The Department of Classics offers graduate programs leading to the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees. In addition to the Inter-University Doctoral Consortium (for which see the Admission section of this bulletin), the department participates in a consortial agreement with the City University of New York and Fordham University, which makes course offerings in classics at all three institutions available to all NYU classics graduate students.

Within New York University, the Department of Classics has close ties to the Center for Ancient Studies, the Onassis Program in Hellenic Studies, the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, the Institute of Fine Arts, the Program in Museum Studies, the Program in Religious Studies, the Department of Comparative Literature, the Program in Poetics and Theory, and the Medieval and Renaissance Center. The Aquila Theatre Company, London/New York, is in permanent residence at the Center for Ancient Studies.

The University sponsors excavations at Abydos (Egypt), Aphrodisias (Turkey), Yeronisos Island (Cyprus), and Samothrace (Greece). The department owns collections of coins, inscriptions, and papyri; it maintains a small museum of ancient artifacts and a small library with computing resources. Students also have access to the extraordinary collections of such institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the American Numismatic Society, the Morgan Library, and the New York Public Library.

The Classics Department at NYU offers a wide range of courses in Greek and Latin literature, history, archaeology and material culture, and ancient philosophy, and offers the possibility of interdisciplinary study in a variety of areas in which the Department has particular strengths.  These can be areas of focus leading to the doctorate.  Here are some of the interdisciplinary research fields, with the names of participating faculty (prospective students are encouraged to examine their individual web pages for information on their research and teaching).

Religion and Cultural History
The study of ancient Greek and Roman religion in its cultural context, including literary representations, archaeological evidence, and modern approaches to the study of religion (Becker, Connelly, Kowalzig, Levene, Straumann) 

Performance and Reception in Greek Poetry and Drama
Performance – a new and exciting area in classical studies – brings to life the way lyric, choral poetry, tragedy and comedy were enacted in contemporary social contexts (Connelly, Forte, Kowalzig, Meineck, Viidebaum)

Latin Literature and its Social Contexts
The aesthetics of Latin literature as a function of contemporary social and political life (Barbiero, Barchiesi, Levene, Santirocco)

Social and Economic Institutions
History in the large sense, including comparisons and connections between societies, through the lens of politics, law, economics, and sociology (Kowalzig, Straumann)

Ancient Philosophy
Offerings in ancient philosophy in the Classics department contribute to and complement the ancient philosophy track in the philosophy department (Fine, Malink, Mitsis, Moss, Renzi, Viidebaum)

Political Thought, Education, and Rhetoric
The role of rhetoric and education in Greco-Roman society (Becker, Levene, Straumann, Viidebaum)

Archaeology and Material Culture
Objects and their meanings, from archaeological remains to inscriptions and papyri, from armor to medical instruments, from coins to works of art (Barchiesi, Connelly, Kowalzig, Meineck)

Literary Criticism and Theory
Close readings, literary critical and theory-led interpretations of ancient texts and cultures (Barbiero, Forte, Mitsis, Viidebaum)

The Classics Department at NYU has a very strong success rate for PhD alumni entering the highly competitive academic job market. Recent graduates from our program currently occupy academic and teaching positions all over the country, including at CUNY Graduate Center, the Nightengale-Bamford School, Ohio State, Princeton University, the University of California, Santa Barbara, the University of Cincinnati, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Tennessee, and the University of Virginia.