Department of Classics
Faculty
|
Chair Director of Graduate Studies Professor |
Associate Professor Assistant Professor Lecturer Lecturer with rank of Professor |
Requirements
The Princeton classics Ph.D. program fully recognizes the importance of the diverse aspects of the discipline and aims to offer all students an opportunity to develop a comprehensive and varied course of study. The department currently offers four curricular options: literature and philology, history (Program in the Ancient World), classical philosophy, classical and Hellenic studies.
Students concentrating on history are normally members of the Program in Ancient World (PAW); those concentrating on philosophy, of the Program in Classical Philosophy (PCP); and those concentrating also on Byzantine and modern Greek studies, of the joint Program in Classical and Hellenic Studies (CHS).
Students select their curricular option at the beginning of the program, though later changes are possible in consultation with the director of graduate studies and the graduate committee. Membership in PAW is open also to students concentrating on literature and philology (LP), who must normally declare their decision to join PAW no later than January of their first year.
All students, irrespective of their curricular option, are required to acquire a broad knowledge of classical literature and history by the time they complete their general examinations. They also prepare for special examinations on authors or topics of their choice (the type of these examinations varies with the curricular option chosen).
Students make steady progress toward the completion of examinations and dissertation at a pace that takes account of their preparation at entrance and their progress while in residence. Students regularly complete the general examinations by October of their third year and complete the dissertation by the end of the fifth.
Language Requirements
All students should work on their languages so as to pass sight examinations (prose and poetry) in the program languages (Greek and Latin, or Greek, Latin, and Byzantine, or modern Greek for CHS students) as early as possible. These and the examinations in modern scholarly languages should be passed by the end of the second year.
A reading knowledge of both French (or Italian) and German is desirable for admission. No student is permitted to enter the second year without demonstrating proficiency in at least one of these languages; proficiency in the other must be demonstrated no later than the end of that same year.
Throughout the graduate program, and especially during the three years before completion of the general examination, students are expected to read widely in representative ancient authors, over and above those covered in their courses, the reading list or the general examination.
Course Requirements
The department normally requires each student to take a total of 12 courses over three years. Students are strongly encouraged to take courses in the fields of art and archaeology, classical philosophy and linguistics, as well as literature and history.
General Examination
The general examinations in literature, history and philosophy are designed to test the candidates' in-depth knowledge of the subject. For a full description of the examination required of students in different degree options, consult "The Twelve Tables".
Master of Arts Degree
The Master of Arts (M.A.) is normally an incidental degree on the way to full Ph.D. candidacy, but may also be awarded to students who for various reasons leave the Ph.D. program. In order to qualify for the M.A., a student must have passed the sight translation examinations, participated successfully in at least 12 seminars, and written at least six acceptable research papers.
Dissertation
The fourth and fifth years of study are devoted to the writing of the doctoral dissertation. No later than June 1 of the third year, each student presents to a faculty committee a detailed dissertation proposal. Students participate in a dissertation workshop seminar during their final two years.
When the dissertation is completed, it is read by two readers in addition to the supervisor. Once it is accepted by the department on their recommendation, the candidate must pass a final public oral examination.
Teaching Requirements
Teaching experience is an essential component of doctoral training. Under normal circumstances, Princeton Ph.D. candidates are required, as part of their training, to teach for at least two terms. Postgenerals students are encouraged to apply for a teaching assistantship for one of the undergraduate lecture courses, which generally involves two to three hours a week; language teaching is normally scheduled after candidates have served as assistants in a lecture course. Appointments are made by the department chair, according to the needs of the undergraduate program, to third-, fourth-, and fifth-year students. The department expects students to fulfill the departmental teaching requirements before accepting any external teaching.
Interdepartmental Programs
Classical Archaeology —Students who wish to take the doctorate in classical archaeology should apply to and will be members of the Department of Art and Archaeology, not classics. All graduate students in classical archaeology are members of the interdepartmental Program in the Ancient World (see below), which places a strong emphasis on the mastery of ancient languages and history. All doctoral students in classical archaeology attend seminars in classics, take special author and Greek and Roman history examinations with us, and precept in our lecture courses. In return, many of our students often take courses in the Department of Art and Archaeology and in the summers join Professor William Childs’ excavation at Polis in Cyprus.
