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Graduate Program

Ours is a vibrant intellectual community of classicists with diverse specialties and wide-ranging interests; we are committed to the innovative and theoretically informed exploration of the ancient Mediterranean world. Graduate work here accordingly mixes rigorous training in the materials and skills of specific disciplines with openness to new approaches and dialogue across media, genres, time periods and specialties. We are actively seeking PhD students who will contribute to this distinctive intellectual atmosphere and who will thrive in its particular strengths and opportunities. Is Stanford right for you? Are you right for us?

Please email Grant Parker, the Graduate Director, if you have additional questions, and feel free to contact faculty members with whom you are seriously interested in working.

Admissions

For admission into the PhD program in Classics at Stanford, you should have a strong background in Classics or a related field. Depending on your particular interests, this might include Comparative Literature, History, Political Science, Archaeology, Anthropology or Philosophy. Coursework in Latin and Greek need to be commensurate with your goals: the Language and Literature track requires advanced work in both languages before you arrive, the History and Archaeology tracks somewhat less.

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PhD student funding

Our funding package for PhD students is very strong. If admitted into the program, you are guaranteed five years of funding, including tuition, a stipend, and some summer support. We also have excellent funding for fieldwork, conference and research travel, and can offer especially good support for study and research in Mediterranean countries. Six years is the expected maximum time to degree; by the sixth year, students are normally well advanced in their dissertations and able to win university or national fellowships.

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Placement

PhDs from our program have done very well on the job market, both in winning postdoctoral fellowships and in landing tenure-track positions. The department's placement record is excellent. Our new PhDs have taken up postdocs at Harvard, Columbia, Brown, Berkeley, Brandeis, Macalester, Northwestern, NYU, Rice, and Ripon; visiting positions at Brandeis, Indiana, Knox, Richmond, Roanoke and UGA; and tenure-track positions at Cornell, Columbia, NYU, Boston U., Bowdoin, USC, UNC-Chapel Hill, Kenyon, UCL-King's College, Groningen, Wesleyan, McGill, Ohio State, Georgia State, Tulane, San Francisco State, Fresno State, Florida State, Holy Cross, U. Oklahoma, U. Colorado-Boulder, Texas Tech, Dalhousie, Gettysburg, Randolph College, Memorial U. (Newfoundland), U. San Diego, U. Puget Sound, and Evergreen.

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Ranking

Our doctoral program ranks at the top of  31 Classics programs in the United States rated by the National Research Council.  In a long-awaited report released in September, 2010, each department is allocated a range of figures (rather than a single rank-order grade) that indicates the strength of its faculty (in terms of publications, grants and awards) as well as the success of graduate students (in terms of time-to-degree and numbers obtaining academic jobs, among other factors).

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Programs

Ancient History

Stanford's approach to the study of ancient history integrates cutting-edge theories and methodologies, drawn especially from the social sciences, with more traditional methods of historical analysis. Along with gaining a solid grounding in Classical languages and culture, and in the ancillary skills essential for professional-level work in ancient history, Stanford students specializing in ancient history may prepare themselves to do original research by taking seminars in a variety of departments, including economics, political science, history, and Anthropology.

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Classical Archaeology

What most sets Stanford classical archaeology apart is its theoretical dynamism and interdisciplinary commitment. It is part of Stanford's interdepartmental Archaeology Center, a connection that offers students a structural and intellectual engagement with broader perspectives and cutting-edge methodologies from other disciplines, especially anthropology.

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Language & Literature

Greek verbal art, originating as it did in various performance traditions, orally transmitted and context-sensitive, forces us to question how the later notion of "literature" can even apply to it. To study it means also to challenge concepts of genre and form, audience and style, rhetoric and myth as they have developed in post-Classical eras.

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Classics & Philosophy

Joint Program in Ancient Philosophy—This specialization is jointly administered by the departments of Classics and Philosophy and is overseen by a joint committee composed of members of both departments. It provides students with the training, specialist skills, and knowledge needed for research and teaching in ancient philosophy while producing scholars who are fully trained as either philosophers or classicists.

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Classics and a Minor Field

The Ph.D. in Classics may be combined with a minor in another field, such as anthropology, history, humanities, or classical linguistics. Requirements for the minor field vary, but might be expected to involve about six graduate-level courses in the field and one written examination, plus a portion of the University oral exam (dissertation defense). Such a program is expected to take five years. The department encourages such programs for especially able and well prepared students. See the department Graduate Handbook for more information.

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Ph.D. Minor in Classics

For a graduate minor, the department recommends at least 20 units in Latin or Greek at the 100 level or above, and at least one course at the graduate (200 or 300) level.

Master of Arts

The Classics Department offers a one-year Master's degree in the four fields described below.

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Co-terminal M.A.

Stanford students in any undergraduate major who are interested in postgraduate work in Classics may apply for Stanford's coterminal master's program. Students considering a co-term are encouraged to consult with the Director of Undergraduate Studies about their plans before filing an application. No courses used to satisfy the undergraduate requirements (either as General Education Requirements or department requirements) may be applied toward the M.A.

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