Classics Program

Classical principles and classical works of art and literature have been influencing all of us throughout over lives. Studying the classics offers the key to clearly see the impact ancient Greeks and Romans—everything about them: how they lived, what they thought and believed, what they wrote, painted, carved, and performed.

Our classics faculty members come from a variety of fields and believe that antiquity still has many secrets to reveal, not only about our past, but about our society and ourselves.

Some areas of student and faculty member study include:

• ancient history, war, politics, and economics
• literary classics such as Homer, Sophocles, Virgil, and Ovid
• the archaeology of the ancient Mediterranean world
• the art and architecture of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans
• the mythology and religious practices of the Greeks and Romans
• the thought of figures such as Plato, Aristotle, and Lucretius
• the use of the classics in today’s film, books, and other media

Generations of our students have prized the individual attention offered by faculty members, their intellectual development, and the flexibility that this interdisciplinary field offers. Employers have come to value classically trained college graduates for the ability their studies have given them to look at an issue closely and from a variety of different perspectives. Classics is, after all, the original interdisciplinary major, the course followed by the great thinkers of the Renaissance and many of the most innovative minds of later centuries, including our own.