Classical Philosophy —Students in classics and philosophy may apply to enroll in the Program in Classical Philosophy, which is administered by a committee of the two departments. Appropriate courses may be taken in either department, special arrangements are made for guided reading and departmental requirements are considerably modified. In addition to inviting regular visitors, the program hosts a colloquium every December on a selected topic in ancient philosophy. The Paul Elmer More Fund provides a limited number of fellowships specifically for students in the program, awarded on the recommendation of the committee. The Ph.D. is earned in the student’s home department, be it classics or philosophy.
Comparative Literature —Students who wish a purely theoretical approach to literature, or one that takes in other literatures as well, might consider applying for the Ph.D. in comparative literature. This is a separate degree from classics, but relations between the two departments are close. Comparative literature students with a declared classics major or minor take many of our examinations, attend our seminars regularly, teach for us, and select classicists as advisers.
Hellenic Studies —The study of the Greek world -- ancient, Byzantine, and modern -- is promoted in numerous ways by the Program in Hellenic Studies, under the auspices of the Stanley J. Seeger Hellenic Fund. The program offers undergraduate and graduate instruction in Byzantine and modern Greek language, literature, history, and art and sponsors several visiting fellows from Greece, as well as scholars in classical and post-classical Greek studies, for short- or long-term stay. About 30 Seeger fellowships for study and research in Greece are awarded every year to faculty and students in all University departments. The graduate program in classical and Hellenic studies allows students with interests in classical and post-classical Greek literature and culture to pursue a classics Ph.D. with additional certification from the Program in Hellenic Studies. The program offers a postdoctoral fellowship in Hellenic studies and sponsors the Princeton Modern Greek Studies Series in collaboration with Princeton University Press. A vigorous program of campus activities includes lectures, seminars, exhibitions, concerts and more.
Program in the Ancient World —This program is designed to coordinate teaching and research in the area of ancient history and classical cultures broadly defined. Students are Ph.D. candidates in one of four cooperating departments (art and archaeology, classics, history, and religion) who wish to broaden their knowledge of the ancient world outside their own departments and receive a certificate on completion of the program requirements.
Late Antiquity —Not a formal program, but a thriving collaboration of faculty and students, the Committee for the Study of Late Antiquity sponsors lectures and conferences throughout the academic year.
Courses
Classics
CLA 500 Greek Prose Composition
Staff
A weekly exercise in translating selected passages of English into Greek, with intensive study of grammar and style. Research paper not required for credit. Offered alternately with 501.
CLA 501 Latin Prose Composition
Yelena Baraz
A weekly exercise in translating selected passages of English into Latin, with intensive study of grammar and style. Research paper not required for credit. Offered alternately with 500.
CLA 502/COM 541 The Classical Tradition. Ancient Greek Prose
Janet Downie
The norms of classicism as they evolve within two ruling forms of poetry. Alternation between the epic and the tragic drama. The former, a study of the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid; the contrast between primary and secondary epic poetry, changing conceptions of the heroic and of narrative form. Tragedies include Aeschylus' Oresteia, the Theban plays of Sophocles, and selected plays of Euripides and Seneca, with stress on the relationship of tragedy to social orders, theologies, and myths.
CLA 503 Survey of Selected Latin Literature
Yelena Baraz, Denis Feeney, Andrew M. Feldherr, Robert A. Kaster
The course concentrates on reading selected texts within a particular genre or genres or period. Research paper not required for credit. Offered alternately with 502.
CLA 504 Homer
Andrew L. Ford, Joshua T. Katz
Iliad or Odyssey, depending on the instructor's and the students' interest. Content and emphasis vary, but normally include study of traditional and contemporary categories of interpretation and a close analysis of poetic style. Lectures by the instructor; short reports.
CLA 505 Greek Lyric Poetry
Andrew L. Ford
The origin and development of Greek elegiac, iambic, and melic poetry; reading and analysis of the works of the various authors, with attention to linguistic, metrical, textual, and historical problems. Lectures and reports.
CLA 506 Greek Tragedy
Brooke Holmes
The origin and development of tragedy, the Greek theater, and the history of our texts. The course involves the reading and analysis of selected tragedies, with an emphasis on the language, meter, and interpretation of the plays. Lectures and report.
CLA 508 Greek Comedy
Andrew L. Ford
The course centers on two, possibly three, comedies of Aristophanes, and, if time and interest permit, on Menander's Dyskolos. Reports on selected problems of Old Comedy are assigned, such as origins, metrics, parody, politics, and textual problems. Occasional lectures by the instructor.
