Classics (MA)

About the programme

The MA Classics and Ancient Civilizations covers one year and can be studied in four tracks: Classics is one of them. While diving into the literary, cultural and intellectual worlds of Greece and Rome, you will be involved in current research, and stimulated to reflect on the significance of Classics to the 21st century.

Programme structure

Program
Course	EC
Ancient World seminar	10
Core Course: Classics Now!	5
Seminar Greek: Tranquillity of mind: Plutarch on a forgotten ideal	10
Reading List: compose your own reading list	5
Seminar Latin: Orpheus in Latin Poetry	10
Reading List: compose your own reading list	5
Architecture as a Source for Historical Reconstruction in the ancient Near East	10
Empire and Diversity in the Roman World	10
Greek Papyrology	10
Material Culture of Ancient Religion	5
Seminar Ancient Philosophy: Ancient Women Philosophers	10
MA Thesis Classics and Ancient Civilisations	15
Seminar Greek: Friendship in Greek Literature	10
Seminar Latin: The Reception of Ovid’s Metamorphoses in the 20th Century	10
Core Course: Methodologies and Theories – Medieval & Early Modern	10
Editing Greek Papyri	10
Masterclass Classical Art – Definitions, Politics, Limits	5
Religions of the North: Impact of the Roman Empire on Religion in the Northwestern Provinces	10
Research Workshop: Greek and Latin Epigraphy (5 EC)	5
Research Workshop: Greek and Latin Epigraphy (10 EC)	10
Shem in the tents of Japhet: Exploring cultural negotiation in Greco-Roman Jewish-Greek literature	10
Philosophy in Late Antiquity	10

The MA Classics and Ancient Civilizations specialization programme Classics comprises 60 EC spread out over two semesters.

Together with classes from cultural-historical disciplines (e.g., Ancient Philosophy, Ancient History or Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity), courses on Greek and (Renaissance-) Latin literature and linguistics form the heart of the programme.

Core courses
All students participate in two core courses. The Ancient World Thesis seminar focuses on academic writing skills, job market training, and the interdisciplinary exploration of ancient civilizations. Classics Now! is a seminar examines the current relevance of the study of Classics: we will discuss current issues in modern society (from migration to #MeToo), while applying ancient texts as ‘tools for thinking’.

Thesis
You will conclude the programme by writing a thesis based on a research question or hypothesis of your own formulation, which involves the interpretation of classical texts, and/or the exploration of linguistic or literary concepts.

Electives
Next to the Classics and Ancient Civilizations MA Seminar and Classics Now!, students of the MA programme Classics take 35 EC courses in Greek and Latin literature and/or linguistics and a limited number of classes from the cultural-historical disciplines (e.g., Ancient Philosophy, Ancient History or Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity).

For a more detailed programme, see the Prospectus. Please note that this guide applies to the current academic year, which means that the curriculum for next year may slightly differ.

You have the option to study abroad. A maximum of 20 EC can be obtained through classes taken abroad.

Ineke Sluiter

Professor of Greek Language and Literature

“We have a wonderful and international team of colleagues here at Leiden: Dutch, German and American classicists and guest-researchers come together to work side-by-side in a friendly yet competitive and challenging academic environment.Between us, we offer a wide range of expertise, including Homer, rhetoric, Greek and Roman drama, papyrology, philosophy, or Neo-Latin.”

Research enterprises

"I personally love to involve students in research enterprises – and they are very active and enterprising themselves: we have a manuscript club, where we decipher the oldest manuscript of Homer’s Iliad. The Iliad text is surrounded on all sides by very hard-to-read commentaries that go back to the 3rd century BCE. Our students are currently helping to create a digital edition of this as part of the Homer Multi-text Project, which we are working on together with Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies."

Approaches to Classics

"Our courses offers a great mix: on the one hand we teach the continental approach to Classics, with its emphasis on technical skills and philology and, on the other, the more problem-driven and theory-oriented approach from the Anglo-American world.”