Classics

The Classics Department at Kenyon College takes as its mission the instruction of Kenyon students in the cultures of the ancient Greco-Roman world. The study of Classics concerns itself with the one fixed point of reference in the liberal arts: the origins.

The very notion of liberal arts is a creation of ancient Greece and Rome. Courses in Classics are intended to acquaint the student with the languages, literatures, and civilizations of those cultural wellsprings. Because Classics encompasses all aspects of Mediterranean antiquity, it is in fact the original interdisciplinary field; the Mediterranean is itself a multicultural world. Students of Classics are encouraged to study abroad, and not only in Greece and Italy, since the field is basic to many intellectual endeavors worldwide.

Our mission involves both our majors and minors, and the college at large; moreover, it involves the teaching of courses in Classical civilization (including literature, history, and material culture) and in the ancient Greek and Latin languages and literatures. All students who take a course in Classical civilization learn not only the content of the course but also a number of skills, including the use of information technology, effective library searching, expository and creative writing, public speaking, the ability to shape and defend an argument, and the ability to consider an issue from the vantage points of several disciplines, Classics being interdisciplinary. Our majors and minors, in addition, have a conceptual framework of ancient Mediterranean history and its material remains, and understand the core of the two civilizations through reading major works in both literatures. Indeed, almost any study of the Western intellect and imagination looks repeatedly toward Greece and Rome and does so to greatest advantage through the lucid windows of the original languages. Like the study of the languages, courses in Classical civilization enhance understanding of such diverse subjects as archaeology, art history, drama, history, philosophy, political science, religion, and the modern literatures of Europe and America. These are all areas in which scholars need knowledge of Mediterranean antiquity to work effectively.

Learning Goals

1. Classics majors should be able to read Greek and/or Latin texts in the original languages.
2. To varying degrees of depth, majors should be knowledgeable about the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome as manifested in their literature, history, art, and archaeology.
3. Majors should be able to conduct in-depth, independent research into the ancient Mediterranean.
4. Students in classics courses should be able to analyze evidence from the ancient Mediterranean effectively in writing and in discussion and should be aware of the issues in contemporary scholarship that inform the interpretation of that evidence.
5. Students should be able to apply what they have learned in classics courses in their course-work in other departments, such as history, English, art history, and anthropology.
6. Students in classics courses should interact politely, cordially, and professionally with one another and their instructors.

 Measures

1. All majors must pass sight examinations in the ancient languages in order to pass their Senior Capstone. Learning goal (LG) 1 is thus easily measured in a quantitative way.
2. The senior seminar required of all majors and minors thoroughly explores the secondary scholarship on a particular topic and requires students to write a long research paper, thus providing a metric for LGs 2, 3, and 4.
3. When assessing student papers, some departmental faculty employ the Writing Rubric (a.k.a. the “Checklist of Basic Writing Skills”) developed by the College (LG 4).
4. Some departmental faculty distribute written guidelines regarding student-faculty interaction and student conduct in their courses (LG 6).
5. The chair conducts exit interviews with graduating senior majors.
6. The department continues to discuss how best to assess students’ fulfillment of LG 2.

Feedback

1. The department will occasionally revisit the quantitative data regarding the sight examinations in order to monitor students’ knowledge of the ancient languages.
2. The department will meet to discuss students’ writing and ways to improve it.
   
   

Updated fall 2019