Classics

University of California, Berkeley

This is an archived copy of the 2019-20 guide. To access the most recent version of the guide, please visit http://guide.berkeley.edu.

Spring 2020 COVID-19 Measures

Overview

The Department of Classics at UC Berkeley is a leading center for the study of Greco-Roman antiquity, offering excellent undergraduate and graduate education in the language, literature, history, philosophy, religion, archaeology, and art of two major cultures of the ancient Mediterranean world. It is the intellectual home of a distinguished faculty, excellent graduate students, and an extraordinarily talented and diverse group of undergraduates. Our community is also enriched by many visiting scholars, including the annual Jane K. Sather Professor of Classical Literature.

The mission of the department has four major components:

  1. To give students across the University access to the literature, history, archaeology, mythology, and philosophy of the ancient Greek and Roman world through an array of undergraduate courses on classical culture; in these courses, students access ancient writings not in the original Greek and Latin but through English translations. These courses introduce students to significant texts, artifacts, and ideas of the ancient world, while also putting these into their broader historical context. Such study deepens students' understanding of present-day issues by inculcating a sense of historical perspective that takes account of both the differences and the continuities between contemporary and ancient cultures. The department also provides instruction in Greek and Latin, from the beginning to the advanced levels, to undergraduate and graduate students across a wide range of fields.
  2. To enable undergraduates to immerse themselves in the language and culture of ancient Greece and Rome through its majors in Greek, Latin, Classical Languages, and Classical Civilizations. These majors equip students with knowledge and analytical skills that can be applied in many areas (e.g., law, politics, business, biosciences, computer science, and media), as well as provide essential preparation for graduate study in Classics, Comparative Literature, Philosophy, and other fields.
  3. To train and mentor future scholars and teachers through its top-rated graduate programs in Classics and Classical Archaeology. The program in Classics combines intensive linguistic training in both Greek and Latin with wide-ranging intellectual exploration (including literature, history, archaeology, philosophy, and linguistics).  The program in Classical Archaeology comprises the study of the material culture of Ancient Greek, Roman, and related cultures (e.g., Aegean, Etruscan, Punic) in order to understand their nature and development, drawing on evidence provided by ancient texts, settlement data, architectural remains, craft goods, art objects, and environmental materials.
  4. To seek, through its faculty appointments, the breadth and excellence that can sustain these three goals. The department encourages individual and collaborative faculty research, intellectual engagement with students at all levels, and effective participation in the administrative and advisory work of the department, the College of Letters and Science, the Academic Senate, and the campus and university as a whole.

The Department of Classics encourages faculty participation in other programs and cooperation with other departments. It includes several faculty with joint appointments, and it enjoys strong connections with Art History, Comparative Literature, History, Linguistics, Medieval Studies, Near Eastern Studies, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Rhetoric, Theater Dance & Performance Studies, the Graduate Group in Ancient History & Mediterranean Archaeology, and the Graduate Theological Union.  On campus, Classics faculty direct the Nemea Center for Classical Archaeology, the Aleshire Center for the Study of Greek Epigraphy, and the Center for the Tebtunis Papyri and are actively involved with the Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion, the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Museum of Anthropology, and the Archaeological Research Facility.

Undergraduate Programs

Classical Civilizations: BA, Minor
Classical Languages: BA
Greek: BA, Minor
Latin: BA, Minor

Graduate Programs

Classics: PhD
Classical Archaeology: PhD

Visit Department Website

Courses

Literature and Culture:

Languages:

Classics

Greek

Latin

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Faculty and Instructors

+ Indicates this faculty member is the recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award.

Faculty

Susanna Elm, Professor. History of the Later Roman Empire, pagan - Christian interactions, ancient medicine, slavery and the evolution of Christianity, leadership and empire, reception of antiquity.
Research Profile

Giovanni R. F. (John) Ferrari, Professor. Classics, ancient philosophy, Greek culture, ancient poetics and rhetoric.
Research Profile

+ Mark Griffith, Professor. Gender and sexuality, Greek literature and performance, Greek and Roman education, Greek tragedy and comedy, Hesiod and wisdom literature, ancient music.
Research Profile

Christopher Hallett, Professor. Classics, Roman art, visual culture, portraiture, Hellenistic art, Roman Asia Minor, Hellenistic and Roman Egypt.
Research Profile

Todd Hickey, Associate Professor. Classics, papyrology, Greek, Egyptian, social and economic history, late antiquity.
Research Profile

+ Leslie V. Kurke, Professor. Classics, Greek literature and culture, archaic Greek poetry, Herodotus.
Research Profile

Duncan MacRae, Assistant Professor. Classics.
Research Profile

Sara Magrin, Associate Professor.

