Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Classics and History

The combined degree program in Classics and History, with a concentration in Ancient History, is offered by the Departments of Classics and History for students wishing to pursue graduate study in the history of the ancient Mediterranean and western Eurasia. The combined degree in Classics and History offers students a comprehensive education in the fundamental skills and most current methodologies in the study of the ancient Greek and Roman Mediterranean and its interaction with Eurasian and African cultures and landscapes. Its object is to train leaders in research and teaching by preparing them to handle the basic materials of ancient history through mastery of the traditional linguistic and technical skills. At the same time the combined degree in Classics and History encourages students to rediscover, reshape, and repurpose traditional and nontraditional source materials using the most up-to-date and sophisticated tools at the historian's disposal.A minimum of fourteen term courses, including: (i) the historical methods and theory course, Approaching History (HIST 500); (ii) Archaia core seminar (CLSS 815 or equivalent); (iii) two graduate-level courses in two separate ancient languages. For students who are admitted in Classics, these must be Greek and Latin. Students who are admitted in History must study either Greek or Latin, and they may study both but may also choose another ancient language to fulfill this requirement. The surveys of Greek and Latin literature offered by Classics are encouraged but not mandatory for fulfillment of this requirement; (iv) two skills courses. These may include topics selected from epigraphy (epigraphy courses may be used to fulfill the language requirement concurrently); archaeology; art history; papyrology; numismatics; digital data, GIS, digital humanities, vel sim.; an advanced course in a non-classical ancient language (no more than one such course may be used in fulfillment of this requirement). Students are also encouraged to take advantage of educational opportunities outside of Yale (American Numismatic Society Summer Seminar; an archaeological excavation, e.g., the Gabii project); (v) four courses (at least two of which must be research seminars) in the history of the ancient Mediterranean world; historical courses that have a heavy skill component may be used concurrently to fulfill the skills requirement; (vi) two courses outside of ancient Mediterranean history that cover two separate disciplinary areas. These courses will be in the history of different periods or different regions, or in other disciplines of the humanities or social sciences outside of history, or in the physical sciences. Possibilities include (but are not limited to): social sciences (economics, anthropology, sociology, environmental science, statistics); religion (religious studies, Divinity School, Jewish studies); law (history of law, comparative law, international law); Near Eastern languages and civilizations (Egyptian language, Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, Arabic); anthropology and archaeology (cultural anthropology, archaeological sciences); physical and biological sciences (paleoclimatology, ecology and forestry, genetics, medicine).