Classics and Modern Languages
Academic Staff
Fellows
Dr Armand D'Angour is Fellow and Tutor in Classics, and the author of The Greeks and the New: Novelty in ancient Greek imagination and experience (2011). He will be on research leave during 2013-15 investigating ancient Greek music in its relationship to Greek poetry.
For academic years 2013-14 and 2014-15 Dr D'Angour’s place will be taken by Mr Matthew Hosty. Mr Hosty specialises in Greek epic and ancient parody, and is preparing an edition with commentary (the first in English) of the pseudo-Homeric Batrachomyomachia (Battle of the Frogs and Mice).
Professor Thomas Charles-Edwards is Emeritus Jesus Professor of Celtic. He works on medieval Ireland and Wales, and to a lesser extent Scotland and Anglo-Saxon England. He is mainly an historian but he has also written about medieval Irish and Welsh narrative literature. His books include The Welsh Laws (1989), Early Christian Ireland (2000), Wales and the Britons, 350-1064 and The Oxford History of Wales, vol. 1 (2012). He is a Fellow of the British Academy, a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales, and an Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy.
Professor Katrin Kohl is the Fellow and Tutor in German. She teaches German literature from 1750, with a particular interest in the way literature interacts with the society and culture of its time and communicates with the reader. Her current research focuses on eighteenth and twentieth century poetry and poetics, and on the theory and practice of metaphor as a means of shaping concepts of literary communication. She also has a strong interest in language teaching and has published language courses from beginner to university level.
Dr Caroline Warman is the Fellow and Tutor in French. Her main research interests lie in the literature, history of ideas and medical discourses of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Her first book was on Sade and materialism (2002); she is now working on Diderot and theories of consciousness in the 1790s. She is also translating the novels of Isabelle de Charrière. She mainly teaches literature and thought in the modern period but also offers (and enjoys!) the span of first year texts, from medieval to modern. Her language teaching specialises in translation into and out of French.
Lecturers
Dr Teresa Morgan, Fellow in Ancient History at Oriel College, is a Lecturer at Jesus responsible for arranging teaching and supervision in Ancient History. Her work covers many aspects of literature, culture and society in antiquity. She is the author of Literate education in the Hellenistic and Roman worlds (1998), and Popular Morality in the Early Roman Empire (2007).
Dr Elena Lombardi, a Fellow of Balliol College, is a Lecturer in Italian for Jesus College. Her teaching interests focus on Dante, early Italian poetry, and Medieval Studies.
Dr Julie Curtis, a Fellow of Wolfson College, is a Lecturer in Russian for Jesus College. Her research interests lie in twentieth-century Russian literature, especially Mikhail Bulgakov and Evgenii Zamiatin. She has also published on the literature of the Gorbachev era.
Dr Jonathan Thacker, a Fellow of Merton College, is a Lecturer in Spanish for Jesus College who teaches mainly in the literature of the Golden Age, or early-modern period. He writes principally on the drama produced by Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, Calderón de la Barca and their contemporaries, and on the works of Cervantes.
Dr Alderik Blom is a British Academy Post-Doctoral Fellow at Corpus Christi College, and teaches Celtic for Jesus College. He works on Germanic and Celtic philology, with a focus on medieval multilingualism and the emergence of the early vernaculars, and textual criticism in Germany and the Scandinavian countries in the nineteenth century.
About the Course
Classics and Modern Languages enables you to combine study of either one or both of Latin and Ancient Greek with one modern language (French, German, Modern Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Czech, Celtic). NB Beginners' Russian is not available. The course involves extensive study of major literary texts, alongside training in linguistic skills.
There are several options available, which you must choose between at the time of application.
- Option 1: First examinations taken in Modern Languages after 3 terms
Course I = 4 years (3rd year abroad)
Course II = 5 years (1st year learning Latin or Greek, 4th year abroad) - Option 2: First examinations in Classics after 5 terms
Course I is for students who have prior knowledge of the Classical language to A2 level; Course II is for those without such knowledge.
