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.
17th Dec 2018
Defenses normally take no more than two hours to complete. Please arrive 5 minutes early, so the defense can begin promptly.
Defenses normally take no more than two hours to complete. Please arrive 5 minutes early, so the defense can begin promptly.
Lecture: “Life, interrupted: rethinking trauma in Seneca the Younger” (Zsuzsa Varhelyi)
16th Jan 2019Engaging recent scholarship and its emphasis on the aesthetic, in this paper I argue for the importance of traumatic experience to our understanding Seneca’s approach to friendship, philosophy and religion. This lecture is open to the public.
“Uncovering the Past: UBC’s Recent Excavations in Israel” (Dr. Gregg E. Gardner)
3rd Feb 2019Open to the public. 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 For more information, please visit: http://btikvah.ca/
Department Seminar: “Why Is There Law in the Bible?” (Bruce Wells)
6th Feb 2019The law codes in the Hebrew Bible are not stand-alone documents like other ancient codes but part of a long and intricate story. This talk will consider why law was important to the story and how it was used to advance the biblical authors’ agenda.
12th Feb 2019
Details to follow. *Lecture co-sponsored by: UBC Diamond Chair in Jewish Law and Ethics Canadian Friends of Hebrew University – Vancouver Chapter
Details to follow. *Lecture co-sponsored by: UBC Diamond Chair in Jewish Law and Ethics Canadian Friends of Hebrew University – Vancouver Chapter
“Consent and Consensuality in Ancient Greco-Roman Marriage” (Judy Hallett, University of Maryland)
27th Feb 2019Judith Hallett will reflect upon the relationship between ancient Greco-Roman marriage and two English nouns of Latin derivation: “consent”, which dictionaries customarily define as agreement on a course of action by two or more individuals, and “consensuality”, which I would define as the act of freely and mutually awarding consent, especially in the realm of...
Dr. Susanna Braund is elected to the Australian Academy of the Humanities
Professor Susanna Braund has been elected as a Corresponding Fellow to the Australian Academy of the Humanities, which is the highest honor for achievement in the humanities in Australia. She has been recognized for her international leadership on imperial Latin literature and the reception of Roman antiquity. Corresponding Fellows are elected in recognition of their […]
Matthew McCarty receives prize for best article in Phoenix
Dr. Matthew McCarty has be awarded the sixth Mary White Prize for Best Article in Phoenix (2017) for his co-written article, “Connected Communities in Roman Mithraism: Regional Webs from the Apulum Mithraeum III Project (Dacia)”, which will appear in the forthcoming issue of Phoenix. The prize is named for Mary White, who was a Classics professor at the University […]
Another new book by Dr. Keddie
Dr. Anthony Keddie is co-author with L. Michael White of a new book entitled Jewish Fictional Letters from Hellenistic Egypt (SBL Press, 2018). Publication Notice from SBL Press Jewish Fictional Letters from Hellenistic Egypt: The Epistle of Aristeas and Related Literature The first Greek text of the Epistle of Aristeas published in more than a century. The Greek […]
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 […]
An introduction to our Department, its history and aims, as well as location and contact information.
Learn more about UBC, its campus and reputation for excellence in teaching and research.
Get to know the city, its unique setting, cultural diversity and reputation as one of the world’s most liveable cities.
History of Classical Studies at UBC
Read A Brief History of Classical Studies at UBC by Robert B. Todd, Professor Emeritus