Tri-Campus
Graduate Program

Program Overview

MA Program

PhD Program

Courses

The UC Tri-Campus Graduate Program
UC Irvine, UC Riverside and UCSD

What is the UC Tri-Campus Program?
This graduate program joins together into a single faculty more than twenty experts in classics and related disciplines from the three southernmost University of California campuses (Irvine, Riverside, and San Diego). It features an innovative curriculum and program of study that address the practical and theoretical questions confronting the humanities and classics in particular as both enter the twenty-first century.

What are the Program’s Goals?
The aim of the Tri-Campus Program is to provide an educational environment for pursuing a graduate career in classics that is closely integrated into the main currents of humanistic and social scientific scholarship. The program’s faculty recognizes that today and in the future teachers of the classics must possess and develop expertise beyond the standard specialties of the traditional classics Ph.D. degree. Classics programs, in both large research universities and small liberal arts colleges, increasingly feel the pressure to break down the boundaries between disciplines.To achieve these goals, the program and curriculum are designed around five principles:

• Study the ancient texts and objects in their wider social, cultural, and historical contexts.
• Bring the culture of the ancient Greeks and Romans into the purview of contemporary literary and sociological theory.
• Examine the reception of ancient literature and culture by later cultures and the appropriation of the ancient world by the modern world.
• Pay particular attention to the intersections of Greek and Roman society and culture with each other and with the other cultures of the ancient world.
• Utilize to the fullest the potential of new computing technologies as tools for research and teaching.

Where do I apply?
The Tri-Campus Program uniquely does not belong to a particular campus but to the University of California. Students who are accepted into the program may enroll at any of the three campuses. Because instruction and administrative functions take place on the Irvine campus, students will normally enroll at Irvine. Applications to the Tri-Campus Graduate Program will be reviewed by an admissions committee composed of members from all three campuses.

Where is the Tri-Campus Program located?
UC Irvine is located five miles inland from the Pacific Ocean, fifty miles south of metropolitan Los Angeles, forty-five miles southwest of UC Riverside and seventy-four miles north of UCSD. In addition to its beaches, mountains, and deserts, Southern California offers excellent cultural amenities such as museums, theater, dance, opera, and music.

What are the requirements for admission?
Applicants to the program should have a B.A. or equivalent in classics or classical civilization, which normally means that you have had at least three years of one classical language and two of the other. Majors in other disciplines (e.g., comparative literature, history, philosophy, or interdisciplinary fields such as women’s studies) are welcome, provided they have sufficient background in Greek and Latin. All applicants must submit Graduate Record Exam (GRE) scores and must have a minimum GPA of 3.0 or the equivalent. If you have completed an M.A. in classics at another institution, you may be admitted with advanced standing and may have the course requirements reduced from the normal three years to two or one. The level of course reduction will be determined by progress evaluation exams administered in the spring quarter of each year.

The Role of the Joint Executive Committee
The Tri-Campus Program is administered by a joint executive committee (JEC), which consists of six representatives, two from each campus, serving staggered, two-year terms. The JEC’s responsibilities include: reviewing graduate applications and admitting students to the program; overseeing the formation of examination and dissertation committees; reviewing and deciding on student petitions; making policy decisions concerning the program, including changes in the program’s requirements and procedures; and interpreting the program’s requirements and procedures. The JEC elects from its members a chair to serve a three-year term. It is the chair’s responsibility to manage budgetary issues, schedule and set the agenda for quarterly JEC meetings, identify faculty to teach graduate courses, and generally look after the smooth operation of the program.

The Role of the Graduate Adviser
The graduate adviser is a faculty member responsible for supervising graduate study in the department and monitoring the academic progress of graduate students. The graduate adviser coordinates the various elements of the academic program and advises students and other faculty members about program requirements and university policies. The graduate adviser keeps records for each student and for the whole program, ensures that each student meets all requirements and makes satisfactory progress toward attainment of the degree, and is instrumental in the nomination of students for fellowship support and assistantship appointments. The graduate adviser also provides general help to students as they attempt to negotiate the academic and administrative hurdles on their way to completion of their degrees. The graduate adviser is an ex-officio member of the Tri-Campus JEC for the duration of his or her tenure, normally two years.Election of Student RepresentativeGraduate students elect a representative who attends JEC meetings as a regular voting member. Graduate students are also invited to attend meetings as observers and to participate where appropriate. The voting rights and attendance of the graduate student representative are circumscribed by the requirements of confidentiality.

