Program in Hellenic Studies

Director

Slobodan Ćurčić

Executive Director

Dimitri H. Gondicas

Executive Committee

Leonard Barkan, Comparative Literature

M. Christine Boyer, Architecture

Peter R. Brown, History

Marina S. Brownlee, Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Cultures

Slobodan Ćurčić, Art and Archaeology

Dimitri H. Gondicas, Classics

Molly Greene, History

John Haldon, History, Hellenic Studies

Peter Jeffery, Music

Stanley N. Katz, Woodrow Wilson School

Alexander Nehamas, Philosophy, Comparative Literature

Gideon A. Rosen, Philosophy, ex officio

P. Adams Sitney, University Center for the Creative and Performing Arts, Visual Arts

Christian Wildberg, Classics

Froma I. Zeitlin, Classics, Comparative Literature

Visiting Professor

Maria Mavroudi, History, Classics

Associated Faculty

Molly Greene, History

Constanze M. Güthenke, Classics

John Haldon, History, Hellenic Studies

Lecturer

Efthymia Rentzou, French and Italian

 

The Program in Hellenic Studies, under the general direction of the Council of the Humanities and with the support of the Stanley J. Seeger Hellenic Fund, promotes the interdisciplinary study of the Greek world, from antiquity to the present. In addition to a comprehensive undergraduate curriculum in Byzantine and modern Greek studies, the program offers graduate seminars in Hellenic studies that are complemented by graduate courses in several departments and programs, with opportunities for doctoral research on Byzantine or modern Greek civilization. Currently the program offers jointly with the Department of Classics a graduate certificate in the Program in Classical and Hellenic Studies as described below.

Program in Classical and Hellenic Studies

The Graduate Program in Classical and Hellenic Studies is designed for students of the classics who are interested in pursuing (1) the study of the transmission and reception of the classical tradition, or (2) the study of Greek language, literature, history, or culture in the Late Antique world, Byzantium, or modern Greece. The program, which normally requires five years to complete, is administered by the Department of Classics in cooperation with the Program in Hellenic Studies. In addition to their work on classical languages, literatures, and history, students choose to concentrate on the Byzantine or the modern Greek period. They are excused from some of the requirements of the normal Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) program in classics, and are asked instead to satisfy additional requirements in their chosen field. They also attend courses offered through the Department of Classics and the Program in Hellenic Studies and are encouraged to participate in courses relevant to their interests offered by departments such as art and archaeology, comparative literature, history, Near Eastern studies, and religion. Admission is through the Department of Classics. Students who satisfy the programs requirements receive their Ph.D. in classics, with additional certification in the Program in Classical and Hellenic Studies.

Other Graduate Opportunities in Byzantine or Modern Greek Studies

Graduate students in the humanities and social science disciplines other than classics who wish to pursue their interests in Byzantine or modern Greek studies at Princeton must be enrolled in and satisfy all the requirements of an academic department such as anthropology, architecture, art and archaeology, comparative literature, history, music, Near Eastern studies, philosophy, politics, religion, sociology, or the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. They are welcome to participate in the courses, activities, and intellectual life of the Program in Hellenic Studies. With the approval of the department, and under the supervision of a committee that may include Hellenic studies faculty, students may write a dissertation on a Byzantine or a modern Greek topic. Their Ph.D. is awarded in the discipline of their home department.

Fellowship Opportunities and Study Abroad

All Princeton graduate students whose academic work relates to the study of ancient, medieval, or modern Greece are eligible for Stanley J. Seeger graduate fellowships or prizes offered by the program. Students who are Greek or Cypriot nationals or are of Hellenic extraction are eligible for J. F. Costopoulos Foundation graduate fellowships or prizes awarded by the program. Students are encouraged to pursue further study and research in Greece during the summer months and, occasionally, the academic year, with the support of Stanley J. Seeger fellowships given by the program.

Several other fellowship opportunities are offered by the program, and include the Hannah Seeger Davis, the Mary Seeger O’Boyle, the Ted and Elaine Athanassiades ’61 post-doctoral fellowships in Hellenic Studies, and the Stanley J. Seeger visiting fellowships for Greek, American or Canadian, or other research scholars and writers-in-residence. Finally, the program maintains exchange programs with several Greek academic institutions, as well as with the University of Oxford, through the joint research of the program on “Religions and Society in the Eastern Mediterranean, Ancient to Modern.”