CLA 509 Plato
Christian Wildberg
A general introduction to the form and content of Plato's philosophy. Either the Republic and related Dialogues (Meno, Euthyphro, Gorgias) or the Symposium and Phaedrus are studied intensively.
CLA 511 Greek Historiography
Nino Luraghi
An intensive study of one or more major historical writersHerodotus, Thucydides, Polybius, and others.
CLA 512 Greek Historiography
Marc Domingo Gygax
An intensive study of one or more major historical writers---Herodotus, Thucydides, Polybius, and others.
CLA 513/COM 516 Ancient Literary Criticism
Andrew L. Ford, Denis C. Feeney
Study of a selection of critical texts, such as the following: Plato, Republic and Phaedrus; Aristotle, Poetics and Rhetoric; "Longinus," On the Sublime; Cicero, De oratore, etc.; Horace, De arte poetica; and Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria.
CLA 514 Problems in Greek Literature
Staff
Special problems are selected for intensive investigation, such as the origin and development of a genre, analysis of form, and history of ideas.
CLA 515 Problems in Greek Literature
Staff
Special problems are selected for intensive investigation, such as the origin and development of a genre, analysis of form, and history of ideas.
CLA 520/PAW 520 Greek History
Marc Domingo Gygax, Michael I. Flower, Nino Luraghi
A comprehensive introduction to central topics and methods of Greek history, offering a chronological overview of periods and significant developments; a survey of research tools and specialized sub-disciplines (e.g., epigraphy and numismatics); as well as important theoretical approaches to the study of the past (e.g., positivism, or the Annales School).
CLA 521 Problems in Greek History
Nino Luraghi
Special problems, such as Athenian imperialism, Sparta, political structures, and the political role of cults and festivals, are studied in rotation.
CLA 522 Problems in Greek History
Marc Domingo Gygax, Michael I. Flower, Nino Luraghi
Special problems, such as Athenian imperialism, Sparta, political structures, and the political role of cults and festivals, are studied in rotation.
CLA 524 Roman History: Problems and Methods
Harriet Flower, E. J. Champlin, Brent Shaw
Introduces graduate students in Classics to current methods and debates in Roman history and historiography. A chronological overview of the history of Rome and of her expanding empire from early times (8th century BC) to the end of the Severan era (AD 235) is accompanied by the study of a wide variety of ancient sources and the methods commonly used by modern historians to analyze these sources.
CLA 525 The Pre-Socratic Philosophers
Christian Wildberg
An introduction to the history of philosophy before Socrates, concentrating on the fragments of Parmenides and those after him.
CLA 526 Problems in Greek and Roman Philosophy
Christian Wildberg
Special problems are selected for intensive investigation. The subject matter of the course changes to adapt to the particular interests of the students and the instructor.
CLA 529/HLS 529 Topics in the Hellenic Tradition
Constanze M. Güthenke
An interdisciplinary seminar devoted to the study of aspects of the post-classical Greek literary and cultural tradition, including modern Greek literature, and its relation to classical literature and civilization.
CLA 530 Roman Comedy
Andrew M. Feldherr
Studies in the plays of Plautus and Terence. Selected plays of one or both authors are read. Problems and reports cover a variety of approaches to the comedies, such as literary criticism, literary history (including their relation to Greek predecessors), textual criticism, and linguistics.
CLA 531 Cicero
Robert A. Kaster
Selections from the orations, letters, rhetorical works or philosophical works of Cicero are read. The course may be organized around a period in Cicero's life, a literary genre, or Roman private or public life depending on the interests of the instructor and the students.
CLA 532 Lucretius and Epicureanism
Staff
De rerum natura is read, analyzed, and discussed, both as an exposition of Epicurean atomism and as a Latin poem.
CLA 533 Vergil
Denis C. Feeney
The seminar generally considers either the Aeneid or the Georgics and Eclogues. Discussions and reports center on the interpretation of the poems in themselves and in the light of Augustan literature and politics.
CLA 534 Roman Lyric and Elegiac Poetry
Denis C. Feeney
One or more of the following poets are considered in any given year: Catullus, Horace, Tibullus, Propertius, and Ovid.
