Studying the Ancient Greek and Roman Worlds at Berkeley

The department teaches and studies the languages, cultures, histories, philosophies, literatures, art, and material culture of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds. It is home to exciting and welcoming undergraduate major programs and maintains a rich and varied schedule of undergraduate courses, including a full curriculum of ancient Greek and Latin language instruction. Its PhD programs in Classics and Classical Archaeology are enriched every year by the arrival of new future leaders in the study of the ancient world, and for generations their graduates have gone on to renew or remake their fields. Itself a teeming center of intellectual vitality on campus, the department is affiliated with internationally important research units directed by its faculty, including the Center for the Tebtunis Papyri, the Sara B. Aleshire Center for Greek Epigraphy, and the Nemea Center for Classical Archaeology. The department organizes many events of interest and hosts many visits, most notably the storied annual Jane K. Sather Professorship of Classical Literature.


Featured Courses


Fall 2023
Madolyn Hyytiainen-Jacobson

Fall 2023
Shelton, Kim

An introduction to the ancient civilizations of the Bronze Age (3000-1100 BCE) Aegean: Crete, the Cyclades, Mainland Greece, and Western Anatolia. The still enigmatic remains of palaces, burials, paintings, and precious objects are explored in terms of their cultural contexts. 

News

We are excited to report that Marissa Henry (PhD Classics, 2022) has accepted a three-year position as a visiting assistant professor of Classics at Williams College and that Rebekah McKay (PhD in Classical Archaeology expected May 2024) has accepted a tenure-track position as assistant professor in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Evansville.  Congratulations to Marissa and Rebekah!


The Library has posted a news item highlighting the important and fascinating work going on at the Center for the Tebtunis Papyri; the report features perspectives from CTP director and DAGRS faculty member Todd Hickey, AHMA doctoral student Leah Packard-Grams, and alumnus Will Sieving (BA Ancient Greek and Roman Studies ‘22).


The entry of Berkeley alumnus Shao-Qian Mah (BS ‘22 EECS, BS ‘22 Business Administration) was one of three winners of runner-up prizes in the 2023 Vesuvius Challenge. Congratulations to Shao-Qian, who took AGRS Professor Ted Peña’s course on the Roman economy during his time at Berkeley.

For more on this exciting project to recover the contents of hundreds of carbonized books recovered from the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, see the project page!

Events

Mar
15
2024
Professor Rubina Raja of Aarhus University will present a lecture entitled "The emergence of an urban archaeology: entanglements between archaeological fieldwork and geopolitical developments in the 19th and 20th centuries."
Mar
20
2024
Professor Marian Feldman of Johns Hopkins will present online the lecture "Remembering and Forgetting in Ancient Mesopotamia: Ziggurats, Royal Sculpture, and the Shaping of the Akkadian Empire during the Ur III Period (c. 2100-2000 BCE)."
Apr
4
2024
Miriam Leonard, Professor of Greek Literature and its Reception at University College London, presents a talk exploring the role of the concept of fraternity in revolution.
Apr
15
2024
A conference celebrating one hundred years of excavation at the site of Ancient Nemea in Greece.
Apr
16
2024
A conference celebrating one hundred years of excavation at the site of Ancient Nemea in Greece

Nemea 100: From Blegen to Berkeley and Beyond

flyer advertising Nemea 100 conference