Research Facilities and Resources

Firestone Library houses extensive research collections in the classical, Byzantine, and modern Greek fields. These collections have special strengths in Greek papyri, Byzantine manuscripts, and coins; modern Greek literature, theater, music, history, politics, and culture; Greeks in the Ottoman Empire; and Anglo-American literary philhellenism. There are also rare books on travel to Greece and the Levant. In addition, there are significant archival and manuscript collections on 20th-century United States–Greek relations, as well as extensive photographic collections (19th and 20th centuries) on Greece, Athens, Constantinople, and the Eastern Mediterranean. The Art Museum has unique research collections of Classical, Late Antique, and Byzantine art. The Index of Christian Art is a comprehensive resource for the study of Western Medieval and Byzantine iconography.

Campus Activities

The program sponsors a weekly Hellenic studies workshop, frequent Byzantine and modern Greek seminars, a lecture series, readings, and occasional informal colloquia and public conferences that provide students with opportunities to hear faculty, students, members of the Institute for Advanced Study, and visiting scholars discuss their work in progress on all aspects of Greek civilization.

Courses

HLS 500 Topics in Hellenic Studies

Staff

An interdisciplinary seminar devoted to the study of some aspect of Greek civilization, with special emphasis on Byzantine and/or modern Greek civilization, including their relation to the classical tradition. Topics and instructors change yearly.

HLS 529 Topics in the Hellenic Tradition (see CLA 529)

HLS 535 Problems in Late Antique and Byzantine Art and Architecture (see ART 535)

HLS 541 The Greek World After 1453 (see HIS 541)

HLS 542 Problems in Byzantine History (see HIS 542)

HLS 543 The Origins of the Middle Ages (see HIS 543)

Pertinent Courses in Allied Departments

Ancient World

501, 502 Program Seminar

Art and Archaeology

519 Seminar in Mycenaean Archaeology

520 Greek Art of the Iron Age and the Orientalizing Periods

521 Archaic Greek Sculpture and Painting

523 Classical Greek Sculpture and Painting

525 Architecture of Periclean Athens

526 Regional Schools of Greek Sculpture and Painting

527 Topography and Monuments of Athens

528 Problems in Ancient Architecture

529 Space and Time in Greek and Roman Art

542 Art and Society in Renaissance Italy

585 Problems in Islamic Art and Archaeology

Classics

500 Greek Prose Composition

502 Survey of Selected Greek Literature

504 Homer

505 Greek Lyric Poetry

506 Greek Tragedy

508 Greek Comedy

509 Plato

510 Aristotle

511, 512 Greek Historiography

513 Ancient Literary Criticism

514, 515 Problems in Greek Literature

521, 522 Problems in Greek History

525 The Pre-Socratic Philosophers

526 Problems in Greek and Roman Philosophy

552 The Classical Tradition in the Middle Ages

562 Historical/Comparative Grammar of Greek

564 Problems in Indo-European Linguistics

Comparative Literature

533 Literary Criticism: Classicism and Neoclassicism

541 The Classical Tradition: Readings in Tragedy

542 The Classical Tradition: Modernity—Homer and the Modern

History

513 The World and the West, 1300–2000

553 Seminar in European Intellectual History

History of Science

592 Science in Antiquity and the Middle Ages

Medieval Studies

500 Topics in Medieval Studies

Music

511 Problems in Early Christian Music

512 Topics in Medieval Music

Near Eastern Studies

571 Problems in Early Ottoman History

572 Problems in Ottoman History

573 Problems in Late Ottoman and Modern Republican History

Philosophy

500 The Philosophy of Plato

501 The Philosophy of Aristotle

Politics

512 Ancient and Medieval Political Theory

531 European Political Systems and Cultures

532 Democracy and Authoritarianism

Religion

504 Studies in Greco-Roman Religions

Slavic Languages and Literatures

533 Topics in Russian Philosophy

Undergraduate Courses of Interest

Classics

334 Modern Transformations of Classical Themes

335 Studies in the Classical Tradition

Hellenic Studies

461 Great Cities of the Greek World

History

422 Religion and Society in Early Medieval Byzantium and Western Europe

Medieval Studies

412 Topics in Medieval Studies

Near Eastern Studies

433 The Near East and the Eastern Question Since 1815

437 The Ottoman Empire, 1300–1800

438 The Ottoman Empire, 1800–1923