SPECIAL PROGRAMS

The Department of Classics participates in several interdepartmental ventures designed to meet particular student needs or to capitalize on particular faculty strengths. Our students are strongly encouraged to take appropriate courses or otherwise to profit from faculty outside the Department. All interdepartmental programs are described in the Graduate School Announcement; since each has a very different structure you should read these entries carefully. If you wish to be considered by any program as well as by the Department of Classics, mention it in the space provided on the application form.

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 Childs' excavation at Polis in Cyprus. For more information, write to Professor William A. P. Childs, Department of Art and Archaeology, 302 McCormick Hall. 

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. For more information, write to the Department of Classics, 147 East Pyne, Professor Christian Wildberg. 

Comparative Literature
Students who wish a more 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. For more information, write to Professor Sandra Bermann, Department of Comparative Literature. 

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. For more information, write to Professor Slobodan Curcic, Program in Hellenic Studies/Department of History, 135 Dickinson Hall. 

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.  For further information, click here: PAW; or write to Professor Brent Shaw, Department of Classics, 156 East Pyne.

Late Antiquity
Not a formal program, but a thriving seminar generously supported by the Mellon Foundation, the Group for the Study of Late Antiquity operates under the auspices of the Program in the Ancient World (see above)  The group meets once or twice a month in the Department of History under the general guidance of Peter Brown, with a large attendance from Princeton, New York, and Philadelphia, to hear papers on a topic selected annually; it usually holds a large public colloquium every other year; and it sponsors relevant research and travel by graduate students. For more information, write to Professor Peter Brown, Department of History, 135 Dickinson Hall.