Major:
Enrichment Opportunities:
Careers:
Law, Education, Politics and Literature
Advising:
Each incoming student is assigned an academic advisor within the Dietrich School’s Academic Advising Center. Students are required to meet with their advisor at least once per term before they can enroll in classes for the next term. Students are encouraged to schedule additional appointments as necessary. Students will remain with their assigned advisor until they declare a major; once a major is declared, the student will transition to a new advisor within their major department.
The Department of Classics offers many opportunities for student mentorship and research experiences. Independent studies under the mentorship of a faculty advisor are readily available for interested students. Faculty in Classics have worked with FER (First Experiences in Research) students, who develop and hone their research skills through participation in faculty-led research, and Undergraduate Teaching Assistants (UTAs), who mentor and tutor their peers and assist faculty in curricular development. Majors are strongly encouraged to pursue departmental Honors in Classics by researching and writing an Honors Thesis under the supervision of a faculty member.
Many of our courses typically enroll 15-20 students, which allows for greater interaction between faculty and students. Also, a number of our courses have interactive components. For instance, we routinely make use of local resources (e.g., workshops on Greco-Roman artifacts in the University Art Gallery; faculty-led tours, independent student visits, and classroom-oriented assignments centered on the classically themed collections of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the Carnegie Museum of Art), create hands-on experiential learning opportunities (e.g., ancient bone and pottery workshops), engage students in digital and virtual reality projects (e.g., three-dimensional modeling of ancient buildings and objects, 360° photography).
Our students participate in department-sponsored clubs and organizations, including The Mediterranean Archaeology Club and Eta Sigma Phi. the Pittsburgh Society of the Archaeological Institute of America has a robust student membership and sponsors several lectures per year by international scholars. These lectures provide the opportunity for interested students to speak with leading scholars in the field of archaeology.
Interested in Study Abroad? The Department of Classics offers a study abroad program, Pitt in Sicily, during which students visit Greco-Roman archaeological sites and study Greek archaeology and literature over four intensive weeks in May. In 2017, undergraduates worked to create a series of 360-degree video tours of some of Sicily's most historic locations, as part of the 2017 Pitt in Sicily Study Abroad program.
Aaron Graham, a 2001 film studies alumnus, served as the manger of the Open Lab that provided technological assistance to the project. Of the experience, he says,
“We recognize that the work of faculty members is much more than just their jobs. Their academic pursuits here at Pitt touch deeply into facets of their personal lives, and they care very deeply about these endeavors as well as the experiences of their students.”
For more information about our department, or to schedule a visit or tour, please contact the Dietrich School's recruitment team at artsci@pitt.edu.
If you are interested in graduate programs at the Dietrich School, please email asgrad@pitt.edu for more information.