Classics

Fellows:
Dr William Allan
Dr Lisa Kallet (Ancient History (Greek))

Junior Research Fellow:
Dr Almut Fries

Lecturers:

Mr Alan Woolley (Languages)

Student Profile:
Athina Mitropolous (Graduated 2009)

Classics at Univ
Univ has a long tradition of excellence in Classics. Our large annual intake of undergraduates means that there is a lively and productive interaction among students. The College library is particularly well stocked with Classics books, while Univ itself is ideally situated within a few minutes’ walk of the Examination Schools (where most lectures take place), the Bodleian Library, the Sackler Library, the Ashmolean Museum and the new Classics Centre. In addition, Univ offers generous scholarships to finance study-travel in ‘classical lands’. Academic standards are high, and Univ’s relaxed and friendly atmosphere makes studying here a memorable and enriching experience.

Tutors
Dr William Allan is McConnell Laing Fellow and Tutor in Greek and Latin languages and literature. Born in Fife, he studied Classics at Edinburgh University and taught at Harvard University before coming to Univ. He is particularly interested in archaic and classical Greek literature, especially tragedy and epic. His publications include The Andromache and Euripidean Tragedy (Oxford University Press, 2000), Euripides: The Children of Heracles (Aris and Phillips, 2001), Euripides: Medea (Duckworth, 2002), Euripides: Helen (Cambridge University Press, 2008), Homer: The Iliad (Bloomsbury Academic, 2012) and articles on tragedy and early Greek epic. His current projects include a book entitled The Body in Mind: Medical Thought in Ancient Greek Literature, which investigates how beliefs about the body and medicine affect the way that ancient writers use medical or physical language to describe both the world around them and the behaviour of individuals within it.

Dr Lisa Kallet is Cawkwell Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History. She teaches archaic and classical Greek history, and Alexander the Great. Her areas of research speciality include Greek historiography, Athens and its empire, Athenian democracy, and Attic epigraphy. Her publications include Money, Expense and Navel Power in Thucydides’ History 1-5.24 (1993) and Money and the Corrosion of Power in Thucydides: the Sicilian Expedition and its Aftermath (2001). Her current projects include a history of Athenian economic interests in the north Aegean and Thrace in the archaic and classical periods, and various studies in Greek historiography (focusing on Herodotus and Thucydides).

Courses and Teaching
Univ welcomes candidates for all the Classics courses offered by Oxford (including the related degrees of Classical Archaeology & Ancient History, and Ancient & Modern History). We also admit students to any of the Joint Schools (Classics & English, Classics & Modern Languages, Classics & Oriental Studies), subject to a restriction in the case of Modern Languages, where we accept only applicants for Classics with Russian.

Candidates need to be strong linguistically; but we are also looking for commitment to the texts as literature, and an interest in the ancient world as a fascinating and excitingly different culture from our own. Candidates for Course II (who do not need to be studying either Greek or Latin at school) are particularly encouraged to apply. All students are lent copies of the large standard Greek and Latin dictionaries for use during their time here.

Teaching is carried out in weekly tutorials (mostly in College, sometimes with outside tutors), in combination with university seminars and lectures. Throughout the course you will be able to combine study of the classical languages and their literature with philosophy, ancient history, archaeology, and linguistics, as suits your particular interests and strengths.

Graduate Study
Our large, lively, and international graduate community contains many Classicists, studying in all branches of the subject at both Master’s and Doctoral level. The Classics Faculty Board appoints an academic supervisor for each graduate student (who will not always be a Fellow of Univ) and, in addition, each graduate is assigned a Univ tutor as an Academic Advisor. The College offers outstanding facilities for graduate study.

Further Information
For more information, especially on Classics courses and admissions, please consult the website of the Faculty of Classics.

For information about the joint degrees with Classics, see also the websites of the Faculty of English, the Faculty of Modern Languages, and the Faculty of Oriental Studies.

See also: English, History, Modern Languages, Oriental Studies, Philosophy