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Program Requirements for the PhD

General Schedule for Graduate Students in Ancient History

General Course Requirement: 20 courses at graduate level approved by the Graduate Chair.

Foreign Language Requirement: Foreign language reading competence in will be tested in German and French (substitution of another language for the French is allowed by permission the Chair, if the student's research interests justify such a substitution). This requirement should be fulfilled in the period before the PhD Preliminary Examinations. The test for both languages will consist of a single page of relevant prose. In some cases, the relevant departmental reading courses and examinations (e.g., that offered by the Department of German) will be accepted in lieu of the formal reading examination.

Teaching Requirement: TA instruction in courses designated and approved by the Chair and the Dean of the Graduate Division/SAS, normally in the second and third years of the program.

Year One

  • Fall Term: 4 courses (approved by the Graduate Chair)
  • Spring Term: 4 courses (approved by the Graduate Chair)
  • By the end of the first summer: either the French or the German sight examination should have been completed.

Year Two

  • Fall Term: 3 courses (approved by Graduate Chair) and teaching (one course)
  • Spring Term: 3 courses (approved by Graduate Chair) and teaching (one course)

  • In Spring Term, immediately following completion of course work:
    MA Examinations
    [To be taken at the end of the third full year, but after: 1) completion of course requirement; and 2) completion of modern language requirements.]
A. Written Examinations
  1. Translation Examination: translation paper in the ancient language selected by the student: 3 passages selected by the student from 4 passages offered by the examiner(s) (time: usually 1.5 hours)
  2. History Examination: from a list of approx. 20 questions the student selects and answers 3 [two from one subject area, and one from the alternative field]; and the student also selects two other questions [one from each field] to be answered in the oral examinations (time: usually 2 hours)
B. Oral Examination

Oral examination: on the two (2) questions on the Ancient History examination (A2 above) as specified by the student. The Oral Examination is to be scheduled 7-10 days after the written examination is taken. The members of the Examination Committee may also ask questions that are directly related to matters raised by the two selected questions. They can also put queries on the piece of exemplary written research submitted by the student (see below, C2).

C. Research Competence
  1. The student must demonstrate competence in an ancient language other than the one taken for the written examination (A1 above)
  2. The student must demonstrate a satisfactory standard in the writing of research papers by the presentation in advance of an exemplary piece of his/her work. This example of research writing may also be the subject of questioning during the Oral Examination.

Elements A, B, and C must be satisfied at the MA Examinations stage in order to constitute admission to the PhD program.
By end of summer, and usually no later than the Fall Term of the third year: the completion of the second foreign language requirement.

Year Three

  • Fall Term: 3 courses (approved by Graduate Chair) and teaching (one course)
  • Spring Term: 3 courses (approved by Graduate Chair) and teaching (one course)

  • In Spring Term, immediately following completion of course work:
    PhD Preliminary Examinations
    [To be taken at the end of the third full year, but after: 1) completion of course requirement; and 2) completion of modern language requirements.]
A. Written Examinations
  1. Translation examination on competence in both ancient languages: passages selected from ancient languages for translation and comment, usually taken from the reading list: translation of four (4) of five (5) passages as set by the examiner(s) on each language (time: usually divided into two 2 hour examinations).
  2. History Examination on the first historical field: selection of five questions: each of the first four will contain a choice of three or four essay questions; these questions will usually be set on the major chronological or subject divisions of the field. The fifth question will be devoted to technical matters and may be posed as a series of brief identifications, queries on technical matters such as epigraphical conventions, standard abbreviations of texts and collections, or related matters. (time: usually 3 hours).
  3. History Examination on the second historical field: the structure of this examination will be the same as in A 2 above. (time: usually 3 hours)
B. Oral Examination

On the history and sources in both historical fields, and on the candidate's doctoral dissertation proposal (see below). The Oral Examination will normally be scheduled 7-10 days following the completion of the written parts of the Preliminary Examinations. At the discretion of the Graduate Chair, the Oral Examination Committee might include members other than those drawn from the Faculty of the Graduate Group.

C. Dissertation Proposal

A full dissertation proposal, along with research bibliography, must be submitted to Examination Committee at least two weeks in advance of the taking of the PhD Preliminary Examination.

Elements A, B, and C must be fully satisfied at the PhD Preliminary Examinations stage for the student to be permitted to advance to dissertation research.

