Meet Our Advising Team

Overview

The study of the Classics is an interdisciplinary enterprise involving critical engagement with the literature, art, material culture, and history of the Greco-Roman world. A concentration in the Classics equips students with all the tools necessary for understanding the forms of expression and ways of life of the cultures of antiquity, and for understanding the development of those cultures over time. Concentrators learn skills that are broadly applicable to the analysis of any complex cultural system or artifact. They also acquire fluency in a tradition of art, literature, and philosophy that has been vitally relevant in many periods and contexts, and that remains highly influential today.

Learning Objectives

Classics concentrators gain familiarity with Latin or Greek (or both), learn how to handle complex evidence and how to write persuasively, and acquire an appreciation for, as well as a critical perspective on, key aspects of the cultural legacy of two of the civilizations that have most shaped the modern world.

Gateway Courses

  • CLS-STDY 97A: Introduction to the Ancient Greek World
  • CLS-STDY 97B: Introduction to the Ancient Roman World
  • All introductory courses in Greek and Latin, e.g., LATIN 1; GREEK 1; MODGRK Aa.
  • All CLS-STDY courses, except CLS-STDY 112
  • GENED 1074: The Ancient Greek Hero
  • GENED 1131: Loss
  • CLASARCH 11: Roman Archaeology

Quick Links

For undergraduate program inquiries, please email classicsDUS@fas.harvard.edu.

Director of Undergraduate Studies

David Elmer

Director of Undergraduate Studies, Eliot Professor of Greek Literature, Faculty Dean of Eliot House.

Office hours will be Wednesdays 3-4:30 or by appointment. Students can sign up here: calendly.com/davidelmer or email for appointment.

David Elmer
Publications and Undergraduate Program Coordinator

Emmi M. Farrell

Publications and Undergraduate Program Coordinator. 

emmi_farrell@fas.harvard.edu