Hi, I'm Dr. Emily Kneebone
and I'm an Assistant Professor and admissions tutor in
Department of Classics and Archaeology
here at the University of Nottingham.
And today I'm going to talk about classics as a field of study.
So what do I mean by classics?
We have a cluster of degree programmes,
so Classics, Classical Civilization,
and Ancient History that fall under that heading,
as well as a series of joint honors programmes that
combine those with other subjects.
Now broadly speaking, our classics degrees all
focus on the ancient Mediterranean region.
So this is the Greco-Roman world,
but not just Greece and Rome,
also huge swaths of the ancient world,
that kind of run from the Middle East to
North Africa to Spain, you name it.
And the Greco-Roman world gives us
a huge span in time as well as in place.
So we look at the development all the way through.
So really from around the year 1200 BC,
right the way through to the sixth century AD and beyond.
So really kind of a wide sense of
what the Greco-Roman world might be.
And at Nottingham we're also very interested in
tracing the influence of that world.
So the ways in which these cultures and ideas became
important and were debated in later periods too,
so whether that's discussions of democracy and
politics in the 18th or 19th centuries,
or it might be classics and television
nowadays or in modern comics and so on.
So what do we gain by studying this material?
I think what I love most about classics is that it spans
such a different number of
ways of approaching the ancient world.
So you'll look at art,
literature, philosophy, history, archaeology,
really anything you can get your hands on that
tells us about the peoples
and cultures of the past.
And in dealing with these different kinds of evidence,
so visual material, texts, archaeology,
you'll learn how to weigh up
different kinds of evidence,
the pros and cons of each and what
you can learn from these different methods.
And these all then combine to
tell you about an interconnected ancient world.
And in essence, I think you'll find that your modules,
will talk to one another no matter which kind of
series of options you choose.
At Nottingham we do have a very modular system.
So we think of our teaching as sort of building blocks.
And we start off in the first year by
introducing you to the ancient world
in its kind of range - we give you a lot of overview.
And in the second and third year,
we help you to find your own path to tailor your degree to
what you found has interested you most, whether that's literature,
history, art, archaeology, and so on.
And we have modules that span all of these topics.
So some of these you may have dipped into
either at school, or on seeing documentaries, so things
like Epic and tragedy, or
Greek democracy, or Sparta, or the ancient wars.
But also we have, we have a range of other topics.
So things like Ancient Medicine,
Classics and Film, Violence in the ancient world,
really a deliberately wide range.
So you can find your own path.
You may even find, and some of our students find this,
that they start off thinking that they're really hooked on myth.
But then they find that actually it's something else
entirely that captures their interest and our imagination
as they start to find out more and more about this world.
So in terms of the different degrees,
although I've used classics,
talk about this broad group.
The Classics degree program,
say Q800 is our Language focussed program.
So if you're keen on reading the texts,
Latin, Greek texts in the original,
that's the course for you.
If, on the other hand, you'd rather read the texts in
translation or you think you might like to give them a go,
but you're not sure or you're not sure you
want to carry them on all the way through,
you might rather apply for
Ancient History, or Classical Civilization.
Where you can try out things in the original,
but you don't have to. So in
terms of the difference between those two, Ancient History
and Classical Civilization
are relatively similar courses,
but Ancient History focuses much more of course
on history and history writing in the ancient world,
Classical Civilization has a kind of a broader remit and looks
a lot more kind of literature
and art as well as the history angle.
So again, you can sort of pick and choose according
to which of those kinda captures your imagination.
Again, you can choose modules pretty much from
the range of what we do on any of those programs.
None of these courses require any prior
knowledge at school - doesn't require you to have certain A levels.
And if you're looking for a subject that combines
elements of things like history, art history,
philosophy, English, languages, and
allows you to pick and choose and sort of
balance your interests within that breadth,
I think you may well
find that the ancient world gives a kind of
a fascinating glimpse into
a culture that still I think very much resonates today.