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Ancient History and Classics PhD – (Ph.D.)
University of Birmingham
Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity| Application Deadline: | None, but early application advised | ||
| Annual Tuition Fee: | ≈ € 4,232 - ≈ € 12,860 (non-EEA) | ||
| Location: | Birmingham / United Kingdom / View location on map ▾ Hide location on map ▴ | ||
| Duration: | 36 months | Start Date: | September |
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| Languages: | English | ||
Location of University of Birmingham
The Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity (IAA) offers you an exceptionally wide range of opportunities across the disciplines of Classics and Ancient History (including Ancient Near Eastern Studies and Egyptology). Given the breadth of research supervision available, we have an exceptional ability to take on ambitious research topics, and postgraduates with interdisciplinary research interests are particularly welcome.
The range of training in ancient languages on offer in the IAA is unique. Subject to programme requirements, students can access training in:
* Classical Greek and Latin
* Byzantine Greek
* Ancient Egyptian
* Languages of the Ancient Near East
We support regular student-led reading groups focusing on ancient texts. Study of German for academic purposes may also be possible (subject to availability).
We encourage you to attend conferences on subjects related to your research interests (financial support is available for research students’ expenses), and to participate in our lively interdisciplinary seminar series (some of which are run by our postgraduates). We enable advanced research students to broaden their skills through appropriate training in teaching skills and, where possible, through offering the chance to gain experience in teaching. In addition, our annual postgraduate colloquia provide training in oral presentation skills and the professional dissemination of research within an interdisciplinary environment.
We offer research degrees in all aspects of:
* Ancient History
* Ancient Near Eastern Studies
* Classics
* Egyptology
These degrees provide the chance to work with an expert in your subject area in order to develop a substantial research project that results in a significant dissertation (PhD: 80,000 word; MPhil: 40,000). Typically, applicants for these programmes will already have undertaken postgraduate study. These degrees have no taught components, but relevant taught modules may be attended by arrangement to develop appropriate research skills (including the study of ancient languages).
Contents
Interdisciplinary research groups (are currently working on topics including:
* The City in Antiquity (including the Mapping the Spatial Imagination project)
* Culture of the Everyday (including study of childhood, the life course, forensic and funerary archaeology, and religion)
* The Eastern Mediterranean from Late Antiquity to the Modern Day
* Landscape and Human Environment
* The Politics of the Modern Middle East
* Text and Cultural Construction (including a major project on Herodotus, and the Cuneiform Digital Palaeography Project)
For research degree applications, we encourage you to contact potential supervisors in advance of applying.
Research interests of staff
* Greek History – Classical and Hellenistic history, with particular expertise in the politics and political structures of the Greek Mediterranean world. Contact: Dr Andrew Bayliss
Email: a.bayliss@bham.ac.uk
* Egyptology – religion; settlement archaeology; temple architecture; cultural contacts with the Mediterranean world; current fieldwork at Elephantine. Contact: Dr Martin Bommas
Email: m.bommas@bham.ac.uk
* Greek and Roman religion; mythology; the ancient novel. Contact: Professor Ken Dowden
Email: k.dowden@bham.ac.uk
* Late antiquity; the Roman family and life course; dress and identity in the late Roman world. Contact: Dr Mary Harlow
Email: m.e.harlow@bham.ac.uk
* The Roman city; ancient landscape and geography; the Roman life course. Contact: Dr Ray Laurence
Email: r.laurence@bham.ac.uk
* Egyptology – language, history, archaeology and religion in Egypt in the first millennium BC; current fieldwork at Saqqara. Contact: Dr Tony Leahy
Email: m.a.leahy@bham.ac.uk
* Western Asia; the history, languages and archaeology of Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian and Hittite civilisations; cuneiform inscriptions; pre-Islamic Arabia. Contact: Dr Alasdair Livingstone
Email: a.livingstone@bham.ac.uk
* Athenian education and culture; Greek drama and performance; Isocrates. Contact: Dr Niall Livingstone
Email: n.r.livingstone@bham.ac.uk
* Greek and Roman social history; ancient medicine; historical theory. Contact: Dr Niall McKeown
Email: n.a.mckeown@bham.ac.uk
* Greek and Roman epigram; ancient popular culture; receptions of antiquity; classics and film. Contact: Dr Gideon Nisbet
Email g.nisbet@bham.ac.uk
* Later Roman Empire; North African urbanism; early Christianity. Contact: Dr Gareth Sears
Email: g.m.sears@bham.ac.uk
* Classical archaeology; art, architecture and archaeology of the classical world; current field work in Sicily. Contact: Dr Gillian Shepherd
Email: g.b.shepherd@bham.ac.uk
* Roman literary topography; classical landscape and aesthetics; Republican and Augustan literature (esp. Horace, Livy); post-classical reception of Rome; reception of Alexander the Great. Contact: Dr Diana Spencer
Email: d.j.spencer@bham.ac.uk
* Catullus; Augustan poetry; epic of all periods; reception of antiquity; classics and film. Contact: Dr Elena Theodorakopoulos
Email: e.m.theodorakopoulos@bham.ac.uk
IELTS
You are normally required to take an English Proficiency Test.
