The Consortium is coordinated among several faculty members at both Duke and the University of North Carolina. Departments include Classics, Religion and Art History at Carolina, Classical Studies and Art, Art History and Visual Studies, and Religion at Duke. (See the list of faculty for details.)
The Department of Classical Studies at Duke maintains this website, which is housed on a Duke server.
The Department of Art and Art History and Visual Studies, Duke University offers an interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in the History of Art. The Ph.D. Program is committed to preparing students for advanced research in the visual cultures of the past and present. The Department recognizes that visual literacy plays an increasingly important role in negotiating contemporary society. Art, architecture, mass media (television, video, film, internet), and urbanism all work through reference to visual and spatial conventions. We strive, in consequence, to provide our graduate students not only with the necessary tools to understand objects and archives, but also the skills to interpret visual and material culture for the benefit of the broader community. Duke University is in the forefront of academic institutions supporting interdisciplinary and theoretical initiatives in the Humanities. Art History makes a unique contribution to these ventures. All members of the Art History faculty are engaged in innovative teaching or research projects involving faculty from other departments and programs. Courses that have been team-taught include "Late Ancient Christian Culture" (Art History and Religion), and "Introduction to Medieval/ Renaissance Studies" (Art History, English, and History).
In conjunction with the Nasher Museum of Art, Ph.D. candidates may also obtain a Certificate in Museology. Students may take courses for full credit toward their degree at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, which has a distinguished Art History faculty, and North Carolina State University at Raleigh.
The Departments of Art and Classics offer concentrations in Ancient Art and Classical Archaeology respectively. The specific aim of the program in classical archaeology is to provide students with a broad training in classical archaeology, including an introduction to a variety of interpretive methods and approaches to material culture as well as a firm disciplinary basis in one of the two departments. Students take courses in both departments and conduct thesis and other research with appropriate faculty members; degree requirements differ somewhat in the two departments. As a whole, the program is designed to encourage students to work beyond departmental lines and to prepare them for teaching, research, and fieldwork in Prehistoric, Classical, and Byzantine art and archaeology. Opportunities are available for interdisciplinary studies, and course work is encouraged in the departments of Anthropology, Linguistics, History, and Religious Studies. Students are also encouraged to study abroad, at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens or the American Academy in Rome, or by becoming involved in excavation or survey work. Opportunities for field work exist at Gordion in Turkey, on Crete, in the Athenian Agora, at Corinth, and at Carthage in Tunisia, among other sites. Summer courses are also taught in Istanbul. In addition to memberships in the American School and the American Academy, UNC also holds membership in the American Research Institute in Turkey, the American Schools of Oriental Research, the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, the College Art Association, and the Society for the American Journal of Archaeology.
Graduate courses in Classical Archaeology regularly include Aegean Bronze Age Archaeology, Greek Architecture, Greek Sculpture (separate courses on Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic), Greek Painting, Athenian Topography, the Archaeology of Anatolia, Roman Architecture, Roman Sculpture, Roman Painting, and the Topography of Rome and topography of Constantinople. Seminars in Classical Archaeology and Ancient Art are normally scheduled each year. Directed studies (individual tutorials) have recently included Crete in the Classical Period and Greek Architectural Sculpture. Other courses of interest to students in Classics are offered by the Departments of Anthropology, Art, History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies, and by the Curriculum in Linguistics. Yearly Annual seminars in Ancient Art and Classical Archaeology offer a variety of topics. Through the Department of Anthropology and the Research Laboratories of Archaeology, students may take courses in Archaeological Theory, Quantitative Methods, European Societies, Architecture and Culture, Osteology, and Ethnobotany.
Graduate Program in Classical Studies
Our Ph.D. program is dedicated to training students in the broad and integrated field of Classical Studies, which includes Greek and Latin languages and literatures, and the history, art, and archaeology of the ancient Greek and Roman world.
We seek to provide students with a broad understanding of Greco-Roman antiquity as a whole; a working knowledge of the specialized tools and techniques needed for research in the field; and familiarity with methodologies developed in other disciplines that are relevant to Classical Studies. Duke is particularly fortunate in faculty and resources that allow direct contact with the textual and material foundations of our knowledge of antiquity. A flexible program of courses can thus be arranged. After course work is completed, an integral part of the training is teaching experience.
The department cooperates with others at Duke that share our interests, such as Art and Art History, History, Philosophy, Political Science, Religion, and Women's Studies. We have close ties to the faculty, students, and resources of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with whom we collaborate in the Consortium. Our faculty and students are integral both to Duke’s Center for Late Ancient Studies, and to Medieval and Renaissance Studies. We also have strong ties to the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, the American Academy in Rome, and the American Research Center in Turkey.
The department encourages all graduate students to take advantage of its extensive research materials, which include the collection of Duke papyri; the collection of Greek and Latin manuscripts in Perkins’ Special Collections Library; and the Classical sculpture, ceramics, and other material in the Nasher Museum of Art.
Please feel free to contact , the Director of Graduate Studies, if you have questions about the program. Please note that our department does not accept students wishing to pursue only a M.A. in Classical Studies, but that a joint J.D./M.A. degree is available to qualified Law School students.