Year Four

  • Fall Term: Dissertation Research
  • Spring Term: Dissertation Research

Year Five

  • Fall Term: Dissertation Research
  • Spring Term: Dissertation Research

Reading List

About the Ancient History Reading List

For doctoral work in Greek or Roman history the sources must be studied in the original language, and the student will be expected to have achieved an adequate command of the various Greek and Roman sources for ancient history. For the purpose of his or her Ph.D. Qualifications Evaluation, such competence will be examined in one of the two ancient languages. The following are suggested minimum lists which students will be expected to have read in the original for the particular language that he or she selects for the Qualifying Examinations. Substitutions are acceptable, since the particular sources read in the original language will be determined by a student's courses and interests, but the student's readings should be regularly discussed with the student's advisor for Greek or for Roman history. Before taking the Qualifying Examinations, the student should therefore have completed reading a substantial proportion of one of the following lists. Before this examination each student is expected to submit a complete list of the Greek and Latin sources that he or she has read. In selecting the passages for translation, however, the examiners are not obliged to confine themselves solely to the works that the student has read.

Sources for Greek History

  • Aeschines: one speech (e.g., Against Ctesiphon)
  • Aeschylus: one play (e.g., Persians)
  • Andocides: one speech (e.g., On the Mysteries)
  • Antiphon: one speech (e.g., On the Murder of Herodes)
  • Aristophanes: one play (e.g., Acharnians, Knights, Birds,or Lysistra)
  • Aristotle: Athenaion Politeia
  • Demosthenes: one substantial speech (e.g., De Corona)or several shorter speeches (e.g., Philippics I-III)
  • Euripides: one play (e.g, Troades, Supplices,or Bacchae)
  • Hellenica Oxyrhynchia
  • Herodotus: two books, including Book I
  • Hesiod: Works and Days
  • Homer: three books from each epic
  • Isocrates: one speech (e.g., Panegyric)
  • Lysias: one speech (e.g., XII)
  • Plato: Apology and one longer dialogue (e.g., Protagoras, Symposium, Republic I)
  • Plutarch: one Greek life
  • Polybius: Book I
  • Pseudo-Xenophon: Athenaion Politeia
  • Sophocles: one play (e.g.,Oedipus Rexor Antigone)
  • Thucydides: two books, including Book I
  • Xenophon: Hellenica I and II

  • Also, substantial selections from R. Meiggs and D. Lewis, A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptionsand from M.N. Tod, Greek Historical Inscriptions,vol. 2

  • One important Greek historian preserved in fragments, from F. Jacoby, Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker (FGH)(e.g. Hecataeus, Hellanicus, Theopompus, Ephorus, or Philochorus).

Sources for Roman History

  • Ammianus Marcellinus: one book
  • Appian: a substantial selection from Bellum Civile
  • Caesar: two books from De Bello Gallico or from the Bellum Civile
  • Cassius Dio: one complete book or several epitomated ones
  • Cicero: four orations and a selection of letters
  • Dionysius of Halicarnassus: a selection
  • Josephus: a substantial selection from Bellum Iudaicum
  • Livy: two books (e.g., I and XXI)
  • Pliny the Younger: Book X (Correspondence with Trajan)
  • Plutarch: one Roman life
  • Polybius: Books I and VI
  • Sallust: Jugurtha, Catiline
  • SHA: two longer lives from Hadrian to Severus Alexander
  • Suetonius: Life of Augustus or Life of Caesar and one other life
  • Tacitus: two books from Annals or the Histories; the Germania or the Agricola
  • Vergil: one book of the Aeneid

  • A broad selection of inscriptions from H. Dessau, Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae

  • One important Roman historian (e.g., Cato) preserved in fragments from H. Peter, Historicorum Romanorum reliquiae

Coauthorship Policy

The following policy on coauthorship of published research has been approved by the Graduate Group in Ancient History for implementation beginning with the academic year 1998-1999.

Policy on Coauthorship of Research

  1. Procedures:

    At the point where a co-operative research project is being planned or otherwise undertaken by a member of the faculty and a graduate student or graduate students of the University, the specific concern of the authorship of published results should be addressed before the inception of the project itself. The matter of authorship must be discussed in any research project that specifically envisages publication as part of the project. If for any reason this advance agreement is not pragmatically possible, the division of responsibilities and credits should be discussed in detail as soon as reasonably possible after the inception of the project. Both the division of labor on any given project and the matter of respective credit should be clearly outlined in a written document that is agreed to by both the Faculty member and the student(s). This document should include as clear an indication of the ranking of primary and secondary authors as is possible given the design of the research project at its inception. The faculty member(s) and student(s) should be aware of the possibility that the project itself might modify its shape or direction, and that the contributors to the project might change the nature of their contributions (for example, even to the point of withdrawing from the joint undertaking). As the project proceeds to publication, therefore, provision should also be made for a re-evaluation of both the nature of the respective contributions to the research and the credit to be assigned to the authors. Finally, as the research proceeds through the final stages of publication, the various authors should have the right, within reasonable confines, to check their contributions to the publication manuscripts (or equivalents) and to check their contributions to the various proof versions (should this be applicable).

