Classics

Related University Programs

Humanities Residential College
Humanistic Scholars Program
Languages and Cultures Residential College

Undergraduate Research

On-campus research opportunities include hands-on experience in the Archaeological Laboratory, directed independent research and honors research through the University Honors Program. Recent projects include:

• Research and illustration of ancient glass from Aila (Aqaba) and Gordion (Turkey) in the Archaeological Laboratory
• Excavation at Mitrou, a Bronze Age site in central Greece
• Music and Morality in Ancient Greek Philosophy and Literature
• Plato and the Techne of the Soul

Facilities & Resources

• The Archaeological Laboratory houses the department's extensive collection of excavated ancient glass and other artifacts. The department welcomes students with an interest in ancient material culture to participate in the ongoing study of ancient glass artifacts from several major sites in the classical world.
• The De Gregorio Antiquities Collection contains artifacts donated to Bucknell University by Mr. and Mrs. Bart De Gregorio. These artifacts focus on Egyptian and Roman material culture and on the history of the written language. This extraordinary collection encompasses wedge-shaped script on Babylonian cuneiform clay tablets, Egyptian hieroglyphs on papyrus, a Meosamerican ceremonial implement carved on bone,

Alumni Achievements

Bucknell classics graduates are engaged in a variety of careers, including the following:

• Development researcher, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.
• Assistant district attorney, New York, N.Y.
• Director, trade sales, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Mass.
• Degree candidate for DVM in veterinary science at the University of Pennsylvania.
• Degree candidate for a teaching certificate in biology and Latin at Bucknell.
• Director, graduate law program, Seton Hall University School of Law, Newark, N.J.
• Regional manager, DTZ Debenham Tie Leung, Shanghai, China.
• Webmaster, Uplink, Inc., Montoursville, Pa.
• Reporter, Washington Post, Washington, D.C.
• Bible translator, Wycliffe Bible Translators, Dallas, Texas.
• Professor of music, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tenn.
• Assistant professor of radiology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wis.
• Vice president, Edelman Public Relations, Chicago, Ill.
• Development associate, Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
• Attorney, Willig, Williams & Davidson, Philadelphia, Pa.
• Assistant professor of classics, Hendrix College, Conway, Ark.
• Classics and English, post baccalaureate student in classics at Columbia University, New York, N.Y.
• Geologist, PRC Environmental Management Inc., Helena, Mont.
• Teacher, Marshall High School, Fairfax County Public Schools, Falls Church, Va.
• Director of education, Friends of the Hermitage, Inc., a nonprofit organization that runs The Hermitage, a historic house museum, Ho-Ho-Kus, N.J.
• Senior vice president, Philadelphia Zoo, Philadelphia, Pa.
• Home repair coordinator, The Habitat Co., Harrisburg, Pa.
• Director, corporate responsibility, U.S. government, Washington, D.C.
• Gallery coordinator, Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, N.Y.

Selected Faculty Publications

Recent faculty scholarship has appeared in:

Hesperia
Journal of Glass Studies
Bryn Mawr Classical Review
Historia Einzelschriften
Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik
The Classical Journal
Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome
Mnemosyne
Institute of Nautical Archaeology Quarterly

Internships

Classics majors can gain career experience through summer internships. Recently, students have interned at:

• Center for Strategic and International Studies
• United States Senate

Graduate & Professional School

Some classics majors choose to pursue their academic interests in graduate school after Bucknell. Medical and law school admissions officers recognize the value of studying ancient languages. Recently, alumni of the classics program have gone on to:

University of Texas

Syracuse University

University of Toronto

Rutgers University

Villanova University

Cambridge University

University of Cincinnati

Program Details

• Classics has been an integral part of the curriculum at Bucknell since the University was founded in 1846.
• Professors take a broad approach to the material, both in time and space, with a scope of six millennia of human cultural development in western Asia, Europe and North Africa.
• Students may choose to focus their studies on one of the five tracks within the classics curriculum - ancient history and society, archaeology and material culture, myth and text, Greek or Latin.
• Students may minor in classics, Greek or Latin.
• They emerge equipped with methodologies and critical thinking skills needed to research and analyze evidence essential not only to the appreciation of ancient Greece and Rome, but to any humanistic endeavor.
• Bucknell's program is organized to accommodate students who enter with a background in Latin and classics as well as the many students who begin their study of the ancient world at Bucknell.
• Faculty and students work closely together; students enjoy personal attention in small classes and from faculty mentors who guide hands-on experiences and independent research.
• The study of classics is an important component of a student's liberal education and can provide perspective relevant to any major.
• Courses on related topics in other departments, such as anthropology, art, geography, philosophy, political science, religion and comparative humanities, are regularly included in the classics curriculum.
• Bucknell encourages students with an interest in archaeological field work to spend a season at one of the projects with which it is affiliated. Students in the department have excavated recently at Athens, Carthage, Aqaba and Pompeii.
• Faculty members make active use of Perseus and other computer-based learning and research tools in many of their courses.

Faculty

Bucknell's classics curriculum covers more subject areas related to the classical world than do most classics departments of comparable size. Faculty members have expertise in archaeology, comparative literatures, history and philology.

Kevin Daly
Ph.D. Harvard
Scholarly interests: Latin prose writers, epigraphy, genre studies, ancient military history, Athenian topography, Latin pedagogy

Janet D. Jones
Ph.D. North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Scholarly interests: classical archaeology, ancient technology and environment, the early Roman Empire, Roman historical narrative art

Stephanie Larson
Ph.D. Texas at Austin
Scholarly interests: ancient identities, ancient Greek magic, ancient historiography, political and military history, Hellenistic poetry and culture, Greek tragedy, mythology

Kristine M. Trego
Ph.D. University of Cincinnati
Scholarly interests: Greek and Roman historiography, ancient biography, Putarch, the ancient novel, nautical archaeology

Courses Offered

A major in classics consists of eight courses, including one year of ancient language (Greek or Latin) and an integrative course in classics.

The Age of Alexander the Great
The Age of Augustus
Ancient Cities
Ancient Conflict and Competition
Ancient Laughter
Ancient Technology
Archaeology of Egypt
Archaeology of Greece
Archaeology of Rome
Classical Athens
Classical Literature
Classical Myth
Classics Capstone
Ethnicity, Gender, Identity
Fall of Rome and Rise of Byzantium
Greek Civilization
Greek History
Greek Tragedy
Hellenistic Cultural Landscape
Heroic Epic
Honors Tutorial and Thesis
Independent Study in Classics
Independent Study in Greek
Independent Study in Latin
Intermediate Greek
Intermediate Latin
Introduction to Classical and Biblical Greek
Introductory Latin
Myth, Reason and Faith
Poetry of Passion: Greece and Rome
Religion of the Ancient Mediterranean
Roman Civilization
Roman History
Seminar on a Classical Topic
Studies in Greek Literature
Studies in Latin Literature
Topic in Classics

Grants & Awards

Classics faculty members have recently secured grants from the following organizations:

• Niarchos Foundation
• Gladys Delmas Foundation
• Lindback Foundation
• Loeb Classical Library Foundation
• Smithsonian Institution
• American Philosophical Society
• American Research Institute in Turkey

Quick Facts

Number of full-time faculty: 4

Average number of majors per class year: 10

Study Abroad

Most Bucknell classics students take advantage of study-abroad and field archaeological opportunities to study classics or work on excavations in Italy, Greece, Turkey, Jordan, Ireland and elsewhere.