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Illuminating the past to navigate the future.

Why Earn a Classical Studies Minor at Luther?

You’re curious, introspective, and ready for travel and adventure. We’ll help you explore that world through classroom and study abroad experiences designed to challenge you.    

You’ll research alongside your professors. Whether you’re composing your first college essay, learning to translate Greek and Latin, writing a research paper, or wishing to see and study ancient Greece and Rome, our faculty are committed to helping you succeed.  

Supplement your degree with a Classical Studies minor. Studies who minor in Classical Studies are just as skilled at reading Homer and Cicero or interpreting the archaeological ruins of Pompeii as they are at writing computer code and managing databases and geographic information systems.

Why Pursue Classical Studies?

Students and their professor pose for a group picture in Greece.

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  • Dan Davis

    There’s an old joke in my field: ‘Archaeologists are always talking about the past, but they never do anything about it.’ Nothing could be further from the truth! I love showing students that exploring the past is valuable for what it can teach us today, and how to avoid future pitfalls.

    – Dan Davis, Associate Professor of Classics

Going High-Tech in Greece

If you think archeological work is all kneeling in a trench, brushing ancient dust off potsherds, think again. As Dan Davis, Luther assistant professor of classics, points out, digging up artifacts is only about 10 percent of what an archeologist does.

Students from Luther and other colleges recently got their hands on the rest of the work during a field school in Greece, learning such skills as archeological drawing, site illustration, architectural and artifact photography, pottery cleaning, and ceramic analysis. Their accumulated work will eventually tell the story of Roman-era Kenchreai, the port of the great city of Corinth on the Aegean City.

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Students make a 3-D photoscan of an ancient column base using an iPad with attached 3-D scanner.
Students make a 3-D photoscan of an ancient column base using an iPad with attached 3-D scanner.

Luther students working with archaeologists and oceanographers from the U.S. and Turkey near the ancient site of Knidos in the southeast Aegean Sea.
Luther and Vanderbilt students take a breather after climbing a peak near ancient Corinth and Kenchreai on the Aegean Sea.
Luther student Obi Ukabiala reading a selection from Homer’s Odyssey at the ancient site of Delphi, home to ancient Greece’s most famous oracle.
During our January-term course to Rome, the class put on a production of Julius Caesar.
On the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius in southern Italy during a rain/hail storm in January.
Our Classics majors have the opportunity to work with the latest technologies in archaeology, including autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) which help us find ancient shipwrecks in the Aegean Sea.
Dan Davis teaching ancient Greek, one of the main languages contributing to modern English.
Luther students before the Parthenon on the Acropolis.
Luther students exploring the ruins of the Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae, Greece (from ca. 1300 B.C.).
Anne Bulliung teaching Latin, which forms the basis for a large majority of English words.

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