Maria Mavroudi, Professor. Byzantine studies.
Research Profile

+ Kathleen Mccarthy, Professor. Classics, Roman literature and culture, slavery.
Research Profile

Trevor M. Murphy, Associate Professor. Ethnography, classics, Roman prose authors.
Research Profile

Ellen Oliensis, Professor. Latin Literature, Ovid.
Research Profile

Nikolaos Papazarkadas, Associate Professor. Greek epigraphy, Greek history.
Research Profile

J. Theodore Pena, Professor. Roman archaeology, Roman and pre-Roman Italy, city of Rome, Pompeii, ancient economy, ceramic analysis, material culture studies.
Research Profile

James Porter, Professor. Classical Studies, philosophy, critical theory, aesthetics, Nietzsche, Auerbach.
Research Profile

Dylan Paul Sailor, Associate Professor. Rhetoric, classics, Greek literature, Latin Literature, ancient Greek, Latin, historiography, ancient Rome, ancient Greece.
Research Profile

Kim S. Shelton, Associate Professor. Ceramics, classical civilization and archaeology, Aegean prehistory, religion/mythology.
Research Profile

+ Andrew F. Stewart, Professor. Archaeology, classics, Greek sculpture, ancient art and architecture, the Hellenistic east after Alexander, the Renaissance reception of antiquity.
Research Profile

Mario Telo, Professor.
Research Profile

Affiliated Faculty

Timothy Clarke, Assistant Professor.
Research Profile

Klaus Corcilius, Associate Professor. Ancient philosophy.
Research Profile

+ Andrew Garrett, Professor. Linguistics, English, California, language change, Indo-European languages, historical linguistics, northern California Indian languages, linguistic structure, typology, ancient Greek, Latin, Irish, Oceanic languages.
Research Profile

Kinch Hoekstra, Associate Professor. History of political, moral, and legal philosophy, ancient, renaissance, and early modern political thought.
Research Profile

Gary Holland, Professor. Linguistics.
Research Profile

Emily Mackil, Associate Professor. History.
Research Profile

Ramona Naddaff, Associate Professor. Rhetoric, aesthetics, theory of the novel, ancient Greek philosophy and literature, history of philosophy, contemporary French thought.
Research Profile

+ Carlos Norena, Associate Professor. History.

Martin Schwartz, Professor. Near Eastern studies, Iranian studies.
Research Profile

Lecturers

Lisa Pieraccini, Lecturer.

Tom Recht, Lecturer.

Yasmin Syed, Lecturer.

Emeritus Faculty

William S. Anderson, Professor Emeritus. Classics, Latin Literature.
Research Profile

David J. Cohen, Professor Emeritus. Human rights,war crimes and trials,Indonesia and East Timor, Guantanamo and Abu Grahib,Sierra Leone Special Court,International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and Former Yugoslavia,Classics,ancient rhetoric and history, classical Greek law,political/legal theory.
Research Profile

William Fitzgerald, Professor Emeritus.

+ Erich S. Gruen, Professor Emeritus. Classics, Greek and Roman history, Jews in the Greco-Roman world.
Research Profile

Ralph J. Hexter, Professor Emeritus.

Robert Knapp, Professor Emeritus.

Anthony A. Long, Professor Emeritus . Professor of the Graduate School, Chancellor's Professor Emeritus of Classics and Irving G Stone Professor Emeritus of Literature, Affiliated Professor of Philosophy and Rhetoric: Classics, Greek literature, ancient philosophy.
Research Profile

Donald Mastronarde, Professor Emeritus. Professor of the Graduate School and Emeritus Melpomene Distinguished Professor of Classical Languages and Literature: classics, Greek literature, Greek drama, Greek textual transmission, Greek literary papyrology, Greek palaeography.
Research Profile

Stephen G. Miller, Professor Emeritus. Archaeology, classics, Greek and Roman art, ancient architecture, Greek athletics .
Research Profile

Ronald S. Stroud, Professor Emeritus. Classics, Greek history and literature, Greek epigraphy.
Research Profile

Leslie L. Threatte, Professor Emeritus.

Contact Information

Department of Classics

7233 Dwinelle Hall

Phone: 510-642-4218

Fax: 510-643-2959

Visit Department Website

Department Chair

Ellen Oliensis

7211 Dwinelle Hall

Phone: 510-642-9207

eolien@berkeley.edu

Advisor, Undergraduate and Graduate Programs

Cassandra Dunn

7228 Dwinelle Hall

Phone: 510-642-3672

cassandrajj@berkeley.edu

Head Graduate Advisor

Dylan Sailor

7214 Dwinelle Hall

Phone: (510) 642-4787

dsailor@berkeley.edu

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