Classics at the University of Maryland

Graduate Program

The Department of Classics offers a Masters program in Latin or in Latin and Greek. The goal of our program is to provide advanced course work in Latin and Greek language and literature, and to place ancient literary texts in the broader context of ancient Greek and Roman culture and civilization. We expect students to take courses in related areas as well, such as ancient history, art and archaeology, architecture, philosophy, and rhetoric, all of which are taught by specialists in other departments.

The three major constituencies we serve are students desire to continue on to a PhD program but need further work in Latin and Greek first, those who plan to teach at the secondary level, and those who find the ancient world fascinating and simply wish to include study of it in their lives. Our department is small enough to offer students close direction and individualized attention in their work but large enough to provide a faculty which represents a wide range of special interests and talents.

For further information, please contact the department at 301-405-2013 (FAX 301-314-9084) or the Graduate Advisor, Professor Judith P. Hallett, jeph@umd.edu.

Opportunities

Students may enroll on a full-time or part-time basis.

The department has teaching assistantships and scholarships available for qualifying full-time students. Teaching assistants teach discussion sections for our mythology course or our course in Greek literature in translation. One assistant may be assigned to work with our collection of digitized slides.

To accommodate secondary school teachers and students with employment and other obligations during the daytime, all of our advanced Latin and Greek literature courses are held in the late afternoon and early evening.

All graduate students are invited to participate in Latin Day, the department's annual outreach program for secondary school Latin students. The department also has conferences and workshops on a variety of topics and is active in Washington area colloquia.

The Program

• 24 credits in Latin. No more than 6 of these credits may be at the 400-level. Required courses include:
• 2 "age courses" (e.g., Age of Caesar, Silver Age)
• LATN 672, History and Development of Latin Language.
• 6 credits in non-language courses in some aspect of the ancient world (e.g., history, art). These may be at the 400-level.

Requirements for the Latin M.A. with thesis: Same as above except that 6 thesis credits can replace 6 language credits.

Requirements for the Latin and Greek M.A.: 33 credits including—

• 18 credits in Latin at the 600-level. Required courses include:
  • Two "age courses" (e.g., Age of Caesar, Silver Age)
  • LATN 672, History and Development of Latin Language
• 9 credits of Greek. No more than 6 of these credits may be at the 400-level. Required courses include:
  • GREK 672, History and Development of Greek.
  • 3 credits in a non-language course (instead of 6). These may be at the 400-level.

Requirements for Latin and Greek M.A. with thesis: Same as above except that 6 thesis credits can replace 6 language credits.

Each degree candidate is required to pass a 3-hour sight translation examination in Latin or both languages by his or her penultimate semester of study. These sight translation examinations, which are offered each semester and consist of a passage of poetry and a passage of prose chosen from the departmental reading lists in Latin and Greek. Students are encouraged to take these examinations at the earliest possible opportunity in order to practice their sight translation skills and to identify areas in which they need to strengthen these skills.

Students who elect to write an M.A. thesis are required to take an oral examination on the thesis and to demonstrate proficiency in reading one modern foreign language--ordinarily French, German or Italian. All other students are required to pass a 3-hour examination on the history of Latin or of Latin and Greek literature. Both the presentation of the M.A. thesis and the history of literature exams ordinarily take place in the student's final semester of study.

Courses

The Greek sequence is as follows in a two-year rotation:

In some years an additional course may be offered in Biblical Greek.

The department offers two 400-level courses that qualify as related courses, Advanced Mythology and Classical Tradition. In addition there are a number of courses on aspects of Greek and Roman culture and history in other departments.