Ohio Wesleyan University | Department of Humanities-Classics

Chairperson
Dr. Anne Sokolsky

Office Manager
Sharon Schrader

Humanities-Classics Department
Sturges Hall
Ohio Wesleyan University
61 S. Sandusky St.
Delaware, OH 43015

Phone: (740) 368-3570
Fax: (740) 368-3599

Welcome

he department offers majors and minors in Humanities and Classics. Courses are taught by faculty trained in languages and literatures from around the world including Ancient Greek, Latin, Russian, German, French, Italian, Japanese, and Arabic.

The major or minor in Humanities takes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of civilization. Students are trained to think about the big questions regarding human existence through the study of world literatures and the interaction of literature with other disciplines (folklore, film, art, religion, music, and material culture). Students learn to examine the relationships among civilizations from around the world and over different historical periods. Basic courses in “Myth, Legend, and Folklore” and “Love and Sexuality” equip students to understand the comparative study of civilizations. More advanced courses focus on particular periods (Ancient Greece and Rome, Ancient Japan, Korea, and China, Medieval and Renaissance Europe, The European Enlightenment, 19th Century Russia, Modern European, Arab, and Asian Literature, and Postmodern World Literatures), genres (ancient novel, tragedy, comedy), themes (“Women in Antiquity,” “Gender and Identity,” “Freedom and Constraint,” “Devil, Hero, God,” and the “Myth of the ‘Oriental’ Woman”), and the Great Books (Ancient World, 19th Century, East Asia, and Russia). Many of the department’s courses contribute to other programs such as “Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies,” “Women and Gender Studies,” and “East Asian Studies.”

The major in Classics (Ancient Greek, or Latin, or both) develops skills in the reading of simple and complex texts and the understanding of the civilizations of Mediterranean antiquity in their original languages. Study of the language and thought-worlds of Homer, Sappho, Sophocles, Herodotus, Aristophanes, Plato, Plutarch, Longus, and the Gospels, produces insight, pleasure, and appreciation of the epochs of Greek civilization that largely shaped our own. To understand the Romans’ multicultural world, students read the thoughts, images, and representations of Plautus, Lucretius, Catullus, Cicero, Virgil, Livy, Ovid, Tacitus, and Apuleius in the original, attractive Latin.

Beyond-the-Classroom Opportunities
*Theory-to-Practice Grants fund individual research throughout the world.

*Faculty led trips to Greece, Rome, and Japan

*The Herbst Award funds student travel to a part of the world related to courses offered in the Humanities and Classics Department.

*The Robinson Prize is awarded to a Humanities and/or Classics graduate pursuing an advanced degree related to the HMCL curriculum.

*Archaeological excavations provide opportunities for students to participate in digs such as those in Crete, Isthmia, Etruria, the Athenian Agora, Atheniou (Cyprus), Rome, and Pompeii.

*College Year in Athens allows students to study Greek civilization—ancient, Byzantine, and modern—at its source and to work with distinguished professors of Greek language, literature, history, philosophy, art, and archaeology. Study tours are also included.

*The Intercollegiate Center in Rome and the American Institute for Roman Culture offers study and travel in the Eternal City. Students also can study for a semester in Florence, Italy, under a program sponsored by Syracuse University in Florence.

*The department hosts all-campus readings of classical texts, such as Homer’s Odyssey, Virgil’s Aeneid, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Twelve or more hours pass quickly steeped in the magic of great poetry. Students and faculty from all over campus may participate.

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