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Classics at nui galway 

      

recent developments

We have been glad to welcome two new colleagues this autumn. The archaeologist Dr Amanda Kelly has returned to teach all three years and to direct the MA in Classics; and Dr Padraic Moran, a graduate of NUI Galway, is working with us as a postdoctoral researcher specialising in early medieval glosses and glossaries, especially the Latin and Old Irish glosses in the St Gall manuscript of Priscian's Latin Grammar.

Michael Clarke celebrated the arrival of his third child in mid-December and will be away on paternity leave from January to March, 2010. During that period Dr Stansbury will be Acting Head of Discipline, and Dr Kelly will be First-Year Coordinator.

Professor Arkins will be retiring in 2010; we hope to be able to make an announcement about future staffing plans during the spring.

24TH IRISH CONFERENCE OF MEDIEVALISTS, JUNE 2010

This conference will be hosted by NUI Galway in late June. Staff and postgrads from many disciplines are involved in planning the event, and the Organising Secretary is Dr Jacopo Bisagni of Classics. The Call for Papers has recently been issued, and the conference will be of interest to all who are involved in ancient and medieval studies in Ireland and beyond. For full information see the conference website, http://www.irishmedievalists.com/.

classics for the 21st century

At the centre of any study of Arts and Humanities lies the attempt to understand human nature: imagination, creativity, self-understanding and identity. One way to do that is to look at where we have come from: the rise of civilization, the growth of literature, art, and thought, and the historical processes that have moulded our view of the world. Classics is a response to that challenge. In recent years the horizons of the discipline have expanded greatly, and our department is playing its part in the resulting renewal and reinvigoration. Thematically, the interests of staff and research students range vack and forth across traditional boundaries - between Antiquity and the Middle Ages, between paganism and Christianity, and between the Graeco-Roman Mediterranean and the barbarian world beyond, including the Atlantic West and Ireland in particular. In terms of focus and method, we are reasserting the primary importance of the study of languages and texts: historical linguistics, philology, palaeography and manuscript work.

Key research specialisms among staff include  Indo-European and Celtic linguistics, historical semantics, Latin poetry and palaeography, comparative heroic literature, ethnicity, early Christian textual studies, Hiberno-Latin studies, and the recreation of the Classical inheritance in medieval and modern Irish literature. See the 'Research specialisms'  page for details. Two taught MA programmes offer the opportunity for higher study in our fields of specialist interest: the MA in Classical Civilisation, which presents specialist seminar courses and language options, and the MA in Medieval Studies, which offers an interdisciplinary programme in the cultures and languages of the Middle Ages, with particular reference to the Latinate tradition in palaeography and manuscript studies.

STUDYING CLASSICS AS AN UNDERGRADUATE

In the undergraduate course we by orient ourselves first from ancient Greece and Rome and then broaden the scope, moving back into prehistory and forwards towards the rise of Christian Europe and the Middle Ages, including the place of Ireland in this international process. There are three central strands in this study: literature and thought, art and archaeology, languages and texts. Our first year modules introduce you to these three in turn, assuming no prior knowledge of the subject and presenting a multi-disciplinary view of Antiquity and its legacy. In the higher years you will have the opportunity to specialize either by learning one or more ancient languages, such as Latin and Greek, or by focusing on archaeological and cultural themes while reading ancient texts in translation.

To view our introductory webcast, go to

http://www.nuigalway.ie/faculties_departments/arts/webcasts.html

the history of the subject in galway

Classics has a quirky history in this university.  Among the past staff of the Department is George Thomson/Seoirse Mac Tomáis (1903-1987), a figure of fame in three fields: the Marxist analysis of ancient Greek ideology, the revival of the Irish language, and the  cultural rebirth of modern Greece. Today, the Department once again has a strong shared interest in the interface between the ancient Mediterranean inheritance and the wider horizons of Europe -- in particular, between the Greek and barbarian worlds, between pagan Antiquity and medieval Christendom, and between Graeco-Latin learning and the creative history of the Irish people. We are also committed to the development of research and education in archaeological method and the public understanding of heritage.

The Classics Department is located on the third floor of Tower 2 of the Concourse (Arts-Commerce building), Room 508

Tel. 091-495448 or ext. 5448 (mornings only)
Fax 091-512536
Email: bernadette.brodericknuigalway.ie

Classics
National University of Ireland, Galway, University Road, Galway, Ireland.
Phone: +353 (0)91 524411
E-mail: Classics  

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