Honours in 2010

Interested in doing an Honours year with Classics? Then please do contact us, we're only too happy to deal with any queries. Talk to us about your application and/or about our subjects for study. Click here to contact our Honours coordinator.

Honours (Classical Studies)

• Getting the Right Qualifications
• Structure of the Honours Year
• Choosing a Research Topic
• Honours (Ancient Greek and/or Latin)

The Honours year is normally taken after completion of a three year B.A. degree. Although you may undertake an Honours degree for your own interests' sake, it is usually undertaken by those who intend to continue into higher research, such as an MA or PhD, for which a good result in Honours is normally a prerequisite. It provides a rewarding opportunity for you to undertake a more detailed, in-depth research into a topic of your own choosing than is normally possible in a pass B.A. degree. This is normally taken as a full year subject, but can now be taken part-time over two years, providing that the coursework is always undertaken in Semester 1.

You can also apply to do a combined Honours programme with another Discipline. In these cases, once permission has been granted by both Disciplines, your work may be divided between the two areas. For example, students in the past have done a combined Classics-History, Classics-English or Classics-Philosophy Honours degree, with coursework taken in one area, and the thesis wholly in the other; or with the thesis co-supervised between the two Discipines and the coursework evenly divided. The precise details can be varied according to the appropriateness of the topic of research and the student's research strengths.

Getting the Right Qualifications

For entry into Honours (Classical Studies), you should apply to the Discipline Head towards the end of the previous academic year (usually, early November), provided that you have the following:

• An undergraduate degree with at least a Credit average within a Major in Classics, a Major being 24 units of which no more than 6 units (2 courses) are at Level I and at least 18 units are at Advanced Level
• Successful completion of at least four courses from either Group A or Group B of Advanced Level Classics subjects:

Group A

Group B

Special exemption from any of these criteria may only be considered upon application to the Discipline. * denotes pre-2008 course codes. ** indicates courses no longer offered from 2009.

Note: Any higher degree work in the area of ancient history, archaeology or philosophy or related areas of ancient culture will require at the very least a basic expertise in one or more ancient languages, as well as a reading knowledge of French, German and/or Italian. It is thus in your own interests to incorporate one or more of these languages into your undergraduate degree.

Structure of Your Honours Year

There are two parts to the Honours degree:

Coursework (in Semester 1)

• Seminar course A (the Common Course), worth 25% of your final mark. These are two-hour seminars, held once a week and normally on Friday afternoons. All students must participate in this course.
• Seminar course B (specialist classes) worth 25% of your final mark. Students can choose at the start of the year two courses, each half-a-semester in duration, which are offered by an individual staff member on his or her area of research expertise. The range of topics varies from year to year, depending on the availability of staff and upon their choices for that year.

Research Project (throughout the year, submitted at the end of Semester 2)

• Thesis of 15,000-20,000 words - worth 50%. This allows you to use and expand his or her research skills on a topic of your own choosing, as a first step towards self-directed scholarly research. Whilst originality is not expected at this stage of an academic career, you must demonstrate a sophisticated and extensive knowledge of the available sholarship on that subject, and also an ability to analyse critically the evidence and modern evaluations of that material. A thesis is not primarily descriptive - not an "everything you ever wanted to know about..." discussion - but rather it must ask a question (usually with multiple aspects to it) and devise a sensible and logical strategy to answer that question. Whether an exploration of literature, of historical text or cultural history, this question, or series of related questions, must be evidence-based.

Each student is allocated a supervisor to advise on the choice of topic, and to provide feedback at regular intervals throughout the year, as drafts of sections of the thesis are being produced. Be aware that, unlike the odd undergraduate essay, a 15,000-20,000 word thesis cannot be produced "at the last minute". Drafts and rewriting of thesis sections is to be expected. A good sense of self-organisation and discipline is important here, along with academic ability.

Towards the end of Semester 1, you must give a short presentation on your research topic and on the strategies to be used in order to adress that topic or issue. The thesis is normally due at the end of the teaching period in Semester 2 - you will be given the precise date at the start of the year. Late submissions of the thesis are not accepted unless under extraordinary circumstances, and only with the permission of the Discipline.

Choosing Your Research Topic

You must make the choice of thesis topic, in consultation with your supervisor. We will not allocate topics to you (although we can make suggestions, if you have only a broad idea of doing something on, say, "Republican history", or "Coptic art"). This choice depends on the availability of a supervisor from within the academic staff (see our Research Interests for a guide as to what areas can be supervised, and make note of what staff might be on research leave in any given year) as well as the availability of research material and library resources. There is no point in studying, for instance, Black Sea Greek colonies if the bulk of the relevant excavation reports are written in Russian, and you cannot read that language! To give you a sense of what has been studied in our department, here is a selection from the last 5 years of different topics:

• The Transition from Bronze to Iron Age on Mainland Greece (2007)
• Theban Boeotia in the 4th century BC (2006)
• Alexander the Great and the Nature of His Kingship (2007)
• An Analysis of Cicero's De amicitia (2003)
• Ovid's Exile Poetry and David Malouf's An Imaginary Life (2007, joint Honours with English)
• Young Emperors and the Corruption of Power: Gaius, Nero and Commodus (2004)
• Copybooks for Villa Mosaics in the Later Roman Empire (2004)
• The Relationship Between Sons and Successors of Constantine the Great (2002)
• The Role of Byzantium in Early Christian Silverware in the Eastern Provinces (2007)

The thesis is marked by two examiners, neither of whom can be the supervisor.

Honours (Ancient Greek and/or Latin)

At present, this is only available to students who commenced their ancient language study with us before 2009. A flexible programme can be arranged to suit the interests of individual students.

You can study purely Ancient Greek, or purely Latin, or a combination of both Ancient Greek and Latin. In the first two cases, you will only be accepted for Honours if you have a credit average or better in your undergraduate degree, as well as a full 3 years' completion of either Ancient Greek or Latin. If you want to combine both in your Honours year, you must have completed 3 years of both languages.

Structure of Your Honours (Ancient Greek and/or Latin) Year

There are two parts to the Honours degree:

Coursework (in Semester 1)

• Seminar course A (the Common Course), worth 12% of your final mark. These are two-hour seminars, held once a week and normally on Friday afternoons. You will submit one seminar paper within this course.
• Texts, assessed by exam and unseen prose translation, worth 13%
• Up to 6 Greek or Latin (or 3 Greek and 3 Latin) texts, studied in the original language, assessed by essays and/or exams, worth 33%.

Research Project (throughout the year, submitted at the end of Semester 2)

• Thesis of 12,500-15,000 words, worth 42%.

The exact arrangement of the program may be varied by the Discipline Head in accordance with the interests of the students and the availability of specialised teaching.