The University of British Columbia
Vancouver campus
WHEN CLASSICAL WORLDS COLLIDE
From the pyramids to the Colosseum, from the Olympic Games to Mecca, our department offers a unique opportunity to link different disciplines and study ancient civilizations in a wider context.
EXPLORE THE PAST AND GAIN INSIGHT INTO THE PRESENT
Our unique program opens the door to three thousand years of language, literature, art, philosophy, religion and history, revealing their influence on modern culture.
UNEARTHING ANCIENT CULTURES
We pursue research into the cultures of ancient Egypt, the Near East, Greece and Rome, with ample archaeological fieldwork opportunities for our students, like the Centre for the Study of Ancient Sicily.
26th Oct 2018
According to Livy (34.52.2), in 194 BCE Titus Quinctius Flamininus returned from Greece and led his entire army, laden with the staggering spoils from the war against Philip, ‘as if marching in a triumphal procession’ (prope triumphantes) all the way from Brundisium to Rome. Flamininus’ bombastic procession and subsequent three-day triumph fits the scaled-up triumphal...
According to Livy (34.52.2), in 194 BCE Titus Quinctius Flamininus returned from Greece and led his entire army, laden with the staggering spoils from the war against Philip, ‘as if marching in a triumphal procession’ (prope triumphantes) all the way from Brundisium to Rome. Flamininus’ bombastic procession and subsequent three-day triumph fits the scaled-up triumphal...
Pharos Lecture: “Exploring Socrates and the Buddha” (Michael Griffin)
29th Oct 2018Socrates of Athens and Siddhartha Gautama are regarded as founders, respectively, of European philosophy and Buddhism. They were also near- contemporaries, who taught by lively question and answer, upended many of the cultural assumptions of their time, and established traditions of scientific and religious inquiry that would last for millennia. In this talk, I’ll explore...
30th Oct 2018
Troia is the name of a sandy peninsula located in the southwestern Atlantic coast of Portugal, on the left bank of the river Sado, where, in Roman times since the first century CE, an important industrial complex emerged. However, the name Troia was never mentioned in the ancient sources in contrast with Caetobriga (nowadays Setúbal),...
Troia is the name of a sandy peninsula located in the southwestern Atlantic coast of Portugal, on the left bank of the river Sado, where, in Roman times since the first century CE, an important industrial complex emerged. However, the name Troia was never mentioned in the ancient sources in contrast with Caetobriga (nowadays Setúbal),...
Department Seminar: “How Ancient Jewish Scribes Rewrote Sacred History” (Ville Mäkipelto)
7th Nov 2018The Hebrew Bible contains several stories about the conquest of the promised land. Looking at intriguing manuscript evidence, this presentation illuminates a period (200 CE–70 BCE) when these stories were still under development.
Pharos Lecture: “Attika, Land of the Athenians” (Hector Williams)
26th Nov 2018Details to follow.
Department Seminar – Matthew Hoskin
28th Nov 2018Details to follow.
“The Origins of Hanukah in Light of Recent Archaeological Discoveries” (Dr. Gregg E. Gardner, UBC)
5th Dec 2018This is a joint program between Congregation Beth Israel and the Archdiocese. Dr. Gregg E. Gardner is Associate Professor and the UBC Diamond Chair in Jewish Law and Ethics in the Department of Classical, Near Eastern, and Religious Studies of The University of British Columbia; https://ubc.academia.edu/GreggGardner Note: time subject to change; please visit for http://www.bethisraelvan.ca/...
