The Department of Classics is committed to the threefold study of Greco-Roman antiquity via its languages and literatures, its history, and its art and architectural remains. The Master of Arts (AM) in Classics is ideal preparation either for the PhD or for a career in secondary teaching, and it has a strong placement record in both areas. The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) program prepares candidates primarily for careers in research and university teaching. The department also supports students' exploration of alternative careers while pursuing the AM or PhD. Both programs provide rigorous instruction in Greek and Latin languages and literatures, exposure to the subfields of Classics, opportunities to cultivate special fields of research, and teaching experience in departmental courses.

Although both graduate programs are built around preparation in the core fields of Classics, opportunities exist for collaboration with numerous other departments and programs. PhD candidates have the option to pursue one of several special interdisciplinary tracks: Ancient History, Ancient Performance, Ancient Music, or Ancient Philosophy. Washington University also possesses several special collections of interest to the Classics researcher: the John Max Wulfing Coin Collection, an internationally recognized resource that can be applied to studies in numismatics, history, economics and art; a small collection of papyri housed in Olin Library; a substantial archive of epigraphical materials; and an important collection of Greek painted pottery. 

Contact Info

Contact:	Thomas Keeline
Phone:	314-935-8587
Email:	classics@wustl.edu
Website:	https://classics.wustl.edu

Endowed Professor and Chair

Professor Moore's work concentrates on several areas of classical antiquity, including the comic theater of Greece and Rome, Greek and Roman music, and Roman historiography. Current projects include a database and book on music in Greek and Roman theater and articles on music and poetic rhythm in ancient Rome. He also has interests in the history of theater, especially American musical theater and Japanese Kyogen comedy.

Professor

Professor Keane's interests range broadly over Greek and Roman literature and culture, but her research centers on the comic genres and their engagement with moral, social, and literary problems, particularly the Roman verse satirists Lucilius, Horace, Persius, and Juvenal and the epigrammatist Martial.

Associate Professors

Professor Bubelis' research in Greek history focuses on the intersection of economy, religion and public institutions. His work utilizes the evidence of inscriptions (epigraphy), coins (numismatics) and other material remains alongside the literary texts of ancient historians, poets, orators and the like. While most of his scholarship has engaged with classical Athens, Professor Bubelis avidly explores the societies of the eastern Mediterranean across antiquity, including Iron Age Cyprus and the Achaemenid Persian Empire to Hellenistic Egypt.

Professor Keeline works primarily on Latin literature, the history of classical scholarship and education from antiquity to the present, rhetoric, textual criticism, lexicography and metrics.

Professor Salas specializes in Greek and Roman medicine, philosophy and intellectual history. He is also interested in Aristotelian psychology. His research focuses on medical and philosophical sectarianism, especially in the work of Galen of Pergamum.

Professor Stamatopoulou's research and teaching encompass several aspects of ancient Greek literature and culture, but her work focuses primarily on archaic and classical poetry (Homer, Hesiod, lyric poetry, drama). She is also interested in the symposium, ancient biographies of poets, and the reception of archaic Greece in Imperial Greek literature (especially Plutarch).

Assistant Professors

Professor Aravecchia's research interests encompass the art and archaeology of Greco-Roman and Late Antique Egypt. He has taught courses in classical languages, ancient history, and art and archaeology in the United States, Egypt and Australia. His current work focuses on the origins and development of Early Christian architecture in rural Egypt. Since 2005, he has been involved in archaeological projects in the Dakhla Oasis, located in the Western Desert of Upper Egypt.

Professor Hollenbaugh's research interests include Indo-European linguistics, Homeric Greek, Old Latin, Vedic Sanskrit, and Germanic languages. He focuses particularly on the tense and aspect systems of Indo-European languages from both diachronic and synchronic perspectives.

Senior Lecturers

Professor Jenott teaches courses on the New Testament, studies in Christian origins, and Coptic language and literature. His other interests include Second Temple Judaism, Greco-Roman philosophy, classical civilizations, and theories and methods in the study of religion. Dr. Jenott is the author of The Gospel of Judas: Coptic Text, Translation, and Historical Interpretation of the 'Betrayer's Gospel', and he is the co-author of The Monastic Origins of the Nag Hammadi Codices. He is currently working on a commentary on the Gospel of Judas for the Hermeneia Series by Fortress Press.

