Introducing Classics at Edinburgh

Introduction and welcome from our Head of Classics, Postgraduate Director and Undergraduate Advisor.

Head of Classics

Welcome to Classics in Edinburgh, "the Athens of the North". We are a strong and energetic team of twenty academic staff located within the School of History, Classics and Archaeology. Our teaching and research interests range from the cultures, literatures and histories of ancient Greece, Italy, and the Near East to the archaeology of Roman Britain, the Athenian acropolis and late antique Rome - to name but a few.

Classics at Edinburgh continues its long and proud tradition of offering the widest choice of subjects and approaches in Classics of any university in Scotland: you can study all aspects of traditional and modern Classics, at both undergraduate and graduate levels, including Greek and Latin language and literature, ancient history as well as classical art and archaeology.

For living as well as for studying, Edinburgh is one of the world's most vibrant, beautiful, and fascinating cities. It has deserved its reputation as a cultural and academic capital. As a student at Edinburgh, you'd be part of both a captivating city and a thriving Classics community.

Dr Benedikt Eckhardt

Head of Classics Subject Area

• School of History, Classics and Archaeology

Contact details

• Email: b.eckhardt@ed.ac.uk
• Web: Dr Eckhardt's staff profile

Address

Street

Room 00M.10, William Robertson Wing, Doorway 4, Old Medical School, Teviot Place

Classics at Edinburgh offers teaching across all the main areas of classical studies - Greek, Latin, Ancient History and Classical Archaeology. All the academic staff teach at all levels of the curriculum, and teaching is taken extremely seriously. Classics was recently voted the best department for teaching in a university-wide poll organised by the students' union.

Staff research activities are varied, and include the major world-ranking discovery of sections of the Sasanian Wall in northern Iran and the historical advising of Oliver Stone during the making of the film Alexander the Great. Teaching is informed by staff research interests, many of whom return in September bronzed from a summer of excavating in Italy and Greece or pale from the leading research libraries in Europe or North America. If you study with us, you'll be immersed in the excitement that we bring from our research into the classroom.

Classics Graduate Officer

Classics at Edinburgh provides the ideal environment for postgraduate study: academic staff with wide-ranging interests and expertise, with taught programmes and research supervision in all aspects of the Classical world: Latin and Greek language and literature, Ancient History, Classical Art and Archaeology, the Hellenistic World, ancient Philosophy, Late Antiquity and more besides. We attract and welcome students both from near and far: our vibrant postgraduate community is truly international, and the topics they research reflect their wide diversity of interests. And if you come to study with us, you will be coming to one of the best Universities, in one of the pleasantest and most beautiful cities in the world (though the weather can be a bit chilly at times!)