  2. Criteria for Coauthorship:

    In their discussion of the problem of coauthorship in joint research projects, both faculty and students should be able to claim credit only for work actually done. Credit should be given in a manner that is appropriate to the work done and with respect for the conventions of the discipline. A major contribution such as the collation of a substantial portion of data, sharing in the writing of an article or book, the contribution of an idea or conception that is central to the general argument, should merit some type of formally recognized coauthorship. Contributions that are of a minor nature (for example, suggestions of various avenues of research, corrections or modifications of specific points of fact) should be credited in the appropriate manner, either in prefatory or introductory remarks to the whole publication, or by way of specific reference in a note or a footnote.

    Specific criteria that might be used to assess contributory 'authorship' to a given project are necessarily peculiar to it, but some of the following general criteria should be borne in mind. If the creation of an idea or conception, or an interpretation of evidence, is the principal one, or one of the principal ones that is the reason for publication, then those who were directly responsible for such research and writing should be credited as principal 'authors'. The collecting of data at the direction of, and under the aegis, of a faculty member, however, would not usually constitute grounds of 'authorship.' In the middle ground, however, there are many gray areas that fall between the collection and assemblage of data and points where a student researcher might well be doing considerably more than technical tasks such as these. Such situations are so diverse and varied in nature, that it is best that the faculty member and the graduate student(s) concerned attempt to agree in advance on how these specific cases directly relevant to their project are to be handled (see 'procedures' above). Finally, as regards the actual composition of a paper, article, report, or book (or similar 'publication') a clear distinction should be drawn between the creative process of the interpretive writing and other duties such as checking and editorial duties. The latter might well receive 'minor' credit through prefatory remarks or notes, but the former deserves some type of formal authorial recognition.

    In research in Ancient History, and its ancillary disciplines, where it is primarily literary sources that are involved, the co-operative nature of research engaged in by faculty and graduate students is already governed by fairly standard conventions. The one area in which some prior caution is always advised, however, is that of participation in archaeological excavations. The type of access that the student or the graduate student has to excavated materials, and the kind of involvement in the publication(s) of the site and its artifacts, is ordinarily governed not only by whatever explicit arrangements are made by the director of the excavation, but also by overriding conventions that apply to the excavation as a whole (for example, in local official or governmental permits). Whatever agreements that faculty and students from the University make concerning publication and authorial credit are necessarily subservient to these overriding conventions.

    In the description of 'procedures' and 'authorship' above, it is assumed that the same conventions governing 'procedures' and 'criteria of coauthorship' also govern 'publication' in new modes of communicating research and research findings, such as web-pages, internet journals, and similar kinds of electronic media.

  3. Dispute Resolution Process:

    If either a faculty member or a graduate student in the Graduate Group in Ancient History senses that a dispute over authorship is emerging, either person, or both together, should inform the Chair of the Graduate Group. If at all possible, however, the faculty member and the graduate student(s) should the attempt to resolve potential disputes over authorship first, both by reference to the original agreements concerning shared work and by discussing the specific issues that have caused the dispute. Should this course of action fail, the matters at issue should be conveyed to the Chair of the Graduate Group who will then examine them. The Chair shall then report the matter to the faculty of the Graduate Group as a matter of business. The Graduate Chair will then suggest a resolution to the dispute, and seek confirmation of this decision from the faculty of the Graduate Group. In all cases, the process should be as expeditious as reasonably possible, in order to avoid any unnecessary impediments to the normal progress to publication on the part of the author(s).

    In the case that the Chair of the Graduate Group is himself or herself involved in a dispute over coauthorship, he or she must recuse himself or herself from the position of Chair for the purpose of a meeting of the Faculty of the Graduate Group at which another member of the Graduate Group Faculty will be appointed by the Group to adjudicate the matter according to the procedures for resolution as outlined above. Such a meeting should be held with within a period of time soon enough after the emergence of the dispute, so as reasonably to meet the criterion of 'expedition' for the whole process of resolution as outlined above.

27 May 1998: Subject to amendment and revision
Revised: 4 November 1998