MA Classics and Ancient History

Our innovative MA in Classics and Ancient History gives you the chance to study for a world-class degree with the flexibility to tailor the programme to match your own interests. We will give you a supportive and stimulating environment in which to enhance the knowledge and skills you picked up at Undergraduate level.

You can choose to follow an open pathway to mix your modules and interests or one of the specially designed research streams that match our own specialisms. The research streams we currently offer are:

• Ancient Philosophy, Science and Medicine 

• Ancient Politics and Society

• Classical Receptions 

• Cultural Histories and Material Exchanges 

• Literary Interactions

At the heart of the Department is the A.G. Leventis Room, our dedicated Postgraduate study space, which you will have full access to. You might also take the opportunity to participate in Isca Latina, our local schools Latin outreach programme. We have a vibrant Postgraduate community which we hope you will become an active part of.

If you decide to join us at Exeter you will become part of one of the largest and most successful Classics and Ancient History Departments in the UK. We have an excellent reputation for both our teaching and our research with league table rankings to match.

Programme Structure

The programme is divided into units of study(modules).

Compulsory modules

• Research Methodology
• Dissertation

Optional modules

The optional modules determine the main focus of your MA study. Some examples of the optional modules are as follows;

• Food and Culture;
• Ancient Drama in its Social and Intellectual Context;
• Hellenistic Culture and Society – History;
• Hellenistic Culture and Society – Literature ;
• Cultural Transformations in Late Antiquity;
• Migration and the Migrant Through Ancient and Modern Eyes;
• Ancient Philosophy: Truth and Ancient Thought;
• Roman Myth; Rome: Globalisation, Materiality;
• The City of Rome (subject to availability);
• Greek;
• Latin;
• Fast-Track Greek;
• Classical Language and Text: Greek and Latin Epic.

The modules listed here provide examples of what you can expect to learn on this degree course based on recent academic teaching. The precise modules available to you in future years may vary depending on staff availability and research interests, new topics of study, timetabling and student demand.

Research areas

Our academic staff have a broad range of expertise and ground-breaking research interests, some of the research streams available on our MA reflect these. We regularly review and update our MA programme to reflect both the needs of our students and the latest emerging research within the field.

Research expertise

Some of the areas we have a special research interest include:

• Ancient and modern philosophy, especially ethics

• Classical art and archaeology

• Classics in the history of sexuality

• Comparative philology and linguistics

• Food in the ancient world

• Greek and Roman epic, tragedy and comedy

• Greek and Roman mythology, religion and magic

• Greek and Roman social history, especially sexuality

• Hellenistic history, especially the barbarian interface and the Greek culture of Asia Minor and dynastic studies

• History of medicine in antiquity, especially Galen

• Later Greek literature, including Lucian, Athenaeus, ecphrasis

• Latin literature

• Palaeography

Visit the MA Classics and Ancient History page on the University of Exeter website for more details!