Return to: Departments and Programs

Faculty

Chair: Professor Ronald Begley
Associate Professor: James Conley

The Department of Classics offers courses in Greek and Latin for students who wish to read, discuss, and enjoy the literature written in those languages. It also offers courses in Greek and Roman culture and civilization, as well as the literature in translation.

A major in Classics would benefit any of the following students: those who plan to do graduate work in Classical languages, Romance languages, ancient history, medieval history, philosophy, or theology; those who wish to teach Classics in the secondary schools; those interested in the cultural value of the classics; and those interested in a rigorous and intensive logical preparation for the professions, e.g. law and medicine.  

A minor is offered in Classics for those who desire to explore the languages and culture of classical antiquity, but on a more limited scale.

The Classics Department has enjoyed a long-term affiliation with the Rome Center, sponsored by Loyola University of Chicago. Students have both taken courses at the Center and utilized fantastic opportunities to travel to classical sites while enrolled within the city of Rome itself.

Classics Learning Outcomes:

Students will articulate and evaluate arguments, beginning with grammatical and philological assessments.     

Students will write effectively.    

Students will be prepared for careers in the professions of medicine, law, and academic life.

Students will demonstrate knowledge of authors, genres, and texts from all periods of Latin and Greek literature.

Students will describe the dialogue between Ancients and Moderns, helping them to understand the significance of what is sometimes described as ‘the Battle of the Books’.  

Students will engage questions of faith and reason (‘What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?’).

Return to: Departments and Programs