Professor Wilson's research interests focus on the intersection of poetry and science. She is especially interested in Hellenistic literature and the relationship between different intellectual enterprises occurring during that time. She is also interested in the evolution of the genre of didactic poetry.

Lecturer

Professor Sears' research interests include ancient music, papyrology, Latin poetry (particularly Ovid's Metamorphoses) and ancient magic. She is currently working on a textbook for the University of Michigan Press that will discuss important technical and cultural features of both Greek and Roman music as well as the reception and reconstruction of ancient music. In addition to her love of classical languages and cultures, she is a violinist who has performed in benefit concerts throughout New England.

Professors Emeriti

AM in Classics

Candidates may obtain an AM degree in Classics by completing 36 graduate units of credit, completing a reading list, and taking a series of examinations. Students applying to continue in the Classics department's PhD program must also write a master's thesis. Others may choose to complete the AM with or without a thesis.

Courses

Total units required: 36 units, including the following:

Specific required courses: 9 units

Course List

Code	Title	Units
Classics 503	Classical Studies: Theories, Methods & Practice (a proseminar on materials, methods, and professional issues in Classics; offered every 2 years)	3
Greek 445	Greek Prose Composition (offered every 2 years; graduate-level course number: Greek 5450)	3
Latin 444	Latin Prose Composition (offered every 2 years; graduate-level course number: Latin 5440)	3
Total Units		9

Other course requirements: 21 units (for AM with thesis)

• At least 6 units in Greek (L09) (two options are offered every semester)
• At least 6 units in Latin (L10) (two or more options are offered every semester)

Most remaining courses will be in Greek, Latin and Classics. All must be at the 500/5000 level or above. With the guidance of the director of graduate studies, students may take 3 course units outside of the Classics department.

Research credits: 6 units

The master's thesis counts for 6 units. Any student opting not to write a thesis will fulfill these units with additional courses.

Modern Language Competence

This competence can be in German, French or Italian. The requirement may be fulfilled by courses or examination.

Program Exams

Students not planning to go on to a PhD program in Classics may opt to take the Reading List exam in one language (Greek or Latin) only. Those who pursue this option must still complete at least 6 units in the other language at the 500/5000 level or above. The examination will require the student to demonstrate competence in translation and interpretation as well as in knowledge of the relevant scholarship.

Teaching Option

AM students may have the opportunity to assist faculty as paid student workers in undergraduate courses. They are also eligible to enroll in the department’s graduate course in Classics pedagogy.

PhD in Classics

The Classics PhD requires 60 graduate units of courses and research in combination. Up to 24 of these units may be transferred from an outside AM program in Classics at the discretion of the Graduate Committee. (Requirements listed below include requirements for the AM in Classics at Washington University.) All units must be at the 500/5000 level or above. With the guidance of the director of graduate studies, students may take up to 12 units outside of the Classics department to enhance their graduate study. Students may choose to pursue one of four special interdisciplinary tracks: Ancient Performance, Ancient Music, Ancient History, or Ancient Philosophy. Every PhD candidate also completes a teaching requirement through assignments as an assistant in instruction and an instructor of record.

Courses

Total units required: 54 units, including the following:

Specific required courses: 12 units

Course List

Code	Title	Units
Classics 503	Classical Studies: Theories, Methods & Practice (a proseminar on materials, methods, and professional issues in Classics; offered every 2 years)	3
Classics 505	Seminar in Classics Pedagogy for Graduate Students (offered every 2 or 3 years)	3
Greek 445	Greek Prose Composition (offered every 2 years; graduate-level course number: Greek 5450)	3
Latin 444	Latin Prose Composition (offered every 2 years; graduate-level course number: Latin 5440)	3
Total Units		12

Other course requirements: 27 units

• At least 12 units in Greek (L09) (two options are offered every semester)
• At least 12 units in Latin (L10) (two or more options are offered every semester)
• At least 3 units in ancient history (at least one course will be offered every two years)

Elective courses: 15 units

This requirement includes courses for individual tracks, optional independent studies in preparation for exams, and other courses to be chosen after consultation with the director of graduate studies.

Research Credits

Program Exams

Teaching

Eight semesters of mentored teaching experiences are required, including at least two courses as the instructor of record.

Modern Language Competence

This competence can be in German and French or in German and Italian. The requirement may be fulfilled by courses or examination in each case.

Dissertation Requirements