Classics & Ancient Civilizations

The Master’s programme Classics and Ancient Civilizations combines strong disciplinary engagement with the ancient world with a broad interdisciplinary perspective. The curriculum has two specializations: Classics and Ancient Studies.

In the first semester, students take both interdisciplinary and disciplinary classes. If you opt for Classics, you will start with a course on the language of literature and on intertextual readings of thematically related Greek and Latin texts. If you choose Ancient Studies, you will delve into the specifics of political life in the ancient world and the religious developments of Classical and/or Late Antiquity.

In addition, all students follow two courses in which they apply their chosen specialist knowledge to engage in interdisciplinary dialogues. The first course focusses on case studies that illustrate the contentious relation between ‘story’ and ‘history’. The second course considers the relevance of modern (e.g. sociological) theory in dealing with the ancient world and discusses phenomena in Antiquity from a modern perspective. In the final course of the semester, students write a topical paper, in relation to one of the previous courses, and present the results at a student-organized conference.

In the second semester, research plays a central role. Students choose one or two research projects, which are intended to familiarize them with various aspects of collaborative academic research and the communication of research results to a wider audience. In addition, students take one or two elective courses, covering topics such as Akkadian, religion in Antiquity, Greek or Latin epigraphy, and Greek and Latin literature, offered by Masterlanguage. The semester finishes with the individual Master thesis.