Classics MA

The MA in Classics delivers deep and evocative teaching of Greek and Latin language, literature and civilisation.

As a Classics student, you will develop sophisticated reading skills in ancient languages as well as an ability to apply them to the most profound and important literary texts from the ancient world.

Why Classics at Swansea?

The College of Arts and Humanities is based on our stunning Singleton Park campus, in parkland overlooking Swansea Bay on the edge of the Gower Peninsula.

Classics benefits from teaching by scholars associated with the KYKNOS research centre, which continually produces internationally recognised research.

The Graduate Centre is designed to promote individual and collaborative research activity of international standard, providing a supportive environment for postgraduate research and taught masters study. 

It offers postgraduate training to enhance academic and professional development, and facilitates seminar programmes, workshops and international conferences.

Your Classics experience

A wide selection of modules in the Classics course include narrative genres and theory, greek and Latin texts, romance refracted and novels renewed, being Greek under Rome, and magic in the ancient world.

Your Classics study resources include a main library which is generously stocked with original literary and documentary texts, with basic works of reference and secondary material. It subscribes to a wide range of general and specialist periodicals.

You may also benefit from the thriving Classics, Ancient History and Egyptology postgraduate seminar, which meets weekly.

Classics employment opportunities

You will develop excellent oral and writing skills, and learn to present your ideas in a range of formats. Strong research, analytical and problem-solving skills will all boost your employment prospects.

Classics graduates enter a range of sectors including research, education, publishing, marketing and government.

Classics modules

You study a set number of compulsory and optional 20-credit modules before undertaking a 60-credit dissertation. A variety of Classics modules include narrative genres and theory, Greek and Latin texts, romance refracted and novels renewed, being Greek under Rome, and magic in the ancient world.

Modules on the Classics course may include:

• Postgraduate Beginning Greek I and II
• Greek Texts 1 and 2
• Postgraduate Intermediate Greek 1 and 2
• Postgraduate Further Greek 1 and 2
• Postgraduate Beginning Latin I and II
• Latin Texts 1 and 2
• Postgraduate Intermediate Latin 1 and 2
• Postgraduate Further Latin 1 and 2
• Romance Refracted and novels renewed
• Explorers, Travel and Geography in the Ancient World
• Saints and Sinners in Christian Late Antiquity
• Magic in the Ancient World: Exploring the Sources
• The Poetry of Facts: History in Verse
• Archaeology and Topography of Ancient Rome

How you're taught on the Classics course

The full-time Classics course is split across the year offering three modules in each academic semester (a total of six modules) and then a dissertation over the summer. The dissertation component is written on a specialist research topic of your choosing in Classics.

Part-time Classics students take three modules in the first year, three in the second year and write the dissertation in the third year.

Classics, Ancient History, Egyptology

We are passionate about ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt, and want to share our research and knowledge with you!

We are a tight-knit community who aim to inspire learning about remote cultures and languages and bring them to life. Our high-quality teaching seeks to develop and encourage our students’ own critical, research and interpersonal skills.

We pride ourselves on fostering and nurturing ideas and helping students to grow, inside the classroom and out: through group presentations, teaching and museum placements, field trips, blogposts, student publications, and website design.

We are fully committed to public engagement with museums, heritage bodies, and schools. Our students benefit from our links with such organisations and the ways we prepare them for the workplace by encouraging creativity and innovation, leading by the example of our research. Our former students are employed in a wide range of different fields.

You may also be interested in:

• Ancient Egyptian Culture, MA
• Ancient History, MA by Research
• Ancient History and Classical Culture, MA
• Ancient Narrative Literature, MA
• Classics, MA by Research
• Egyptology, MA by Research

Visit the Classics MA page on the Swansea University website for more details!