The
Graduate Group embraces three departments: Classical & Near
Eastern Archaeology, Greek,
Latin, & Classical Studies, and History
of Art. Faculty and students in the three departments share
space and resources in the Rhys Carpenter Library and collaborate in many scholarly, professional, and social activities. The Group's activities have been enriched and extended by the recent award of a Challenge Grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities. The current Director of the Graduate Group is Professor Catherine Conybeare.
"The three departments together offer a unique perspective on the Western tradition, focusing on the origins, history, and transmission of classical art, literature, and aesthetics from Ur to present-day America," in
the words of Dale Kinney, Dean of
the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and Professor of History
of Art. "These departments have always been collegial and have
a history of interdisciplinary collaboration. This relationship was
formalized in 2001 with the creation of the Graduate Group,
whose mission is to prepare future scholars and teachers to shape
the intellectual landscapes of the next generation, without losing
the rigor of inquiry and intellectual values that inform the traditional
disciplines for which we are already known." The departments
remain autonomous and each continues to offer its own MA and PhD
degrees.
One exciting manifestation of the Graduate Group is the series of interdepartmental seminars (GSems) co-taught by faculty in at least two and often three departments.
GSems offer unique opportunities for students and faculty to compare
the critical approaches and knowledge bases of their home disciplines
to those of other, cognate fields. Recent GSems have covered a wide range of topics: iconography (Atac, Hamilton, and Kinney, Spring 2006), the reception of classical literature and art (Cast and Gaisser, Fall 2005), and the genesis and implications of natality theory (Birth and Becoming: Conybeare and King, Spring 2005). See Group Seminars for a complete list of GSems.
Thanks to the NEH Challenge Grant, we also offer Curatorial Internships, in partnership with five institutions in and around Philadelphia. These include the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the University of Pennsylvania Museum. These offer students the opportunity to work with the collections at Bryn Mawr College, and to gain more specialized expertise elsewhere.
The biennial Graduate Student Symposium is another significant shared
enterprise of the Graduate Group. Organized entirely by students,
these ambitious symposia attract graduate students from all over
the United States and from other countries to contribute papers
on such interdisciplinary themes as "After
Death and Afterlife: The End or Beginning?"
As well as enrolling
in GSems, students may engage in multidisciplinary study by joining courses
in another Graduate Group department (providing, of course, that they meet the
prerequisites) and by taking units of independent study with faculty
members outside their home department. The ability to work between
departments is a particular advantage to students seeking to acquire
multidisciplinary expertise, and has enabled our graduates in Classical
and Near Eastern Archaeology, for example, to obtain academic positions
in departments of classics and history of art.
In addition to the Graduate Group, Bryn Mawr's Center for Visual
Culture is a lively source of cross-disciplinary research and
conversation. The Center's weekly colloquia, occasional lectures,
and other sponsored events extend beyond the realms of archaeology,
history of art, and classics to all aspects and uses of visual imagery,
in film and photography, architecture, literature, mass media, and
science and medicine.
