Senior Theses

Vase painting of a young man reading

Many senior concentrators in Classics choose to write a thesis. Through this project, students can delve deeply into an aspect of the field that interests them. During this year-long project, students conduct extensive research under faculty supervision. Every thesis writer is paired with a faculty adviser. Those concentrating solely in Classics typically also receive a graduate student assistant adviser. Joint concentrators—for whom the thesis is required—will generally have two faculty advisers, one in each field.

The length of the thesis should be determined by the student and the thesis adviser but should not ordinarily exceed 60 pages of text.

Recent Theses

Past thesis-writers have researched a wide range of topics in archaeology, art history, history, history of science, linguistics, literature, philosophy, reception studies, and religion. Joint concentrators have written interdisciplinary theses combining Classics with, to name a few, Government, Mathematics, Theater, Dance & Media (TDM), and Women, Gender, and Sexuality (WGS).

An asterisk (*) indicates a thesis that won a Hoopes Prize, Harvard’s highest honor for undergraduate writing.