Doctor of Philosophy in Ancient History

The Department offers doctoral degrees in ancient history, Byzantine Greek, classical archaeology, classical philology, classical philosophy, medieval Latin, and modern Greek. Our faculty and graduate students take innovative approaches to the study of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, drawing from fields and methodologies that include archaeology and art history, ancient history, ancient science, comparative literature, digital humanities, historical linguistics, history of rhetoric, literary theory, pedagogy of classical languages, philosophy, textual transmission, classical reception, and performance studies. We consider Byzantium, the Latin Middle Ages, and Modern Greek integral parts of the study of Greek and Roman antiquity. In addition, our affiliate faculty have interests in early Christianity and Second Temple Judaism, Greek law and comparative legal theory, early modern reception of the Classics, and Byzantine history. The department also offers specialized training in such disciplines as papyrology, epigraphy, paleography, and numismatics. The resources of other Harvard departments are open to those interested in other ancient languages and scripts, comparative theories and methodologies, the history of science, the relations of the Greeks and the Romans with other ancient cultures, and the reception of classical culture in subsequent periods.

GSAS welcomes applications for admission from individuals who have or will have by the time of matriculation a BA, BS, or equivalent undergraduate degree (for prospective international students, a three- or four-year undergraduate degree from an institution of recognized standing) and actively seeks applicants from groups historically underrepresented in graduate schools.
Applicants are required to upload transcript copies from each college/university they attended into our online application system: official hard copy/paper transcripts are not required at the time of application.
Applicants who are non-native English speakers and who received their undergraduate degree from an academic institution where English is not the primary language of instruction must prove their English proficiency by earning either a minimum score of 80 on the Internet based test (iBT) of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or a minimum score of 6.5 on the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) Academic test.