Course summary

Our PhD Classics and Ancient History programme is aimed at students who want to make a genuine contribution to scholarly knowledge and understanding of the field through their thesis. You will acquire an excellent general knowledge of the wider field in question and high competence in relevant languages - ancient and modern - and associated skills, both subject-specific and generic. Our research covers Greek and Roman history, Classical literature and its reception, and ancient philosophy. We enjoy close links with researchers in areas including Medieval and Modern History, Archaeology, Art History, English and American Studies, Linguistics, Religions and Theology, the John Rylands University Library and the Manchester Museum. Research centres of special importance to us and our research students include the Centre for Correspondence Studies, the Centre for the Cultural History of War, and the Cultural Theory Institute. We offer supervision in a very broad range of subjects spanning Greek and Roman culture, history, literature and language from the archaic period to late antiquity. Certain research clusters stand out within our present constellation of permanent staff and research fellows, especially in the areas of Greek and Roman history and Greek and Latin literature. Areas of specialism include epistolography, epigraphy, Hellenistic and Augustan poetry, drama, oratory, historiography, Greek and Roman warfare, Greek institutional history, critical theory, and ancient philosophy.