Classics offers the unique opportunity to gain new perspective on our language, literature, culture, and political structure by examining their roots in ancient Greece and Rome.

These classical civilizations provided the cultural foundations of the western world, as well as the basis of many other elements of our modern life.

Guided by a supportive faculty, students explore all aspects of ancient Greek and Roman civilization and are introduced to Latin and Greek, which provides the ability to study ancient texts in their original language.

The study of classics helps students develop a broad perspective. It also cultivates the capacity to write clearly, an ability to balance different viewpoints, and a talent for critical analysis.
 


Annual Crake Fellow Lecture with Matt Ludwig

Join us on Monday, March 18th at 4:30pm in the Owens Art Gallery.

 

'Where Am I in the Action?' Narrative Closure and Sophoclean Tragedy

Aristotle’s Poetics has had an enormous influence on our modern conception of plot. Since the philosopher penned his treatise in the mid-fourth century BCE, it has become a default assumption that a proper story is structured as a coherent whole with a clear beginning, middle and end. Narratives that flout this conventional logic are seen as experimental, as deviations from a norm. Yet, a closer look at the actual practices of the professional mythological storytellers who preceded Aristotle, from epic bards to tragedians, complicates the matter. For these poets, who drew from a nexus of mythical events spanning the origins of the cosmos to their own present moment, beginnings and endings were fuzzy notions. And the questions of how the vast mythological ‘megatext’ available to them could and should be subdivided for a single performance occasion were open ones. In my lecture I examine some early evidence for the ‘problem’ of beginnings, middles, and endings in archaic and classical Greek narrative poetry before identifying how the playwright Sophocles meta-dramatically addresses the issue of plotting within his play The Trachinian Women. I argue that in this play we can perceive Sophocles’ self-conscious conception that tragic plots represent the resistance of mythological events to the sort of tight narrative coherence Aristotle will later propose. Further evidence of this conception appears across Sophocles’ extant corpus, suggesting that the playwright had his own theory of tragic plot which contradicts that of Aristotle’s Poetics.  


Register today on Self Service for online archaeology courses.


The Department of Classics is pleased to invite you to the 47th annual Crake Lectures on February 12th and 13th given by Dr. Berenice Verhelst from the University of Amsterdam.

Greek mythology for Christians and an epic style Gospel. Nonnus of Panopolis at the crossroads of Classical and Christian culture.

On Monday, February 12th at 4:30 pm in the Windsor Grand Room.

From Penelope and Nausicaa to Eve and Mary. Female perspectives in the Christian cento poetry of Empress Eudocia. 

On Tuesday, February 13th at 4:30pm in the Crabtree Auditorium.

Berenice Verhelst is assistant professor of Ancient Greek at the University of Amsterdam. She was trained (MA 2009, PhD 2014) at the University of Ghent, where she was also active from 2015 to 2021 as a postdoctoral research fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO Vlaanderen). 


Dr. Battiloro speaks at Museo Archeologico Nazionale della Siritide (Policoro MT)

On May 20, 2023, Dr. Battiloro gave a lecture at Museo Archeologico Nazionale della Siritide (Policoro MT) in Italy titled "Spazi del rito e offerte votive nei santuari della Lucania antica" (Ritual spaces and votive offering in the sanctuaries of ancient Lucania). Then her field school students participating in the Torre Mordillo Archaeological Project were given a guided tour of the museum by Director Carmelo Colelli.
 

 

 


Boston Bus Trip

On March 17-20, 2023, Drs. Battiloro and Robertson took twenty students to Boston on a bus trip. They visited the Boston Museum of Fine Arts where they were able to experience its collection of Greek and Roman art—one of the finest and most comprehensive in the world. Many thanks to the JEA Crake Foundation, which made all this possible.

 

 

 

 


Dr. Battiloro spoke at the University of Missouri!

“Space, Symbols, Society: Ritual Dynamics in Ancient Lucania,” presented by Dr. Ilaria Battiloro (Associate Professor, Classics and Visual and Material Culture Studies departments at Mount Allison University). 

Date: Thursday March 23rd, 2023
Time: 5:30 PM (CST) 
Location: Swallow Hall 101


Learn about our new field school with Dr. Battiloro in Italy!

The Torre Mordillo Archaeological Project


Dr. Battiloro honoured with a Paul Paré Excellence Award for 2022!

Six Mount Allison University professors have been named the 2022 recipients of the Paul Paré Excellence Awards, recognizing their contributions in research, scholarship, and creative activities.
 
The 2022 recipients are:
    •    Dr. Susan Andrews (Religious Studies)
    •    Dr. Ilaria Battiloro (Classics)
    •    Dr. David Hornidge (Physics)
    •    Dr. David Lieske (Geography and Environment)
    •    Dr. Catherine Lovekin (Physics)
    •    Dr. Linda Pearse (Music)

Read more about this year's recipients here.


 

News

Developing a sense of professionalism with Jacob Farrell: Summer Student Internship 
Commerce and classics student Jacob Farrell is a legal assistant at Appleby Picco Law through the Experiential Learning & Career Development Internship Program at Mount Allison. 
Mount Allison faculty members honoured with 2022 Paul Pare Awards 
Six professors across disciplines recognized for excellence in research, scholarship, and creative activities 
Night at the museum
Mount Allison introduces new minor in Museum and Curatorial Studies

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