Graduate Overview

Classics students.

The Department of Classics offers an MA in Classics with a focus in ancient history or Latin, and a PhD in Classics with a focus in classical literature, ancient history or Mediterranean archaeology.  Students can also obtain an MA in Critical Museum Studies; a pre-professional interdisciplinary MA program under the aegis of Anthropology.

 

UB Classics Departmental Policy on AI Use in Graduate Work

AI tools are becoming part of scholarly practice. The Department permits and is open to their responsible use as tools for research, organization, and exploration. Our aim is to train students to use them well consonant with the traditions of the field, not to prohibit them.

Graduate work must remain original, grounded in primary texts and peer-reviewed scholarship, and under the student’s intellectual control. Use of AI does not change these expectations. Students are fully responsible for the accuracy, interpretation, and sourcing of all work submitted.

AI may be used as a preliminary step to extend the scope and ambition of work, not to replace independent thinking. AI may not be used where independent performance is being assessed, including exams, translation exercises testing language proficiency, or any assignment where the instructor specifies restrictions.

All claims, citations, and translations must be independently verified. Errors introduced through AI use remain the student’s responsibility. Reliance on unverified or inaccurate AI output constitutes poor scholarly method. Academic originality remains central to scholarly practice.

Unless faculty specifically authorize its use in advance, students must obtain permission from their instructor to use AI in any scholarly enterprise. If students do use AI, then they must include a brief AI Use Statement disclosing which tools were used, for what purposes, and to what extent. Instructors may request additional documentation if needed, in accordance with UB Policy.

Instructors may set more specific expectations for individual courses or assignments.

This policy reflects a transitional moment. AI is already shaping research across disciplines. This policy may be updated to reflect new developments. Graduate training should prepare students accordingly while maintaining the core commitments of the field: close engagement with primary sources, rigorous evaluation of evidence, and originality of argumentation.

PhD in Classics
Graduate Handbook
MA in Classics
MA Critical Museum Studies

The Learning Environment

Our prestigious faculty is well-known for research and scholarship in a variety of fields, notably Roman archaeology, ancient religion, Greek and Latin epic poetry, linguistics, epigraphy and Greek urbanism. Graduate students engage in training that combines specialization with a foundation of considerable breadth. In the first year of study, students strengthen their command of the classical languages, and have the opportunity to survey methods, content and issues of the field as a whole. In the second year, students choose a particular area of interest and begin an independent investigation.

Faculty Research

Advanced Language Study

Students concentrating in classical languages and literature develop a broad background in ancient Mediterranean cultures with courses in ancient history and archaeology. Students concentrating in Greek and Roman history study two classical languages and also take courses in archaeology. Students concentrating in archaeology study two classical languages to the MA level and one to the PhD level.

Course Descriptions

Cutting-Edge Facilities

The department maintains a reference library, slide library, computer lab, facilities for archaeological data analysis and a well-equipped lab designed for materials analysis. Additionally, the department is home to the world-renowned UB Artifacts Collection, the leading journal Arethusa, and the new series, Arethusa Books, which represent our enduring commitment to original scholarship.

UB Artifacts Collection
Arethusa

Meet Our Faculty

  • Timothy Boyd
    9/27/18
    Research Interests: Classical epic, mythology, and traditional oral narrative; classical language instruction; medieval and modern Irish literature; history of archaeology on the Western Coast of Turkey
  • Neil Coffee
    7/12/18
    Research Interests: Latin literature; epic; gift theory; digital classics; conversational Latin
  • David A. Teegarden
    7/12/18
    Research Interests: Ancient Greek democracy; classical and Hellenistic Greek history
  • Jackie Murray
    5/18/23
    Research Interests: Ancient Greek Language and Literature, especially of the Hellenistic Poetry, its reception of Archaic and Classical poetry and its influence on Latin poetry and Greek literature of the Imperial period. Race studies and the Classics, Black Classicisms, and the reception of Greek and Roman Classics in African American and Afro-Caribbean literature.
  • Roger Woodard
    1/4/21
    Research Interests: Greek literature; Roman, Greek, and Indo-European religion and myth; anthropology of Greece and Rome; Greek alphabet and other writing systems; Indo-European linguistics; the interaction between the Near East and Greece
  • Alessandro Sebastiani
    9/7/22
    Research Interests: Roman archaeology of the Mediterranean; Roman economy; Roman religion; Roman to early medieval countryside; Roman to early medieval cities; landscape archaeology; medieval archaeology; medieval pottery; GIS and IT sciences applied to archaeology
  • John Dugan
    7/12/18
    Research Interests: Latin literature of the late Republic and Augustan period; ancient rhetoric and oratory; ancient and modern literary criticism and aesthetics
Student Testimonials

"I joined UB for the dynamic faculty and the opportunity to do something different. Very few other places offered graduate courses on gender and on theory. Their guidance not only gave me credentials, but also shaped me as a professional." 
– Allison Glazebrook, PhD '01

Contact

Please contact us if you have questions about the department, the application procedure or research opportunities for graduate students.