Back to the top

The M.A. Program
The M.A. degree in classics may be awarded either upon completing the Ph.D. course requirements and passing the written Ph.D. examinations or upon completing the M.A. course requirements and master’s paper and passing the M.A. translation examinations and general exam. The latter path to the M.A. is intended for Ph.D. students who decide to leave the program before completing the requirements for a Ph.D.

COURSE WORK FOR THE M.A.
M.A. students must successfully complete a minimum of twelve approved, seminar-level courses. The twelve courses must be distributed as follows:

• Nine quarters of Classics 220.
• At least three quarters of Classics 200A-B-C and 201; a fourth quarter may be substituted for a Classics 220.
• Up to one quarter of Classics 290 for research and writing of the master’s paper may be substituted for a Classics 220.
• If remedial work is required in Greek or Latin, with the graduate adviser’s approval, one enhanced upper-division Greek or Latin course enrolled as a Classics 280 may be substituted for a Classics 220.
• With the graduate adviser’s approval, M.A. students may substitute one external graduate seminar in a relevant area outside of classics (at any of the three participating campuses) for a Classics 220.

EXAMINATIONS
Diagnostic Exams: Immediately upon entering the program, the student takes diagnostic translation examinations in both Greek and Latin to establish his or her level of competency and to determine where effort should be directed. In the second year of course work, students will take as diagnostic exams the Latin and Greek translation exams administered as part of the qualifying exam battery.

1. Foreign Language Requirement: Students must demonstrate reading knowledge of German, French, Italian, or an equivalent research language either through appropriate course work or by examination.
   
   
2. Translation Exams: Each student must pass a set of translation examinations in Greek and in Latin administered by the master’s committee (two hours each).

The JEC in consultation with the graduate adviser and the student recommends to the graduate dean a three-member master’s committee composed of program faculty from at least two campuses to set and evaluate the translation exams and to evaluate the master’s paper. Normally this committee is established in the quarter preceding completion of the master’s paper.

Back to the top

The Ph.D. Program

A student’s career may be thought of as covering three stages: course work, preparation for qualifying exams, and candidacy (dissertation). For Ph. D. students the normative limits for completion of the program are four years to advancement to candidacy, two years to final approval of the dissertation, and a maximum of seven years in total. Students are only admitted into the Ph.D. program. Entering students who do not already hold a master's degree in Classics from another institution will be required to complete M.A. requirements while pursuing the Ph.D.

• Four quarters of Classics 200A-B-C, and 201.
• Twelve quarters of Classics 220.
• Two external graduate seminars, from departments or programs outside of classics. These may be taken from the offerings of any of the three campuses.
• Students may take up to two quarters of enhanced upper-division Greek or Latin courses (enrolled as 280s) in place of Classics 220s, with permission of the graduate adviser if remedial work is required in Greek or Latin.
• Where appropriate, in the third year of course work, a second Classics 200A, B, or C, may be substituted for a 220
• Classics 280, Independent Study (supervised research) may be substituted for Classics 220s only with the permission of the graduate adviser.
• Up to twelve equivalent graduate-level courses completed elsewhere may be substituted for Tri-Campus Program courses with approval of the JEC.

Classics 280 may be used, normally in the fourth year, to provide time to work on the Greek and Latin reading lists and to prepare for qualifying exams, but these courses do not count towards the required eighteen courses. Ph.D. students must meet with the graduate adviser early every fall quarter to discuss their progress through the curriculum and their plans for the coming academic year. A student who accumulates more than one outstanding grade of incomplete is considered to be at risk.

Faculty teaching graduate courses will submit to the graduate adviser for student files a brief written evaluation for each student, commenting on the student’s performance and noting whether the student wrote a seminar paper for the course. The graduate adviser will lead the JEC in an annual review of all active graduate students in the program at the JEC’s spring meeting.