CLA 536/COM 530 Ovid
Andrew M. Feldherr
Study of either Metamorphoses or selected elegiac poetry, focusing on problems of sources, narrative technique, and genre.
CLA 537 The Roman Novel
Staff
Study of Petronius's Satyricon or Apuleius's Metamorphoses or both, with some attention to Greek and Roman formative influences and the later romance and novelistic traditions.
CLA 538 Latin Poetry of the Empire
Yelena Baraz, Denis C. Feeney, Andrew M. Feldherr
Intensive study of Lucan, Seneca, Statius, and/or other writers.
CLA 539 Latin Historiography
Edward J. Champlin, Andrew M. Feldherr
An intensive study of one or more major historical writers such as Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus.
CLA 540 Latin Historiography
Denis C. Feeney, Robert A. Kaster
An intensive study of one or more major historical writers such as Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus.
CLA 542 Problems in Latin Literature
Yelena Baraz, Denis C. Feeney, Andrew M. Feldherr, Robert A. Kaster
Special problems are selected for intensive investigation, such as the origin and development of a genre, analysis of form, and history of ideas.
CLA 543 Problems in Latin Literature
Yelena Baraz, Denis C. Feeney, Andrew M. Feldherr, Robert A. Kaster
Special problems are selected for intensive investigation, such as the origin and development of a genre, analysis of form, and history of ideas.
CLA 545 Problems in Roman History
E. J. Champlin, Harriet I. Flower, Brent Shaw
Larger themes, such as Roman imperialism, the decline of the republic, and the rise of the multicultural empire, are considered in rotation with the study of specific problems and ancillary disciplines.
CLA 546 Problems in Roman History
E. J. Champlin, Harriet I. Flower, Brent Shaw
Larger themes, such as Roman imperialism, the decline of the republic, and the rise of the multicultural empire, are considered in rotation with the study of specific problems and ancillary disciplines.
CLA 547/PAW 503 Problems in Ancient History
Marc Domingo Gygax, Michael Flower, Nino Luraghi, Brent D. Shaw
Study of a topic involving both ancient Greece and ancient Rome, such as imperialism or slavery, from a comparative perspective.
CLA 548/HLS 548 Problems in Ancient History
Alan M. Stahl
Study of a topic involving both ancient Greece and ancient Rome, such as imperialism or slavery, from a comparative perspective.
CLA 552 The Classical Tradition in the Middle Ages
Staff
Examines the interactions of medieval classical scholarship and Latin literature, with reference to an outstanding author or literary circle, such as Hildebert of Le Mans, John of Salisbury, or the 10th-century Ottonian court. Some attention is paid to methods of investigating the medieval transmission and reception of classical authors.
CLA 561 Historical/Comparative Grammar of Latin
Joshua T. Katz
Introduction to Latin historical/comparative grammar via reading of preclassical texts, including both literary texts (Cato, Ennius, Saturnian poetry) and nonliterary forms (early inscriptions, the Twelve Tables, the Latin grammatical tradition); the position of Latin among the languages of ancient Italy; and the development of the literary language.
CLA 562 Historical/Comparative Grammar of Greek
Joshua T. Katz
Introduction to Greek historical/comparative grammar, based primarily on early Greek epic material (including Hesiod), with special attention to topics in Homeric linguistics and poetics. (For Greek dialects and Mycenaean, see CLA 564.)
CLA 564 Problems in Indo-European Linguistics
Joshua T. Katz
Special topics are selected for investigation, such as comparative syntax or Indo-European particles. Or, a particular Indo-European dialect may be studied, such as Osco-Umbrian or Hittite.
CLA 575/LIN 575 Introduction to Sanskrit
Staff
Introduction to classical Sanskrit aimed at developing a proficiency in reading prose and verse, with attention to the history of the language in its Indo-European context.
CLA 576/LIN 576 Introduction to Sanskrit (continued)
Staff
Introduction to Classical Sanskrit aimed at developing a proficiency in reading prose and verse, with attention to the history of the language in its Indo-European context.
CLA 599 Dissertation Writers' Seminar
Staff
A practical and theoretical introduction to scholarly writing at the dissertation level and beyond. This seminar is normally required of all post-generals students and will provide information and guidance on the proposal and dissertation writing process; the seminar will meet every two or three weeks throughout the year, providing a forum for dissertators to circulate work in progress for feedback, and to discuss issues that arise in their work.