Classics

Professor Kenneth Wolf, department chair

Professors McKirahan, Finkelpearl (SC)², Wolf
Associate Professors Bjornlie (CM), Chinn, Roselli (SC)²
Assistant Professors Berenfeld (PZ), Eccleston, Keim
Visiting Assistant Professor Valentine (SC)
Amy Crown, academic coordinator

The Classics Department offers a major and a minor in Classics and a major in Late Antique-Medieval Studies (LAMS).

Classics is the study of the ancient Mediterranean world, including Greece, Rome, the Near East and North Africa. The study of the Greco-Roman Classics was the original liberal arts curriculum and is the original interdisciplinary scholarly endeavor. Classicists are trained in the ancient languages as well as textual and literary criticism, history, archaeology, religion and philosophy. The study of ancient Greek and Latin constitutes the foundation of an education in the Classics. These two “dead” languages provide the medium through which Western literature, history, science, mathematics and philosophy were originally formulated. The material record of the ancient Mediterranean is equally rich, providing insights into the origins of, among other things, religion and urban life.

Late Antique-Medieval Studies (LAMS) is dedicated to a deeper understanding of the greater Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Although the Greek, Latin and Arabic heirs to the Roman and Persian empires struggled with one another for hegemony in the Mediterranean basin and the Near East, their similarities outweighed their differences. Not only did each identify with an Abrahamic religion, but each laid claim to the rich secular traditions of the Hellenistic, Roman and Persian empires. LAMS students have the opportunity to explore these fertile cultural encounters from a multi-disciplinary perspective with appropriate attention to languages, in particular, Greek, Latin, Arabic.

Classics and LAMS are both cooperative intercollegiate programs. Classics and LAMS courses taught at any of The Claremont Colleges count as Pomona courses. Greek, Latin, Arabic and Classical Hebrew (when offered) may be taken to fulfill the Pomona College foreign language requirement. Courses taken on the Pass/No Credit (P/NC) grading basis may not be counted toward either major or the minor except for courses which are only offered on the P/NC grading basis.

• Classics Major
    
• Classics Minor
    
• Classics Courses
    
• Late Antique-Medieval Studies Major
    
• Late Antique-Medieval Studies Minor
    
• Late Antique-Medieval Studies Courses
     

Read more about our learning objectives:
www.pomona.edu/administration/academic-dean/learning-objectives