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
Current Events
Current News
The New England Independent Booksellers Association Has Awarded Its 2020 New England Book Award in Nonfiction to Phuc Tran ’95 for his Celebrated Memoir Sigh, Gone
Phuc Tran’s first book, Sigh, Gone: A Misfit’s Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In, was published by Flatiron Books in April 2020. It is, in Tran’s words, “a memoir about growing up in a rural Pennsylvania town as a nerdy, Asian punk rocker who would eventually become a Latin-teaching tattooer.”The New England Independent Booksellers Association Has Awarded Its 2020 New England Book Award in Nonfiction to Phuc Tran ’95 for his Celebrated Memoir Sigh, Gone
Post Date: 09-29-2020
Senior Spotlight: Xinyi Wang ’21
Classical studies major and Bard College Conservatory of Music student Xinyi Wang has experienced quarantine twice this year, first at home in Jiangsu, China in January, and then on the Bard campus in the spring. Through it all, she has stayed positive and engrossed herself in her Senior Project and her violin.Senior Spotlight: Xinyi Wang ’21
Xinyi managed to make it back to Bard, and was surprised to be quarantined again because of COVID-19 regulations, but working on her Senior Project in classical studies has kept her busy. For her project she chose to write about an inspiring Greek female character: Ariadne, daughter of Pasiphaë and the Cretan king Minos, who helped the Athenian hero Theseus escape the Labyrinth after he slew the Minotaur. She discovered the character through her adviser, classics professor Lauren Curtis, and was intrigued by how a female character was viewed in ancient poetry and how the same character is perceived in 20th-century opera. Xinyi appreciates her professors, who have stayed connected with her through this difficult time. She is also grateful for her adviser, who has been a help above and beyond academics. “She is very supportive,” Xinyi exclaims. “She pushes me to get out more.”
Xinyi, who has one more year at Bard as a double major in the Bard College Conservatory of Music, finds joy in playing her violin and staying connected to her friends via WeChat. She has learned to enjoy the peace of the quiet campus. As she chooses her classes for the fall, she is looking forward to the coming academic year, when the campus will be full of people again.
Post Date: 07-31-2020
