Photo by Genevieve Shiffrar
© 2007
About the Department of Classics
The Department of Classics at Berkeley has long been one of the world's leading centers for the study of Graeco-Roman antiquity. It is the intellectual home of a distinguished faculty, excellent graduate students, and many visiting scholars, including the annual Jane K. Sather Professor of Classical Literature. Its alumni and alumnae occupy teaching positions at major universities both in North America and overseas.
The mission of the Department has four major components.
- To give students across the University access to the literature, history, archaeology, mythology and philosophy of the ancient Greek and Roman world through an array of undergraduate courses on classical culture in translation. These courses introduce students to texts, artefacts, and ideas that are worth studying both in their own right and as abidingly influential elements in the imagination and history of later cultures. Such study deepens students' understanding of present-day issues by inculcating a sense of historical perspective that takes account of both the differences and the continuities between contemporary and ancient cultures.
- To enable undergraduates to immerse themselves in the language and culture of ancient Greece and Rome through its majors in Greek, Latin, and Classical Civilizations. These majors equip students with knowledge and analytical skills that can be applied in many areas (e.g., law, politics, business, biosciences, computer science and media) as well as providing essential preparation for graduate study in Classics, Comparative Literature, Philosophy, and other fields.
- To train and mentor future scholars and teachers through its top-rated graduate programs in Classics and Classical Archaeology. These programs combine intensive linguistic training in both Greek and Latin with wide-ranging intellectual exploration (including literature, history, archaeology, philosophy, and linguistics).
- To seek, through its faculty appointments, the breadth and excellence that can sustain these three goals. We encourage individual and collaborative faculty research, intellectual engagement with students at all levels, and effective participation in the administrative and advisory work of the Department, the College, the Academic Senate, and the campus and university as a whole.
The Department encourages faculty participation in other programs and cooperation with other departments. It includes several faculty with joint appointments, and it enjoys strong connections with Art History, Comparative Literature, History, Linguistics, Medieval Studies, Near Eastern Studies, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Rhetoric, Theater Dance and Performance Studies, and the Graduate Group in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology, and the Graduate Theological Union. On campus, Classics faculty are involved in the Nemea Center for Classical Archaeology, the Aleshire Center for the Study of Greek Epigraphy, the Center for the Tebtunis Papyri, the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Museum of Anthropology, and the Archaeological Research Facility.
