Classics MA

This course gives you the opportunity to study the classical world in one of the UK’s largest Classics departments, with a focus on Greek and Latin language and literature.

It is an intercollegiate course enabling you to take a wide range of options taught at King’s, UCL and Royal Holloway. You can take advantage of our close links to the Institute of Classical Studies, one of the UK’s best Classics libraries.

It leads to further research or careers in education, journalism, finance, politics and cultural sectors.

Key benefits

• Study in one of the UK’s largest and oldest departments of Classics. Classics has been taught on the Strand for over 200 years. 

• Unrivalled location for the study of the ancient world thanks to London’s unique range of specialist libraries, museums and galleries.

• Extraordinarily wide choice of modules, drawing on the resources of the whole of the University of London.

• King’s graduates enjoy one of the best employment rates in the UK. King’s was ranked 4th in the UK for graduate employability (Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2017).

Description

We have organised our MA course in Classics on an intercollegiate basis, so that we can combine the expertise of staff in all three of the participating colleges – King’s, UCL and Royal Holloway. The course centres on the University’s Institute of Classical Studies, which not only maintains a world-class research library, but also hosts the richest programme of seminars, conferences, and occasional lectures for this subject area in the UK. To further add to the breadth of our course, you can also take appropriate modules from other MA courses at King’s.

You will study modules through texts in the original languages as well as through translated texts. Besides purely literary and linguistic topics, you can also take modules in Ancient History, Classical Archaeology & Art and Late Antique & Byzantine Studies, including Latin and Ancient Greek at both a beginner’s and intermediate levels.

If you are looking to pursue further research in Classics, you are likely to find the unique opportunities to acquire technical skills in the handling of documentary evidence, provided by modules in Greek Papyrology, Greek & Roman Epigraphy, and Greek & Latin Palaeography, particularly valuable.

Research seminars

In the Department of Classics we run a research seminar series (which we encourage MA students to attend), where you will learn about the current research of our academic staff and PhD students. Our Department also regularly hosts major research conferences with speakers from around the world.

Personal tutor

We will give you a personal tutor in the Department of Classics, who will advise you and help you decide which modules to take, and can answer any questions or concerns you may have whilst at King’s.

Dissertation supervision

During your first term at King’s you will need to decide on your MA dissertation subject, if you have not done so before you arrive. The dissertation can be related to work you are doing in a taught module, or it can be in a completely different area. On the basis of your chosen subject area we will assign you a supervisor from the Department of Classics who will discuss the topic with you, and oversee your work on it.

Greek Play

Every year (since 1953), students in the Department of Classics have produced and performed a Greek play - the only production in the UK to be performed annually in the original Greek. Read more about the Greek Play (and its history) at King's: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/classics/about/greek/index.aspx

Required Modules

You are required to take:

• Research Training & Dissertation in Classics (60 Credits)

Optional Modules

 In addition, you are required to take 120 credits, of which at least 40 credits must test your knowledge of Greek or Latin, from a range of optional modules, which may typically include:

• Beginners’ Ancient Greek for Research (40 credits)
• Intermediate Ancient Greek for Research (40 credits)
• Medieval Latin Literature* (40 credits)
• Skills for Medievalists: Palaeography (20 credits)
• Homer (40 credits)
• The Reception of Roman Comedy (20 credits)
• Homeric Presences in Greek Poetry & Shorter Prose Since 1890 (20 Credits)
• Modern Greek Poetry & the Epic Tradition (20 credits)
• Tacitus & Nero (40 credits)
• Early Modern Latin Poetry I (20 credits)
• Latin Epigraphy (40 credits)
• Roman Britain (40 credits)
• CP Cavafy: the Making of a Modernist (20 credits)
• One God, One Sea: Byzantium & Islam, 600-800 (20 credits)
• Persepolis (20 credits)
• Classical Frontiers: Northern Black Sea in Antiquity (20 credits)
• The City of Rome (British School at Rome Annual Postgraduate Course) (40 credits)
• The Classical Art of the Body: Greek Sculpture & its Legacy (40 credits)
• The Art of Making: Craft Production from Classical Antiquity to Today (40 credits)
• Exhibiting Classical Antiquities (20 credits)
• Living in Byzantium I: Material Culture & Built Environment in Late Antiquity (20 credits)
• Living in Byzantium II: Material Culture & Built Environment in the Middle Ages (20 credits)
• Up to 20 credits from modules offered by King’s Modern Language Centre
• Master’s modules offered by UCL Department of Greek & Latin, UCL Department of History, UCL Institute of Archaeology, RHUL Department of Classics and RHUL Department of History, subject to approvals

If you are a part-time student, you will take the required module in your second year, along with 40 credits of optional modules. In your first year, you will take 80 credits of optional modules, of which 40 credits must test your knowledge of Greek or Latin.

Career prospects

Many of our graduates use the skills and knowledge they develop with us to pursue further research in our Department, whilst others go on to excel in careers in teaching, journalism, cultural management or the financial sector.

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Visit the Classics MA page on the King’s College London website for more details!