EXAMINATIONS

Diagnostic Exams
Immediately upon entering the program, the student takes diagnostic translation examinations in both Greek and Latin to establish his or her level of competency and to determine where effort should be directed. In the second year of course work, students will take as diagnostic exams the Latin and Greek translation exams administered as part of the qualifying exam battery.

1. Foreign Language Requirements: Ph.D. students must demonstrate reading proficiency in one modern research language (normally German and French or Italian) by the end of their second year either through appropriate course work or by examination. Proficiency in a second modern research language is expected by the end of the third year.
2. Ph.D. Qualifying Exams: In order to advance to candidacy for the Ph.D. and enter the dissertation stage, a student must pass a set of seven qualifying exams. The translation exams, history exams, and history of the literatures exam are administered and evaluated on a regular schedule over the academic year by examination boards composed of one faculty member from each campus and appointed for that purpose by the JEC at the graduate adviser’s recommendation. The JEC, in consultation with the graduate adviser and the student, recommends to the graduate dean a five-member candidacy committee composed of four program faculty (from at least two campuses) and one outside member holding tenure on one of the participating campuses (i.e., not a member of the program faculty) to organize and administer the special-area exam and the oral exam taken by the candidate after successful completion of the other exams. All committee members for both candidacy and doctoral committees should normally be voting members of the Academic Senate of the Irvine, Riverside, or San Diego divisions. Any exceptions must hold a Ph.D., be qualified for a UC faculty appointment, and be supported by a memo of justification and a CV submitted by the graduate adviser to the graduate dean for approval at least two weeks prior to an exam. The qualifying examinations include written examinations and a final oral examination:

   a. Greek and Latin translation (three hours each)

   b. Greek and Roman history (two hours each)

   c. History of Greek and Roman literature (three hours)

   d. A "special area" that can be fulfilled by either an extensive research paper or a three-hour written exam

   e. Oral examination to be administered by the candidacy committee and taken only after the other exams have been passed (two hours: one hour general knowledge and one hour special-area exam paper or research paper)

These exams are based on the Tri-Campus Reading Lists and should be completed by the end of the fourth year. The exams on Greek and Roman history are based on up to six books each, three prescribed on the reading list for this exam and up to three agreed to by the student and graduate adviser. The exam on the history of Greek and Roman literature is based on the Greek and Latin Reading Lists and the books prescribed on the reading list for this exam. Students are expected to read, in the original, all works on the Greek and Latin Reading Lists, whether or not they have appeared in courses. (Students may negotiate with the graduate adviser substitutions on the Greek and Latin Reading Lists comprising up to twenty percent of their total length in order to accommodate the particular interests of the individual student.) Upon successful completion of the written examinations the oral exam will be scheduled. Students failing segments of the qualifying exams may normally retake those sections only once after the interval of one quarter or the summer break, as the case may be. Students may retake segments of the qualifying exams more than once only at the discretion of the JEC. A grade of "pass" in all examinations is required for admission to candidacy.

A public oral defense of the dissertation will be scheduled upon its submission to the doctoral committee. Members of the committee must be supplied with a copy of the dissertation at least three weeks before the exam date.

THE EMPHASIS IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

Qualifying Exams
One topic on the Ph.D. qualifying examination must be on a comparative literature topic and should be prepared with a professor from the Comparative Literature Program who would serve as a member of the student’s exam committee. The student should be able to demonstrate some expertise in comparative critical methodologies as well as knowledge of a literature and tradition other than classics. Normally classics students will fulfill this requirement by selecting the research-paper option for the oral-exam stage of the qualifying examinations.

ATTENDANCE AT COLLOQUIA & OTHER DEPARTMENTAL ACTIVITES
Seminars, colloquia, and other activities of interest to classics graduate students are organized regularly by the Tri-Campus Graduate Program. Since these activities are considered part of the student’s professional training, all students are required to attend them. Students are also urged to acquaint themselves with colloquia offered in other fields.

