Classics

Courses in Classics enable students to study the ancient Mediterranean world through a variety of perspectives: archaeology, art, architecture, history, language, literature, religion, and philosophy.  Our territory is broad, both in time and space, with a scope of six millennia of human cultural development in western Asia, Europe, and North Africa.  All of the offerings in Classics challenge students both to confront the foreignness of ancient Mediterranean cultures and to explore their profound connections with our own.

The department prides itself on its interdisciplinarity, with faculty of the department collaborating with colleagues across the university, including Comparative Humanities, Religion, History, and Women's and Gender Studies.  We are also especially proud of our continuing involvement in archaeological field excavations.  Our faculty routinely participate in and send Bucknell students to major excavations in Greece and the eastern Mediterranean.

Not only is studying Classics great fun, but exploring such a multidsciplinary field prepares graduates for positions outside the university that emphasize cogent argumentation and an ability to synthesize and present conclusions from a wide variety of material quickly and persuasively.  Our students become better writers and communicators in their courses, and they also become uniquely aware of their place within the wide sweep of history.

The Department attracts people with all sorts of interests, who go on to follow a wide variety of paths in life. Some go on to graduate school to study the classics or related fields. Some go to professional school for law, medicine, business or library services. Others become editors, translators, religious leaders, computer programmers, teachers, and leaders in the non-profit sector.