You’ll analyze the ancient Mediterranean world with a degree in classics, through the interdisciplinary study of language, literature, material culture and more. Dig in (quite literally) to Greek and Latin, yes, but also study the ways the broader ancient Mediterranean traditions have been used and abused in modern culture. Our curriculum is intentionally designed with pathways for those who plan to pursue careers as classists or Latin teachers and those who are passionate about exploring the dawn of ideas and its many intersections with architecture, sports, theater, science, religions, politics, and law.
Major/Minor Classics
classicS
up close In and Beyond the Classroom
Specialize in a Concentration
Taught by faculty with expertise in both the Greek and Roman traditions, as well as archaeological studies, the Randolph-Macon classics curriculum lets you choose a track to specialize your coursework and prepare you for a career. Concentrations are:
- Classical Civilizations – A broad curriculum of the entirety of the ancient Mediterranean world from a variety of angles: literary criticism, historical analysis, archaeology, art historical critique, and reception studies. Ideal for students with broad interest in the ancient Mediterranean world.
- Classical Languages – A close study of classical civilizations with increased emphasis on the two dominant languages of the ancient Mediterranean world: Greek and Latin. It is ideal for students who intend to pursue classics as a professional field or who are thinking about graduate studies.
- Latin Pedagogy – Specific emphasis in Ancient Rome and the Latin language. It is ideal for students who intend to pursue K-12 Teaching Licensure in Latin.
hands-on learning
Our approach to teaching in hands-on, using texts, artifacts, and projects that stretch students’ thinking. With one of the state’s only comprehensive degree programs in Archaeology, RMC students learn how uncover the mysteries of the past in real-life excavations both near RMC and abroad. In literature and language classes, you’ll engage studies of ancient manuscripts, learning how to decipher, reconstruct, and interpret documents and inscriptions from more than 2000 years ago. And we’ll use modern technology too, to engage in 3D reconstructions of ancient sites to see how the physical spaces of ancient cities helped shape the daily lives of the peoples of the ancient Mediterranean world.
global education
The ancient Mediterranean world comes to life where Roman soldiers once marched or where democracy was born. As an RMC classics major, you’ll have opportunities to study abroad in the places around the world where vibrant modern cultures blend with the ancient past. And that’s not just Italy or Greece – recent faculty-led programs have explored places like Ethiopia and Tunisia! Classics majors can also choose summer, semester, or year-long study abroad in programs where RMC has long relationships to fully explore your passion for classical antiquity.
advising and mentorship
Classical studies faculty develop strong partnerships with RMC classics students through small classroom discussions and working side-by-side in the hands-on learning opportunities that abound in this field. Accomplished scholars and experts in the field, faculty also support and guide students through original research projects presented at Randolph-Macon’s Virginia Undergraduate Research Symposium in Classics.
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776 BCthe year of the first ancient Greek Olympic games
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1styear students studying classics may be eligible to receive the Robert Epes-Jones Scholarship in Classics
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100%job placement rate for Latin high school teachers in Virginia
classicS in full Courses You Won’t Want to Miss
(A very small sample)
CLAS 203
CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY
Athena. Hercules. Gilgamesh. Many ancient Mediterranean myths are familiar to us and have had profound influences in modern culture. Consider questions about the universal and not-so-universal sides of stories about gods, heroes, and humans that expressed important messages about cultural values and individual fears, about our interior human world, and the often greater-than-human forces and impulses that act upon us.
CLAS 229
Ancient Identities
Explore the ways individuals from ancient Mediterranean cultures explained and interpreted their world and the variety of cultural identities that constituted it. Explore questions such as: How did these individuals construct their own identities and how did they interact with others? How have contemporary discussions of identity, race, and ethnicity been shaped by these ancient constructions?
CLAS 228
Ancient Medicine
Examine the intellectual, practical, and social dimensions of medicine in the ancient Mediterranean world, through both a scientific narrative about disease and a historical narrative about the intellectual origin, development, and tradition of ancient medicine for Greek-and Latin-speaking doctors. Ultimately this is a class concerned with historical reality: is either story an accurate historical account of medicine in Greco-Roman antiquity?
Opportunities Worth Grabbing
Popular activities and programs among classics majors
eta sigma pi
Classical Languages Honors Fraternity
SCHAPIRO UNdergraduate Research Fellowship
Waw Quoppa San Classics Club
franklin Debating society
LATIN ACADEMY
Since 2011, the Randolph-Macon classics department has been home to the Virginia Governor’s Latin Academy. Sponsored by the Virginia Department of Education, the Governor’s Latin Academy is a summer residential program for Virginia’s most motivated and talented Latin students. Each year, 45 students from across the Commonwealth travel to Randolph-Macon to take part in the program and some RMC students are selected as RAs.
SCHOLARSHIPS
The classics department offers a variety of scholarships and awards to classics majors and minors who perform at the highest academic levels.
- The John Camp and Elizabeth Fisher Endowed Fund for International Travel provides travel funds and/or scholarship awards for students studying abroad.
- The Robert Epes-Jones Scholarship in Classics is awarded to one or more incoming freshmen who plan to major in classics at Randolph-Macon College.
- The H. Burnell Pannill & Mary Alleta Pannill Scholarship in Classics is awarded annually to a rising senior who demonstrates an exceptional interest in and aptitude for the study of classics.
- Joseph Boyd Haley Prize is awarded to an outstanding student in elementary Greek.
From Here To What you can do with a Classics degree from RMC.
NIKKI CARROLL ’10
Latin Teacher and World Languages Department Chair
Trinity Episcopal School
“RMC helped prepare me for my career today by teaching me how to build a community. From Classics Tea every Friday, to small class sizes, to matching T-shirts, to professors still knowing my name almost 15 years after I graduated, RMC is the epitome of community. I try every day to build that same community feel in my classroom and in my department.”
Laura Gawlinski ’98
Associate Professor, Chair of the Department of Classics
Loyola University
macon Brock ’64
Late Co-Founder, CEO
K and K Toys and Dollar Tree
Nadhira Hill ’16
Assistant Professor in Classics and Archaeology
Randolph-Macon College
Krystin Husz ’12
Active Duty Officer
Judge Advocate’s General (JAG) Corps
TOMMY MILLNER ’76
Retired CEO
Cabela’s and Remington Arms
AMY SPAGNA ’98
Rector
St. James Episcopal Church
“One of the most important things I learned at RMC was how to listen in such a way as to be able to ask the right questions, and then how to be patient enough to find the answers. It’s a skill I use almost every day, whether it’s in doing the study required for preaching and teaching, helping someone in any kind of need, or in working with a team to solve challenges on behalf of the community.”
buzzworthy The Latest From RMC Classics
News Story categories: Classics
Faculty
Classics Professor Earns VFIC Award for Excellence in Teaching
The Rev. Dr. Bart A. Natoli was honored with the Hiter Harris Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
News Story categories: Classics
Academics
Biology
SURF Symposium Celebrates Summer of Undergraduate Research
Twenty-nine students presented the findings of their research, a culmination of a summer’s worth of hard work, creativity, and collaboration.
News Story categories: Classics
Archaeology
New Archaeology and Classics Professorship Created Through Support From Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF)
The new professorship in archaeology and classics honors longtime Agora excavation director John Camp and RMC Classics Professor Elizabeth Fisher.…
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