Classics and Ancient History

Our PhD Classics and Ancient History programme is aimed at students who want to make a genuine contribution to scholarly knowledge and understanding of the field through their thesis. You will acquire an excellent general knowledge of the wider field in question and high competence in relevant languages - ancient and modern - and associated skills, both subject-specific and generic. Our research covers Greek and Roman history, Classical literature and its reception, and Classical Philology and Linguistics. We enjoy close links with researchers in areas including Medieval and Modern History, Archaeology, Art History, English and American Studies, Linguistics, Religions and Theology, the John Rylands University Library and the Manchester Museum. Research centres of special importance to us and our research students include the Centre for Late Antiquity, the Centre for the Cultural History of War, and the Cultural Theory Institute. We offer supervision in a very broad range of subjects spanning Greek and Roman culture, history, literature and language from the archaic period to late antiquity. Certain research clusters stand out within our present constellation of permanent staff and research fellows, such as classical Greek history; the performance and theory of ancient literature; Roman love elegy; the Roman Republic; epigraphy, language and history; ancient science and didactic literature. Other specialisms include ancient warfare, Greek law, Greek oratory, pre-Roman Italy, critical theory, Hellenistic literature, ancient drama, Indo-European and the (pre-)history of the classical languages.

Students attend the university from over 150 countries around the world and there are various systems in place to help them adapt to their new life. The Student Immigration Team is a dedicated team in place to help with support and advice regarding immigration and visas and are based at the Student Services Centre. The student support centre is a single contact point for all students to help with matters such as finances, examinations, graduation and other matters. There is also help and advice on hand for matter such as integration into the community, learning English and making the most of the time in the UK. The centre of student life is the Students Union (UMIST), which formed at the same time as the university was created in 2004. It is run by an eight-member team rather than a single president. The athletics Union is responsible for the sports clubs within the university and there are over 80 health and fitness classes in addition to 44 sports clubs. There are around 250 societies and clubs in total across many areas of interest including a student run newspaper, radio station, a fundraising organisation, a volunteer project and across the arts and politics arena.