History: Hellenic Studies (MA)

• The Hellenic Institute seeks to bring together at a national and international level all those who share its interests. We collaborate closely with other Colleges and research centres in the University of London, including the Institute of Classical Studies, the Institute of Historical Research and the Warburg Institute, as well as the British Library, Lambeth Palace Library and The Hellenic Centre, a cultural meeting place for the Greek community in London.
• We maintain links with universities overseas, especially in Greece and Cyprus. Scholars from the Universities of Athens, Ioannina and Cyprus regularly visit the Institute as part of collaborative research, offering their expertise to our students and members of staff.
• The Institute organises a range of lectures, seminars, conferences, workshops and other events for students, scholars and the wider public, giving the opportunity to engage with experts in the field.
• We receive funding in support of our activities from the Ministries of Culture and Education of the Hellenic Republic, the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Cyprus, the A.G. Leventis Foundation, the Hellenic Foundation, the Orthodox Cultural Association (Athens), The Friends of the Hellenic Institute and private donors.
• The Institute offers a number of annual fees-only studentships, bursaries and other awards in support of its students.

Collaborative research includes:

• Thomas de Aquino Byzantinus
• Seminar on Editing Byzantine Texts
• Byzantine Autographs
• A Catalogue of the Greek Manuscript Collection of Lambeth Palace Library
• The Porphyrogenitus Project: Lexicon of Abbreviations and Ligatures in Greek
• Minuscule Hands, c.800-c.1600
• Lexicon of Terms used in Palaeography, Codicology and Diplomatics
• Triadic Monarchy: The Concept of Monarchy in the Triadology of the Greek Fathers -
• Ecclesiological Repercussions and the Monastic Model
• The Greek Population of Rhodes under Hospitaller Rule
• The Greek Community in London, 1500-1945.

The course consists of four elements: two core course units, one elective unit and a dissertation.

 

Core course units:

The Greek Tradition
This core unit consists of twenty two-hour seminars by specialists on important aspects of Greek history and culture from the archaic period to the modern era, placing emphasis on those elements which characterise Hellenic culture across the centuries: 

• The Hellenic tradition: scope and methodology
• Homer and his legacy
• The tradition of Athens and Sparta (title tbc)
• Classical Greek philosophy: Plato and Aristotle
• Emergence, evolution, and the development of the Classical in literature
• The tradition of classical art and architecture (title tbc)
• Greek drama and its reception
• Education and the Greek heritage in the Hellenistic and Roman period
• The Ancient polis and the developments of urbanism in the Eastern Mediterranean in Late Antiquity
• Philosophy in Late Antiquity: Neoplatonism
• The Hellenic tradition in Byzantium: Christianity and Greek Paideia
• The Hellenic tradition in Byzantine education
• The Hellenic tradition and Byzantine scholarship
• The Hellenic tradition and Byzantine historiography
• The Hellenic tradition in Byzantine art
• The Hellenic identity in Byzantium (tbc)
• Byzantium and the Italian Renaissance: The teaching and the diffusion of classical texts in the West
• The Hellenic tradition in the Post-Byzantine period
• The Hellenic tradition and the Enlightenment: Philhellenism and the Greek War of Independence
• The Hellenic tradition in the modern world

Skills course unit 
You will take one of the following units:

• Classical Greek language:
    - either Beginners' ancient Greek for research
    - or Intermediate ancient Greek for research
• Byzantine Greek (II) language
• Aspects of Modern Greek language and culture
• Comparative Philology of Latin and Greek
• The Greek Dialects
• Greek Epigraphy
• Greek Papyrology
• Greek Palaeography:
    - either Elementary Greek Palaeography
    - or Greek Palaeography 

Dissertation
This is a major piece of writing of 10,500-12,000 words on an approved subject, under the supervision of a member of the staff. 

Elective course units:

You will take one of the following units:

• Homer (in Greek)
• Greek Lyric Poetry
• Four Greek Plays
• Attacking the theatre
• Defending the theatre
• The Ancient Novel (in translation)
• Dialogues of Plato
• Sources and Methods in Ancient History
• Territory and Identity in Ancient Greece
• The Aegean from the First Farmers to Minoan States
• The Late Bronze Age Aegean
• The Economic and Social History of Archaic and Classical Greece
• Greek Religion in a Mediterranean Society
• Studying Ancient Myth
• Pausanias
• City of Rome
• The City of Rome (British School at Rome Annual Postgraduate Course)
• Greek pottery and painting
• Ancient mosaics: making and meaning
• Living in Byzantium: Material culture and built environment (ca. AD 300-1500)
• Alexander's Afterlife
• Ancient Greek Theatre and its Reception
• Approaches to the Reception of the Classical World
• Greeks & Jews
• The reign of Constantine I
• Byzantium and the First Crusade
• Byzantium and the Fourth Crusade

On completion of the course graduates will have:

• a detailed knowledge and understanding of the methodologies of Hellenic Studies and their limitations
• an understanding of advanced, current research issues relevant to the discipline
• an awareness of the multiplicity of material available and the strengths and weaknesses of the various forms of historical information
• a general appreciation of the varied and interlinked methodologies for understanding Greek antiquity, Byzantium, the post-Byzantine period and the Modern Greek world
• the reading and understanding of ancient, medieval and modern Greek texts, both in print and in manuscript
• a grasp of literary criticism necessary for understanding and appreciating the style of ancient, medieval and modern Greek authors
• an awareness of the main forms of material available to those studying Classical antiquity, the Byzantine, Post-Byzantine and Modern Greek world.

View the full course specification for History: Hellenic Studies (MA) in the Programme Specification Repository|.

Assessment is carried out by a variety of methods including coursework, written examinations and a dissertation.

Our graduates are highly employable and, in recent years, have entered many different areas, including careers as researchers, museum staff and teachers in secondary education. A considerable number of our graduates pursue MPhil/PhD studies in the field of Greek History and Culture at the Hellenic Institute of Royal Holloway and at other universities in Britain and abroad.