RESOURCES OF THE TRI-CAMPUS PROGRAM
The Department of Classics at UC Irvine, which is the administrative center of the Tri-Campus Program, is housed in pleasant quarters in Humanities Office Building 2. Tri-Campus graduate students avail themselves of

• Superior library holdings in classics and related fields in the combined collections of all nine University of California research libraries, accessed to the holdings of the California Digital Library, and expeditious Interlibrary Loan Services with other U.S. And international libraries.
• The facilities of the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae Project (TLG) at UC Irvine, including the complete TLG data bank, the Classics/TLG Computing Lab, and the large collection of primary texts, commentaries, and reference materials housed in the TLG’s Marianne Eirene McDonald Library. Formal (Classics 201) and informal instruction in computer-related methodologies for research and teaching are conducted at the Classics/TLG Computing Lab.
• The Consortium for Latin Lexicography (CLL) at UC Irvine, a collaborative research group whose primary goal is to create a computerized Latin dictionary based on the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL) in Munich.
• The faculty and program in comparative ancient civilizations at UC Riverside, which are dedicated to a cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary approach to the study of ancient cultures.
• Combined UCI-UCSD Ph.D. Program in theatre, which has a strong classics component, and the nationally renowned regional theatre at La Jolla.
• Seminars, colloquia, and lectures regularly offered by the Critical Theory Institute at UC Irvine and by the University of California Humanities Research Institute that is housed on the UC Irvine campus. Tri-Campus doctoral students may add an emphasis in critical theory under the supervision of the Committee on Critical Theory. The Tri-Campus Program also has its own colloquia series of lectures by visiting scholars on the three campuses.
• The Southern California Graduate Resource-Sharing Consortium, a cooperative association of the Tri-Campus Program and the graduate classics programs of UCLA and the University of Southern California. Every year a faculty member from each of these units offers a graduate seminar in his or her area of expertise at one of the other units. In the spring of every year faculty and graduate students conjoin at an annual consortium luncheon and lecture by a distinguished visiting scholar.

Back to the top

Tri-Campus Graduate Courses at UCSD

Classics 200A
Contemporary Literary Theory and the Classics (4) An introduction to contemporary literary theory, focusing on important critical approaches to the literary texts. May be repeated for credit as topics vary. Some recent offerings include “Bahktin and Aristophanes” (A. Edwards, fall 1995) and “Classics and Literary Theory” (P. duBois, spring 1995)

Classics 200B
Historical Perspectives on Classical Antiquity (4) Examines ways in which classical texts and ideas have been received and appropriated for the diverse purposes of ancient and subsequent cultures. May be repeated for credit as topics vary. Some recent offerings include “Platonism” (D. Glidden, winter 1996) and “Vergil & Milton” (D. Sutton, winter 1998).

Classics 200C
Greece and Rome in their Contemporary Cultural Contexts (4) An introduction to the methods and perspectives of social scientific theory which can be used to study the material and social dimensions of the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome. May be repeated for credit as topics vary. Some recent offerings include “Literature & Society in the 4th Century” (M. Salzman, winter 1997) and “Homer’s Iliad and the Greek Dark Age” (W. Donlan, spring 1999).

Classics 201
Computing in Classical Studies (4) An introduction to the latest methods of computing for research and teaching. May be repeated for credit as topics vary.

Classics 205
Concurrent Readings (2) Concurrent enrollment with advanced undergraduate courses (either Greek 105 or Latin 105) with enhanced readings and separate examinations. May be repeated for credit as topics vary.

Classics 220
Classics Graduate Seminar (4) Subject matter variable; mainly but not exclusively major literary topics. May be repeated for credit as topics vary. Same as Art History 295 when topic is appropriate. Some recent offerings include “Senecan Tragedy” (W. Fitzgerald, winter 1997), “Production Criticism” (D. Sutton, spring 1997), and “Cleopatra and Egyptomania in Rome” (M. Miles, winter 1999).

Classics 280
Independent Study (4) Supervised independent research. Subject varies.

Classics 290
Research in Classics (4–4–4) F, W, S.

Classics 299
Dissertation Research (4–12) F, W, S. May be repeated for credit. Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory Only.

Classics 399
University Teaching (4–4–4) F, W, S. Required of and limited to Teaching Assistants.

Back to the top