Tryptich with faculty reading a papyrus, a graduate student excavating a grave, and three students reading Ancient Greek

Department of Classics

The University of Cincinnati Classics Department is one of the most active and largest centers for the study of the Greek and Roman Antiquity in the United States. Seventeen full-time faculty members, four research associates, and two Rawson Visiting Scholars specialize in Classical philology, ancient history, and archaeology, including Greek prehistory. 

About thirty-five graduate students are in residence at any given time, while others spend a year or more abroad to study or conduct research. In the heart of the Department is the recently renovated Burnam Classical Library, the world's most comprehensive library for advanced research in Classics (with some 300,000 volumes). The department's Tytus Fellowships bring an additional nine to twelve researchers to the Department each year, in addition to many shorter-term visitors. About thirty undergraduate majors profit from the vibrant scholarly community, while an Outreach Program takes faculty and graduate students to more than 100 area schools each year. The department's lecture series, including those sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America, attract audiences from the larger academic and lay community in the Cincinnati area. The Department edits Nestor, a bibliographic resource for Aegean Prehistory, and sponsors continuing series of publications for Pylos, Keos, and Troy. Faculty organize or participate in archaeological fieldwork in Greece at Pylos, Knossos, Isthmia, Anavlochos and the Athenian Agora, in Italy at Pompeii and Tharros in Sardinia, in Turkey at Gordion, and in Israel at Caesarea Maritima.

 

The Cincinnati Difference

What will you find in the Department of Classics at the University of Cincinnati and nowhere else?

  • Six or seven years of guaranteed funding, at a level well above subsistence in low-cost Cincinnati
  • Personalized professional development and mentorship
  • In-person and online teaching experience suited to your needs and development
  • Non-teaching service assignments in the first two years, and a dissertation year at the end
  • A carefully designed and flexible ancient languages curriculum, allowing either fast passage or up to four years for mastery
  • The world-renowned John Miller Burnam Classics Library, with over 300,000 monographs and 2,000 active periodical subscriptions
  • The award-winning Outreach Program, now in its second decade
  • The Tytus Scholars program, hosting 9 new visiting Classics scholars from around the world every year
  • Excavation opportunities under Cincinnati permits in Greece and Italy

Learn more about our Faculty, Ph.D. and MA tracks in Ancient History, Bronze Age and Classical Archaeology, and Greek and Latin Philology. You may also browse our graduate course cycles, and check out detailed policy about our graduate programs in our Graduate Handbook. See more here about the Burnam Library, the Tytus Fellows program, and our Outreach program.

Contact

Department of Classics
410 Blegen Library
PO Box 210226
Cincinnati, Ohio 45221-0226
Phone | (513) 556-3050
Fax | (513) 556-4366
classics@uc.edu

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Latest News

  • UC Classics Club Stages Plautus Play

    Cast members on stage in costume

    On Saturday, March 2, the UC Classics Club staged a Roman comedy, Plautus’ Amphitruo, using a new translation by Prof. Caitlin Hines and Ph.D. candidate Allie Pohler. Prof. Anna Conser directed a cast of students and faculty, including Classics undergrads Alyssa Hoffman, Jaimee Booth, and Meara Couvillon; CCM actor Patrick Comunale; Ph.D. candidate Alessandro Battaglia; and professors Marion Kruse and Kathleen Lynch. Classics students filled many production roles, including stage managing (Meara Couvillon), producing (Matt Wabler and Michael Shobe), creating the poster and program (Sarina Duncan), and arranging original musical accompaniment (Amanda Stokes and Hunter Torosian). The evening was filled with mischief. As Prof. Marion Kruse narrated a battle scene, musicians came in with a military drum beat that eventually – and hilariously – culminated in sampled guitar riffs from Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust.” At a point where several pages are missing from the manuscript tradition, Prof. Caitlin Hines stepped on stage to explain, only to be interrupted by the characters Mercury and Jupiter, in what turned out to be a very clever meta-theatrical scene. Around 70 people attended the performance, held at Probasco Auditorium. The show was followed by a lively Q&A addressing translation and production choices, as well as the historical context of Roman comedy more generally. Classics Club plans to make this an annual tradition, so stay tuned for Fall 2024!

     
  • Peter van Minnen honored with Burnam Professorship, Festschrift

    Peter van Minnen and Andrew Connor seated in the Classics Library holding the book

    On Tuesday, February 20, UC Classics celebrated Peter van Minnen’s J. M. Burnam Professorship, which included a panel and the presentation of a festschrift in his honor, titled "Unending Variety. Papyrological Texts and Studies in Honor of Peter van Minnen." The panel included remarks from Drs. Rebecka Lindau (John Miller Burnam Classics Library), Valerio Ferme (Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs), Jay Twomey (Associate Dean), and Daniel Markovich (Head of the Classics Department). Papers were presented by Drs. Matthijs Wibier, Andrew Connor, and Cisca Hoogendijk. After the presentation of the papers and the festschrift, attendees joined Peter at a reception in the Blegen Library. Please join us in congratulating Peter on his Professorship and festschrift! You can find out more about Unending Variety at Brill's website. 

     
  • Anna Belza Receives Leon Pomerance Fellowship

    Anna Belza standing on the island of Kea

    Anna Belza, a Ph.D. candidate in the UC Department of Classics, has received the Archaeological Institute of America’s Harriet and Leon Pomerance Fellowship for AY 2024-2025. The award supports her dissertation project, entitled "The Cyclades in the Mycenaean Period: A View from Ayia Irini, Kea,” which is a study of the pottery, small finds, and architecture dated to Late Bronze Age IIB–IIIC from the port town of Ayia Irini, on the Cycladic island of Kea in Greece. Her study provides the first site-wide presentation of Mycenaean period activity at Ayia Irini, Kea, which is contextualized within the Cyclades in order to provide an up-to-date understanding of the efficacy and reach of maritime distribution systems in the Late Bronze Age, ultimately contributing to debates about the role of the Cycladic islands in the Mycenaean Aegean.

     
  • Kathleen Kidder Wins the Mary White Prize

    Our alumna Kathleen Kidder (University of Houston) received the Mary White Prize for Best Article in Phoenix, the journal of the Classical Association of Canada, for her recently published article on “‘Like a Mole (?)’: Proteus’ Subterranean Journey (Alex.118–127) and the Poetics of Hidden Space,” Phoenix 75.3–4: 181-202. 

     

Upcoming Events

MetaClassics lecture - Arum Park (Arizona)

Date: 03.19.2024 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm
Calendar: Public Events

E. Günther lecture on Apulian VP

Date: 03.21.2024 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm
Calendar: Public Events
Dr. Elisabeth Günther, University of Heidelberg Lecture title, "Ugly Bodies: Phylakes and Comic Figures in Apulian Vase-Painting," in room 308 Reception to follow

S. Günther lecture on Capitoline Wolf

Date: 03.22.2024 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Calendar: Public Events
Dr. Sven Günther, Institute for History and Ancient Civilizations, Northeast Normal University, China Lecture title: The She-Wolf Goes, and Stays, in China: Thoughts on the Development of Western Classical Studies Room 308 Reception to follow