Classical studies is thoroughly modern.

Classical studies is not just ancient history - it's language, poetry, gender and women's studies, tragedy, comedy, science, philosophy, art, architecture, oratory, politics, and religion. Classical studies intersects with 90 percent of the academic disciplines in a modern liberal arts program, and because of that can stand alone as a dynamic and challenging field of study or can complement almost any other major. A Spanish student can examine the roots of many Indo-European languages in the study of Latin; a philosophy student can discover deeper meanings in Plato or Aristotle through Ancient Greek; an art history student can trace many of the forms of western architecture from their beginnings in Archaic Greece. The curriculum of the Hollins classics department encourages these interconnections.

Greece and Rome

Classics at Hollins concentrates on Greece, Rome, and the broader Ancient Mediterranean, key sources of western linguistic, cultural, and civic heritage. You may concentrate in either ancient studies or classical languages, or you may minor in Latin or Greek. Course work explores the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia and Egypt as well. You can read Gilgamest in ancient history, create a replica of an Egyptian Sarcophagus in ancient art, and learn about the Persians while reading tragedy of the historian, Herodotus.

Learning opportunities

Courses are taught in the manner of seminars instead of lectures. Students learn to recite poetry in language classes, give presentations in advanced literature and art classes, participate in field trips to museums, perform scenes from tragedies and comedies in theatre courses. Short Term courses take students abroad to important museums and sites in Greece and Italy. Independent studies and internships allow an experiential approach to learning and valuable hands-on participation in jobs where a classical studies background is an asset.

Hollins goes to Greece

Destini Price '11 has won the Argiro Kazos Scholarship for the Study of Human Nature from the Arcadia Center in Athens, Greece. She studied in Greece during Spring Term 2010, and this scholarship will fund independent research for two months this summer. A double major in classical studies and English, Destini will be studying archaic and modern Greek poets and the inspiration of the landscape of Greece.

Read blogs from students during their travels through Greece during Short Term 2011. In January 2009, students traveled to Crete to explore the remains of several historical periods — from Minoan palaces to Byzantine churches to the battlefields and cemeteries of WWII. Their leaders on these trips were Associate Professor of Classical Studies Tina Salowey and Associate Professor of Communication Studies Chris Richter.

One of the speakers at Hollins' 34th annual Classics Symposium was Stanley Lombardo, professor of classics at the University of Kansas, who read from his translation of the Iliad. View a video of the reading.