Classics

Classics at Denison

Denison University Department of Classics

THE STUDY OF CLASSICS entails an education in the languages, literature, history and culture of ancient Greece and Rome. It encompasses all that is best in a liberal arts education:

The study of classical philology fosters a lucidity of expression and reasoning
The study of the artistic, intellectual, and political achievements of classical antiquity inspires creativity, critical inquiry, and ethical behavior.

It provides an opportunity for the student:

to acquire competence in the classical languages
to develop a critical perspective on classical literature
to study the history and culture of ancient Greece and Rome.

The classics department supports and advises the Zeta chapter of Eta Sigma Phi, the national honorary collegiate society for students of Latin and/or ancient Greek. This organization of students promotes classical studies on campus and organizes co-curricular activities, such as visits to art exhibits and classically-related theatre productions.

Denison also supports an intercollegiate student journal of classics, Ephemeris.

Majors and Minors in the Department of Classics

Denison classics students visited sites in Italy, concentrating on Rome, but including travels from Pompeii in the south to Ravenna in the north via Florence.

Denison University offers majors and minors in Latin, ancient Greek or Classics. A major in Latin fully prepares students to teach the language at the secondary level and provides the necessary foundation for post-undergraduate study of Latin. Students, however, who are interested in a doctoral degree in classics must also include a commensurate amount of study in ancient Greek.

To fulfill a major in Latin, students must complete the following:

24 credits in Latin
8 credits in Greek
4 credits of Senior Research
1 credit (CLAS 440) Senior Symposium and Comprehensive Examination

To fulfill a minor in Latin, students must complete the following:

20 credits in Latin

To fulfill a major in ancient Greek, students must complete the following:

24 credits in ancient Greek
8 credits in Latin
4 credits of Senior Research
1 credit (CLAS 440) Senior Symposium and Comprehensive Examination

To fulfill a minor in ancient Greek, students must complete the following:

20 credits in ancient Greek

To fulfill a major in Classics, students must complete the following:

32 credits in ancient Greek and Latin of which there is a minimum of 12 credits in either ancient Greek or Latin
4 credits in Senior Research
1 credit (CLAS 440) Senior Symposium and Comprehensive Examination

To fulfill a minor in Classics, students must complete the following:

20 credits in ancient Greek or Latin of which there is a minimum of 8 credits in either ancient Greek or Latin

What do classics majors do after Denison?

Graduates in classics from Denison have gone on to successful careers in medicine, law, education, government and business, as well as pursuing graduate study.

Student research

Classics students complete a senior research project as part of their major. Examples of research done by classics students include:

The Literary Treatment of Medea by Euripides and Ovid
The Myth of Power in Thucydides
A Reappraisal of the Periclean Age
A Comparison of Comedy: Ancient, Elizabethan, and Modern
The Influence of Horace on Selected 19th Century Poets

Who are our professors?

Department Chair and Associate Professor Garrett Jacobsen joined the faculty at Denison in 1982. He earned a B.A. at Franklin and Marshall College and an M.A. and a Ph.D. at Ohio State University. Jacobsen has co-directed several travel seminars to Greece and Italy. Jacobsen's research interests have resulted in publications and papers primarily on Ovid's Metamorphoses and Tristia and, most recently, on the reception of Ovid by the modern poets Ted Hughes and Ciaran Carson. He is also at work on a book length project on art and alienation in Ovid's poetry, with special attention to how language may create reality and determine identity.

Professor Timothy Hofmeister joined the faculty at Denison in 1986. He earned a B.A. at Swarthmore College and a Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University. Hofmeister's research centers on Homer and epic poetry, and he has written on ancient Greek comedy as well. He has also published essays on the relation between ancient and modern poetry, especially how that relation figures in the works of the St. Lucian poet and Nobel Prize-winner, Derek Walcott.

Visiting Instructor Stephen Kershner joined the Denison faculty in 2007. He earned his B.A. at Denison University, his M.A. at the University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign, and is a candidate for the Ph.D. at the State University of New York, Buffalo.

For more information about the department and curriculum, go to:

Classics Homepage

or contact:

Garrett Jacobsen
Department of Classics
Fellows Hall, Room 402
Denison University
Granville, Ohio 43023

Phone: (740) 587-6214
Fax: (740) 587-8285
E-mail: Garrett A. Jacobsen