Most European Universities recognise the IELTS test.
Take testRequirements
To gain admission to a research degree programme (with the exception of the Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) or Doctor of Medicine (MD)) an applicant must comply with the following entry requirements:
* Attainment of an Honours degree (normally a First or Upper Second Class Honours degree or equivalent) in a relevant subject awarded by an approved university, or
* Attainment of an alternative qualification or qualifications and/or evidence of experience judged by the University as indicative of an applicant’s potential for research and as satisfactory for the purpose of entry to a research degree programme.
In addition:
* Admission and registration for a research degree programme may be conditional on satisfactory completion of preliminary study, which may include assessment.
* In some cases you will also need to have completed a Masters degree or equivalent qualification in a relevant subject.
Please note
* Entry onto many programmes is highly competitive, therefore we consider the skills, attributes, motivation and potential for success of an individual when deciding whether to make an offer.
* Specific entry requirements are given for each programme. Any academic and professional qualifications or industrial experience you may have are normally taken into account, and in some cases form an integral part of the entrance requirements. If your qualifications are non-standard or different from the entry requirements stated in the online prospectus, please contact the relevant school or department to discuss whether your application would be considered.
* After we have received your application you may, if you live in the UK, be invited for an interview or to visit us to discuss your application.
English language requirements
* IELTS 6.5 with no less than 6.0 in any band;
* TOEFL IBT 93 with no less than 20 in any band
Additional Requirements
| Minimal degree required: | Master's degree |
| Minimal amount of work experience | Not specified |
Language Proficiency
| IELTS Band: | 6.0 |
| TOEFL Internet-based: | 93 |
Faculty
Birmingham Archaeology is the commercial arm of the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity, University of Birmingham. We comprise three distinct teams; Birmingham Archaeology Heritage Services, the Visual and Spatial Technology Centre (VISTA) and Birmingham Archaeo-Environmental (BAE).
Each of the groups is responsible for the undertaking of commercial projects and services, the development of research projects and the delivery of postgraduate and professional training via taught Masters programmes and CPD workshops.
With more than 30 years of experience of archaeology in the planning process, and over 2000 projects brought to a successful conclusion, we have the wide range of professional expertise to move your project forward. We provide a comprehensive service to developers and their advisors at every stage in the planning process- from pre-application consultation, through to analysis and publication.
Ancient History and Classics at Birmingham is one of the few university departments in the UK that draws together the study of Greece and Rome with Egypt and the Near East. Academic staff at the Institute offer a wide range of expertise in the history, culture, archaeology and languages of the ancient world.
Teaching and research in Classics and Ancient History at Birmingham covers a vast range of interdisciplinary topics from life in Pharonic Egypt to the study of Greek love poetry to slavery in Greece and Rome, to age and ageing at Rome, to mapping the ancient city, to studies of Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek and Roman religion, to the Christianisation of society in Late Antiquity, to Classics and film to the reception of the classical world and cultural memory – these are but a few of the subjects we focus on.
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