Dr. G. Anthony Keddie has published a new book on apocalypticism in Early Roman Palestine, “Revelations of Ideology.” (Brill, 2018) About In Revelations of Ideology, G. Anthony Keddie proposes a new theory of the social function of Judaean apocalyptic texts produced in Early Roman Palestine (63 BCE–70 CE). In contrast to evaluations of Jewish and […]
Thomas Schneider’s research on early alphabet discovery garners international attention
A paper recently published in the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research by Dr. Thomas Schneider has received news coverage from North America to Israel, Russia, and Korea! The paper reports on what could be the earliest example of our alphabet sequence from a 3400 year-old piece of Egyptian pottery. Read more on […]
Gregg Gardner named division Chair for Association for Jewish Studies
Professor Gregg Gardner has been named Chair of the Division of “Jewish History and Culture in Antiquity” of the Association for Jewish Studies (AJS). In this role, he will be shepherding and overseeing all paper proposals on Jews and Judaism during the Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine ages for the AJS’s Annual Meeting – the largest […]
Franco De Angelis awarded two fellowships
Professor Franco De Angelis has been awarded the Arthur Dale Trendall Fellowship by the Institute of Classical Studies of the University of London. The fellowship was inaugurated in 2000 in memory of Arthur Dale Trendall for senior scholars from universities outside the UK, who work on the same areas of interest as Professor Trendall, including […]
Dr. Thomas Schneider elected Visiting Professor of Halbert Centre
Dr. Thomas Schneider has been elected as a Visiting Professor of the Halbert Centre for Canadian Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He will spend up to one month during the 2018-9 academic year at the Hebrew University, delivering two public lectures, a workshop for students, as well as the annual Hans Jakob Polotsky […]
Dr. Robert Cousland has published a new book, “Holy Terror. Jesus in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas.” (Bloomsbury, 2017) About The Infancy Gospel of Thomas (or Paidika) is one of the most unusual gospels in the Christian tradition. Instead of revealing the compassionate Jesus so familiar to us from the biblical Gospels, it confronts its readers with a […]
Kevin Fisher, Roger Wilson receive SSHRC Insight Grants
Dr. Kevin Fisher has been awarded a large SSHRC Insight Grant for “Investigating the Socio-environmental Dynamics of an Ancient Urban Landscape”. The grant will fund five years of excavation and related work at the Late Bronze Age (c. 1650-1100 BCE) city of Kalavasos-Ayios Dhimitrios, Cyprus. Recent research suggests that new urban landscapes that were created […]
Graduate Student Success: Gillian Glass, Emma Ramsden receive scholarships
CNERS is very pleased to announce that PhD Religious Studies student Gillian Glass has won a Killam Doctoral Scholarship! This is an extremely competitive and, therefore, prestigious award – and CNERS now has two Killam Doctoral Scholarship holders after Ryan Schroeder, also a PhD Religious studies candidate, received one last year. We also congratulate MA ACRE student […]
Dr. Gregg Gardner receives Halbert Centre grant for workshop on charity in classical Jewish law
Gregg Gardner has been awarded a grant from the Halbert Centre for Canadian Studies at Hebrew University! The funds will go towards co-organizing a workshop between academics from UBC and other universities in Canada, and the Israel Matz Institute for Jewish Law of the Law School of Hebrew University, on the topic of “Charity in […]
Dr. Michael Griffin receives UBC Killam Research Fellowship
Dr. Michael Griffin, Associate Professor of Greek Philosophy, has received a UBC Killam Research Fellowship for his project, “The Puzzle of Virtue: Indian Contributions to a Greek and Modern Theory.” We are excited to hear more about this research in the future!
Full-time Educational Leadership Tenure-track
The Department of Classical, Near Eastern, and Religious Studies at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver campus) invites applications for a full-time tenure-track position in the Educational Leadership stream at the rank of Instructor. This position provides the opportunity to pursue a career focused on excellence in teaching, curriculum design, and other aspects of educational […]
The Department of Classical, Near Eastern, and Religious Studies at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver campus) invites applications for a full-time tenure-track position in the Educational Leadership stream at the rank of Instructor. This position provides the opportunity to pursue a career focused on excellence in teaching, curriculum design, and other aspects of educational […]
An introduction to our Department, its history and aims, as well as location and contact information.
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History of Classical Studies at UBC
Read A Brief History of Classical Studies at UBC by Robert B. Todd, Professor Emeritus