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.Studying Classics at Bard and want to get more involved?
The Extent of the Ancient Mediterranean World
Courtesy Ancient World Mapping Center
- 11/19Tuesday5:30 pm EST/GMT-5 Olin Humanities, Room 202
Tuesday, November 19, 2024
Olin Humanities, Room 202 5:30 pm EST/GMT-5
This talk reflects on the increasing presence of Greco-Roman receptions in a global popular culture industry based in South Korea, commonly referred to as K-pop. After providing an overview of key Greco-Roman themes in K-pop, this discussion delves into the reception of Cupid and Psyche in the girl group NewJeans’ 2023 song “Cool with You.” Drawing on the original context of the story as presented by the 2nd-century Roman author Apuleius and its connection to Roman pantomime dance, the talk explores how the reception of Cupid and Psyche functions as a meta-commentary on interracial romance, mediated through the lens of social media, in K-pop.
Current News
Robert Cioffi Publishes an Essay on Newly Uncovered Euripides Papyrus in the London Review of Books
Bard Assistant Professor of Classics Robert Cioffi published his essay “Euripides Unbound” in the most recent issue of the London Review of Books (LRB). Alongside his essay, Cioffi appeared on the LRB Podcast to talk about the papyrus’s 2022 excavation from a cemetery in Philadelphia (Egypt) by archaeologist Heba Adly.Robert Cioffi Publishes an Essay on Newly Uncovered Euripides Papyrus in the London Review of Books
Alongside his essay, Cioffi appeared on the LRB Podcast to talk about the papyrus’s excavation from a cemetery in Philadelphia (Egypt) by archaeologist Heba Adly. He also discussed his recent book Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Greek Novel, which explores the relationship between Egyptian and Greco-Roman materials and explains how important the Nile River Valley was in Roman imperial literature. Cioffi is currently working on site at Hermopolis Magna in Egypt, where he hopes to find more unexcavated texts: “That’s what makes archaeology exciting—you cross your fingers and hope to find something amazing.”
Post Date: 09-30-2024
Professor James Romm Reviews The Muse of History in the Chronicle of Higher Education
Bard Professor of Classics James Romm published a review of Oswyn Murray’s The Muse of History in the Chronicle of Higher Education. The Muse of History is a monograph about the study of ancient Greece and a demonstration of Murray’s important contributions to his field that Romm finds “offers something of value to readers, whether they are students of history or, as we all are, its prisoners.”Professor James Romm Reviews The Muse of History in the Chronicle of Higher Education
Romm admires Murray’s “sleuthing into scholarship’s hidden corners” to create a catalog of overlooked scholars of Greek history; for example, the author’s discovery of an unfinished 1837 manuscript “attest[s] to his tireless, rigorous research.” Collectively, Romm finds that The Muse of History is “a multifaceted book” that “offers something of value to readers, whether they are students of history or, as we all are, its prisoners.”
Post Date: 09-17-2024