Oxford has the largest Classics department in the world, with unparalleled teaching, library and museum resources and a range of extracurricular activities, including performances of Greek plays and various societies. The Modern Languages Faculty is one of the largest in the UK, with a major research library (the Taylorian) and a modern, well-equipped Language Centre fitted with satellite and computer-assisted language learning facilities. Undergraduates will also have the opportunity to develop oral proficiency in the modern language by regular contact with native speakers.
Students take a year abroad in a foreign country before their final year. Most undergraduates spend their year abroad as a paid language assistant in a foreign school. Colleges assist in arranging these placements, and colleges or the Modern Languages Faculty may also provide financial support. College support may also be available to help undergraduates with academic-related travel to Italy or Greece.
Your time is divided between lectures, language classes, tutorials and private study. Most of your work will be in preparation of essays for your tutorials, although the systematic reading of literary texts, not necessarily aimed at any particular tutorial, also requires a considerable input of time and effort.
Admissions
Candidates are selected on the basis of academic record (e.g. GCSEs) and potential, as shown by their UCAS reference, submitted written work, performance in written tests and in interviews if shortlisted. In a total College entry of about 100 undergraduates, 4 or 5 are offered places in a typical year to read Classics and joint schools. Candidates will be expected to achieve three A grades at A2 level, including grade A in the Modern and/or Classical Language(s) to be taken at degree level if currently studied. Applications from students taking equivalent examinations such as the International Baccalaureate are welcome. Offers made to post-A Level candidates will usually be unconditional. Applicants studying both classical languages to A Level, or only one, are equally welcome, as are those who may have only studied to GCSE level (who follow the Course II option).
Written work: In Classics, candidates submit two essays or commentaries. For Modern Languages, two pieces of written work should be submitted, at least one of which should be written in the language you are applying to study (if currently studied). The submitted work should be completed as part of your course and should be marked.
Written tests: Candidates will be required to sit written tests in schools on 6 November 2013. All candidates will be required to sit a short written test (30 minutes) in the Modern Language. This test aims to assess your grasp of the basic grammar of the language you intend to study. It is not a test of vocabulary. Candidates for Course I, i.e. studying Latin and/or Greek to A-Level or equivalent, will be expected to sit A-level standard test(s) in Latin and/or Greek. Candidates for Course II, i.e. who are not studying Latin and/or Greek to A-Level or equivalent, will sit the Classics Language Aptitude Test. For further details of the Classics tests, see the Classics subject notes. Registration for both the Classics and the Modern Languages tests is via the Admissions Testing Service and the deadline is 15 October 2013.
Deferred Entry: Applications may be made for deferred entry to Jesus College. You must apply for deferred entry at the time of application to Oxford: you cannot change your mind after an offer has been made. Please refer to departmental web sites for subject-specific advice. Applicants who are offered places for deferred entry will be among the strongest of the cohort for their subject. We would not usually offer more than one deferred place per subject in order not to disadvantage the following year's candidates. In some cases, an applicant for deferred entry may be offered a place for non-deferred entry instead. If you require any further advice, please contact the Admissions Officer.
Postgraduate Studies and Careers
In Oxford there is a larger concentration of teachers of classical subjects, and of graduate students, than anywhere else in the world. The following degrees are offered at postgraduate level:
- MSt (1 year) or MPhil (2 years) Greek and/or Latin Language and Literature
- MSt or MPhil Greek and/or Roman History
- DPhil Classics
Oxford has a large, varied, and active teaching and research community in Modern Languages. There are over ninety members of the Faculty, with research interests spread across the full chronological range of the languages and into most areas of linguistics and literary study. The College welcomes applicants for all postgraduate degrees in Medieval and Modern Languages. The following degrees are available:
- MSt, MPhil or DPhil Medieval and Modern Languages
- MSt, MPhil or DPhil Celtic Studies
- MSt or MPhil Slavonic Studies
- MSt Women's Studies
- MSt Yiddish Studies
Graduates in Classics and Modern Languages go on to a wide variety of careers, including the media, teaching, acting, management, advertising and librarianship.
Preliminary Reading and Further Information
Further information about Classics and Modern Languages at Oxford can be found on the Faculty of Classics and Faculty of Modern Languages websites. Information about admissions is available on the University's Undergraduate Courses pages.
Last updated May 2013