of fellowship with three years of teaching, whose
distribution across time is negotiable, up to a point. The
annual financial package consists of a competitive stipend,
12 units per semester of tuition remission and year-round
health insurance. Some further support for travel and
research is also available from the department.
When will I hear from USC?
We seek to evaluate applications in late January and early
February, and will contact applicants as soon as a decision
on their case is made. Please do not hesitate to contact us if
you need to know where your application stands.
If you have questions:
- E-mail the Graduate Adviser, Susan Lape, at
lape@usc.edu;
- Call the Department's Administrator at (213) 740-3676;
- Fax the department at (213) 740-7360; .
... and please do e-mail any department member, as listed in
the Faculty section of our website. If you're especially
interested in any of our special interests, of course we want
to hear from you.
Or, for the real insider's scoop, e-mail our graduate
students.
Faculty faculty list with links to individ. pgs
[USE CURRENT for now if needed; updated content
to be submitted by 12/15]
- Associated Faculty [ADD links to their
departmental profile pages]
Lisa Bitel (History)
Sheila Briggs (Religion)
Richard Caldwell (Emeritus, Classics)
Jane Cody (Emerita, Classics)
Joseph A. Dane (English)
Lynn Swartz Dodd (Religion)
Jason Glenn (History)
Ronald F. Hock (Religion)
Heather James (English)
Frank Lewis (Philosophy)
John Pollini (Art History)
David I. Rollo (English)
Bruce Zuckerman (Religion)
Resources
- Local Resources
The Getty Villa and The Getty Center [ADD LINK:
http://www.getty.edu/]
In a building that recreates a Roman villa in a spectacular
setting on a bluff above the Pacific, the recently renovated
and re-opened Getty Villa in Malibu is dedicated in its
entirety to ancient art.
The Getty Center in Brentwood houses a major art
collection and is also home to the Getty Research Institute
(the "GRI"), a major library specializing in scholarship in
art history, material culture and related disciplines. For
classicists, their special collections holdings and
photography archives are especially valuable. USC faculty
and graduate students regularly work in the GRI library and
attend special exhibits, events and lectures at the GRI and
the Getty Villa.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art ("LACMA") [ADD
LINK: http://www.lacma.org/]
Located in the Miracle Mile in West LA, the museum
houses major collections in Ancient Near Eastern and
Egyptian art, photography, European painting and Asian
art, as well as one of the most significant collections of
Islamic Art in the world. They also have a substantial
collection of Greco-Roman objects. In addition, LACMA
regularly hosts exciting temporary exhibitions.
Huntington Museum, Library and Gardens [ADD
LINK: http://www.huntington.org/
The Huntington galleries and library are set in the middle a
stunning botanical garden, the former estate of a 19th
century railroad tycoon, in San Marino just south of
Pasadena. The library specializes in American and British
history, early printed books and women's history. USC
enjoys a special, collaborative relationship with the
Huntington through the interdisciplinary Early Modern
Studies Institute (EMSI) [ADD LINK:
http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/emsi/]
Los Angeles Public Library [ADD LINK:
http://www.lapl.org/]
After a devastating fire in the late 1980s, the city's central
library re-opened as one of the most beautiful buildings in
the city.
Norton Simon Museum[ADD LINK:
http://www.nortonsimon.org/]
Great collection of European, American and South Asian
art, conveniently located in Pasadena next to the Rolls
Royce dealership
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) [ADD LINK:
http://www.moca.org/]
The downtown site houses one of the most important
collections of post-1940 American and European art; the
nearby branch at Geffen Contemporary MOCA hosts large,
temporary exhibitions in a converted police car garage
while the sister site of the Pacific Design Center in West
Hollywood is a regular venue for rotating exhibits, usually
with an architecture/design slant.
Museum of Jurassic Technology [ADD LINK:
http://www.mjt.org/]
This amazing place has been analyzed by Lawrence
Weschler as a postmodern parody of the idea of the
museum (Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder), and indeed
features in the introduction to the Norton Anthology of
Postmodernism.
L.A. Philharmonic Orchestra [ADD LINK:
http://wdch.laphil.com/]
Performs under the direction of Esa-Pekka Salonen, at the
stunning new Walt Disney Concert Hall downtown.
The Hollywood Bowl [ADD LINK:
http://www.hollywoodbowl.com/]
Performances of classical, world music, jazz and rock
under the stars (take a picnic!) at one of the largest natural
amphitheaters in the world.
L.A. Culture Net
For the Los Angeles everybody warned you about; sand
sculpture, dolphin therapy and more.
L.A. Times "Calendar" section, what's doing
Online pages on restaurants, neighborhoods, where to hear
jazz in museums, where to go rollerblading, the usual.
Radio: Try KPCC for swing, KLON for jazz (sponsors of
the Long Beach Blues Festival), KCRW for new music,
KPFK for politics
USC TommyCam
USC's own famed cam, which has spawned its own urban
legends of broken romances. For a truly surreal view of the
USC campus, try the Quicktime video version available at
this site, which gives you 24 hours in rapid timelapse.
- Libraries and Research Tools
USC Library
The USC library's homepage has links to the main
catalogue, interlibrary loan, course reserves and electronic
resources. [ADD LINK: http://www.usc.edu/libraries/]
In addition, you will find guides to other research resources
at USC for Classics [ADD LINK:
http://isd.usc.edu/~aciccone/classics.html] and Ancient
Near Eastern and Mediterranean Archaeology [ADD
LINK: http://isd.usc.edu/~aciccone/archaeo.html]
The library also maintains a useful sites of Electronic
resources for Classical Art, Architecture, and Archaeology
where you'll find links to key classics, art history and
archaeology Web sites (including links to primary and
secondary sources, maps, images and museum collections),
organizations, electronic journals and more.
For bibliographic research, especially useful are the lists of
electronic databases compiled by subject area (note: many
of these resources require connection to the USC network
either on-campus or via a Virtual Private Network (VPN)).
From the library's Electronic Resources page [ADD LINK:
http://was.usc.edu/eresources/isd/], under "USC Libraries
Subjects," select classics, art history, philosophy, religion,
etc.
UCLA Library [ADD LINK:
http://www2.library.ucla.edu/]
UCLA has one of the four largest research libraries in the
United States, and its holdings are open to USC students
and faculty.
Getty Research Institute [ADD LINK:
http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/] and
the Huntington Library [ADD LINK:
http://www.huntington.org/LibraryDiv/LibraryHome.html]
USC faculty and graduate students may also apply for
reader privileges at the research libraries of the Getty
Research Institute and the Huntington.
Contact
Department of Classics
University of Southern California
THH 256
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0352
(213) 740-3676 (p)
(213) 740-7360 (f)
Chair:
Thomas N. Habinek
(213) 821-5303
THH 256 G
habinek@usc.edu
Graduate Advisor:
Susan Lape
(213) 740-0054
THH 272
lape@usc.edu
Undergraduate Advisor:
Luis Ramirez in the Office of College
Advising, CAS 120.
Faculty Mentor for Undergraduate Students:
Daniel Richter
213) 740-3286
THH 270
drichter@usc.edu
Administrative Assistant: Henrietta Elmore-Smith
(elmore@usc.edu)
- Map and Directions
[ADD links]