Classical Studies is an interdisciplinary field of study encompassing the civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome. We seek to understand the languages, literatures, histories, and visual and material cultures of the premodern Mediterranean world—from the Bronze Age to the dawn of the Middle Ages, from the Iliad and the Odyssey to Saint Augustine, and from Greece, Italy, France, and Spain to North Africa, the Middle East, and the Greek-speaking kingdoms of the Indian subcontinent. We approach these ancient societies from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including linguistics, art history, archaeology, anthropology, and philosophy, while also considering the long and complex legacies of ancient Greece and Rome in art, language, politics, and culture from antiquity to the present day.
Scholarships
The Extent of the Ancient Mediterranean World
Courtesy Ancient World Mapping Center
Classical Studies Spotlight
Collecta in Classicis: Together in Classics
Collecta in Classicis: “Together in Classics,”* provides a space for scholars, teachers, and students to have a conversation about inclusivity in Classics, what that means, what it looks like, and why Classics is not always inclusive. We welcome scholars who have engaged critically with diversity of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, physical ability, and more as it relates to their experience in the field of Classics, or in their study of the Classical World, or both. Furthermore, we hope to include voices of marginalized groups typically silenced either in the past, or even today, by the Classics. How we make Classics more inclusive and accessible, and what that means and looks like, are difficult questions. We hope to encourage productive dialogues that contribute, in individual steps, to the transformative work needed in order for the field of Classics to be reimagined. Collecta in Classicis is supported by the Inclusion Challenge through the Office of the Dean of the College. See below for a list of upcoming events in the series. These events are open to the campus community.
*A note on the name: The Latin title is representative of Classics, and having the words declined in the neuter, accusative, plural is representative of the inclusivity. The neuter excludes neither men nor women, while also including people identifying outside of masculine or feminine binaries. The plural is—quite literally—denoting that Classics is for and made up of all people.
- 9/29Friday11:00 am – 12:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 Kline, College Room
- 10/03Tuesday5:00 pm – 6:30 pm EDT/GMT-4 Olin Humanities, Room 102
Tuesday, October 3, 2023
Jenny Strauss Clay, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Classics Emerita at the University of Virginia
Olin Humanities, Room 102 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
The fifth book of the Odyssey—the first to focus exclusively on the epic’s hero—may in some sense be considered the beginning of the epic proper. Its action constitutes a coherent arc that takes the hero from his captivity on Calypso’s island to the land of the Phaeacians, who will bring him back at last to Ithaca. But in addition to its narrative unity, Book 5 possesses a significant thematic unity, one centering on the issue of mortality and immortality. Although the stage is set by il gran rifituto—Odysseus’ refusal of Calypso’s offer of immortality and his choice to return to Ithaca—the tension between the divine and human in fact permeates the book in ways both obvious and subtle. Calypso’s love for the mortal Odysseus, Hermes’ distaste for his mission, Poseidon’s fury, and the aid of Leocothea, who once was mortal but is now immortal, all ring the changes on the possibilities for, and tensions inherent in, divine-human interactions. They also serve to position the Odyssey at a pivotal moment in the relations between gods and mortals: their previous intimacy is waning, and apotheosis belongs to a bygone era. This central theme not only dominates Book Five from beginning to end, but it offers a framework for the whole poem.
Current News
Bard Professor James Romm Receives $50,000 NEH Public Scholar Grant in Support of His Project Plato and the Tyrant
James Romm, James H. Ottaway Jr. Professor of Classics, has been awarded $50,000 by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to fund his project Plato and the Tyrant: The Experiment that Wrecked a City and Shaped a Philosophic Masterpiece. The book will use Plato’s little-known letters to illuminate his interventions in the politics of the Greek city of Syracuse and his relationship to the ruler Dionysius the Younger. The grant will support his work over a 10-month term beginning in September.Bard Professor James Romm Receives $50,000 NEH Public Scholar Grant in Support of His Project Plato and the Tyrant
“The Public Scholar program helps situate the humanities just where they ought to be—in the large world of public discourse, rather than behind university walls,” Prof. Romm said. “I’m honored to be recognized for making the ancient Greeks a part of that discourse. Never have the lessons they taught about tyranny, rule of law, and the meaning of citizenship been more relevant to our lives than they are at this moment.”
Plato is regarded as one of the world’s most influential thinkers, yet his life and personality remain opaque, partially because he did not include himself in his dialogues but used the mask of Socrates to develop his ideas. Plato and the Tyrant will bring his first-person voice to the forefront through quotes from the Platonic letters, documents sometimes regarded as forgeries but, as the book will argue, almost certainly genuine writings of Plato. The five Syracusan letters, addressed by Plato to Dionysius or to other political leaders of Syacuse, help tell the story of Plato’s interventions in that city. In addition, large segments of the Republic, especially the doctrine of the philosopher-king, can best be understood as reflections of Plato’s encounters with Dionysius, the foremost autocrat in the Greek world of his day.
Plato and the Tyrant follows not only the final two decades of Plato's life (367-347 BC) but the rise and fall, during that period, of a ruler who was at times Plato's student and at other times his nemesis, Dionysius the Younger, who at age 30 came to power in Syracuse in 367 as the sheltered heir of his father, also named Dionysius. The uncle of the younger Dionysius, Dion—a zealous adherent, and possibly lover, of Plato— wished to reshape his nephew’s character through philosophic instruction in the hope of setting Syracuse's regime on a healthier path. At Dion's urging, Plato journeyed to Syracuse just after the Younger's accession, a visit that set in motion a series of disasters for Dion, Dionysius, Plato, and the entire city. Plato and the Tyrant will ultimately examine the question of Plato's relationship to autocracy, a question that resonates strongly with current concerns in global and domestic politics.
Post Date: 08-18-2023
F-Stop Magazine Interviews Photographer Emily Allen ’22
Photographer Emily Allen ’22 talks with F-Stop magazine about her inspirations, creative practice, and current project “Sit Tibi Terra Levis,” which originated as her Senior Project and was recently featured in the magazine. “With this portfolio, I hope to draw attention to photography as a process and an object and its humanity–its connection to death, to life, and to memory,” said Allen, who studied photography, classics, and medieval studies at Bard. “I used the techniques we use to attempt to preserve ourselves throughout history to preserve my images.”F-Stop Magazine Interviews Photographer Emily Allen ’22
Self Portrait © Emily Allen
When looking at images, Allen doesn’t have one strict definition of what a photograph can be, rather she looks for resonance. “Literally the word photograph means ‘light drawing’–to me anything made using light sensitive materials and light is a photograph whether it is representative of our physical world or not . . . A good photograph convinces me of the reality in the world within the boundaries of the paper–I have to believe in it. I love when photographs feel like bubbles, each containing their own little universe,” she says.
Post Date: 03-07-2023
