Bryn Mawr College

Graduate Group in Archaeology, Classics, and History of Art

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 departments remain autonomous and each continues to offer its own MA and PhD degrees. 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.

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: Death and beyond (Edmonds and Ataç, spring 2009); Rome and its representation (Scott and Kinney, spring 2008); history and memory (Saltzman and Kale, spring 2007; iconography (Atac, Hamilton, and Kinney, Spring 2006); public space (Wright and Hein, Fall 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 descriptions and a complete list.

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 "Thievery: The Anxiety of Influence and Appropriation" (2009); "To the Ends of the Earth: Journeys Ancient to Modern" (2007); "After Death and Afterlife: The End or Beginning?" (2005).

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.