6 June 2010

Bachelor of Classical Studies now offered at ANU

6 June 2010 | thy_dungeonman

Although it launched last year (http://www.anu.edu.au/endowment/content/news/malouf_launches_classics_endowment/) I thought I’d advertise that the ANU now offers a Bachelor of Classical Studies degree. Rather than simply completing a bachelor for arts and including ancient history or languages course this is a specialized degree that involves either a major in ancient history plus 6 greek/latin courses or a major in greek or latin with 3 courses in ancient history and 3 in the other language.

The idea of this degree is to ensure students gain knowledge in both the launguage and history sides of the ancient world so that they become rounded classical scholars and are more likely to find employment in the field. The program also rewards these students with a named degree rather than simply a bachelor of arts and comes with a higher entry score (87) to attract academically achieving students.

All the information is here: http://studyat.anu.edu.au/programs/3156XBCLAS;requirements.html

I’m in my second year at the ANU and I recently changed from a bachelor of archaeological studies to this degree simply becuase I loved learning greek and latin so much, they are realy well taught at ANU with a great introductory grammar course in first year. So far there are only about 10 students in the degree and we recently held a meeting with the heads of the ancient history and language courses to discuss how it is working out for us.

I can’t recommend enough the staff at the classics school at ANU, they really pay great care to the students and in this relatively small department there is a great community atmosphere. Most of the students congregate at the classics library, a study room at the front of AD hope, right next to the amazing classics museum which has been recently renovated. There’s also a summer course to turkey being offered by the classics department this summer holidays, it involves visiting the ancient sites such as Troy and Ephesus and it counts for two ancient history courses.

So if you are at all interested in studying ancient history or languages at University I highly recommend studying classics at the ANU, optimum est.

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The cat did it12:08 pm 07 Jun 10

Good to see that the Classics side of things has finally got its act together. It would be too much to hope for the same kind of thing from Archaeology, where almost all the remaining tenured staff are too busy on their own research to find time to teach. The range and quality of courses has collapsed, so naturally enrollment numbers have collapsed as well. Rhys Jones must be turning in his grave.

sexynotsmart6:03 pm 06 Jun 10

An undergrad Latin course without Kennedy’s wtf?

Philistines! What I mean is without the world’s greatest primer students may well end out speaking Aramaic. Oh, nevermind. Non intellegor ulli.

thy_dungeonman5:27 pm 06 Jun 10

Well I’m not old enough to know anything about ANU in the 90’s but it is possible that may have happened consider that it is a fairly small department now, but they recently have gotten some more funding, it’s good news anyway.

gun street girl11:48 am 06 Jun 10

My memory may be faulty, but didn’t the ANU used to offer this degree before the Classics Department was decimated with funding cuts in the early 1990’s? I seem to recall it was crushed alongside Archeology and Russian Studies.

Woody Mann-Caruso11:47 am 06 Jun 10

Thanks!

thy_dungeonman11:27 am 06 Jun 10

For the grammar course we use custom-made books called “traditional grammar” which are written by Elizabeth Minchin a professor of classics at ANU.They are very simple and well laid out for an easy introduction to classical grammar. The greek and latin texts are the Cambridge university Reading Greek (2nd edition) and Reading Latin, both are quite good but ultimately the teaching at the ANU is what stands out. The texts in reading Latin include comic plays and speeches by Cicero and parts of the Catiline conspiracy while the Greek text starts off with some composed fictional narratives then moves on to some plays by Aristophanes, the trial of Socrates and some law court speeches by Demosthenes.

Woody Mann-Caruso10:37 am 06 Jun 10

Which texts do they use for the intro grammar course and the first courses in Latin and Greek?

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