PhD Program

Students advancing from the MA Program may count any coursework completed in this program toward the satisfaction of any of the course requirements in the PhD Program (including courses that may satisfy the ancient language requirements and the methodology requirement) except for the required two archaeology seminars in the primary culture area and one required archaeology seminar in the secondary culture area. Students entering the PhD Program directly can petition the GA to accept equivalent courses completed at another institution towards the satisfaction of these same requirements.

2.1 Advising

The progress of students in the PhD Program (including course selection) is supervised by the GA. Upon entry into the Program the student selects a PA. The student may elect to change his/her PA at any time while in the Program. The student must meet with the GA during the advising period of each semester to discuss his/her performance and progress in the Program, course selections for the following semester (for students who have not advanced to candidacy), and plans for the near and long-term future. The student should meet with his/her PA to discuss these and any other matters of professional interest on a regular basis.

2.2. Primary and secondary culture area

Upon entry into the PhD Program the student designates one of its two main culture areas (Greek, Roman) as his/her primary culture area, with the other becoming his/her secondary culture area by default. Greek archaeology is understood to include Aegean prehistory, while Roman archaeology is understood to include the archaeology of the Italian peninsula during the pre-Roman Iron Age (including Etruscan archaeology). The student should consult with the GA to resolve any problems that may arise with regard to coursework or fieldwork requirements (see below) stemming from difficulties in defining the chronological, geographical, and/or cultural boundaries of the Greek and/or Roman worlds. A student may elect to change his/her primary culture area once only while in the PhD Program. Since the choice of primary culture area has substantial implications for a student’s requirements in several areas and eventual career path, students are strongly advised to take great care in deciding upon it.

2.3. Course units

A student in the PhD Program who has not yet advanced to candidacy must enroll for a minimum of 12 course units each semester in order to have full-time status. Once a student has advanced to candidacy he/she must still enroll for 12 units if holding a fellowship, an academic appointment, and at least 6 units for financial aid considerations.

There is no minimum number of units required for the PhD beyond the number required for completion of specific coursework requirements.

2.4. Coursework requirements

For the PhD in classical archaeology a student is required to complete the following coursework (7 courses for a total of 28 units).

2 seminars on the archaeology of the student’s primary culture area (8 units);

1 seminar on the archaeology of the student’s secondary culture area (4 units);

Four courses (at least two should be at the graduate level) on topics related to classical archaeology offered in at least two of the following programs: AHMA, Anthropology, Classics, History, History of Art, Near Eastern Studies (16 units); these courses should be selected to reflect the student’s specific area of interest, e.g., ancient art, epigraphy, archaeological method and theory, artifact analysis, etc. Two 2-unit graduate seminars can be taken in place of one 4-unit course towards the fulfilling of this requirement.

If the student enters with an MA from another institution and has not had a course analogous to the Proseminar in Classical Archaeology and Ancient Art (Classics 204) one of these courses should be the Proseminar.

In the event that the set of courses offered within any of the programs implicated in this requirement during a student’s initial three years in the PhD Program does not permit him/her to fulfill the letter of these requirements he/she may substitute other suitable courses with the approval of the GA.

2.5. Fieldwork requirement

Before the beginning of Year 3 (Year 5 for the student continuing from the MA Program) the student is required to complete one field season (4 or more weeks) with a research project (preferably different from that used to satisfy the MA Program’s fieldwork requirement). This must take place at some point within the geographical compass of the Greco-Roman world and focus on the Greek and/or Roman period. At least one of the two field seasons used to satisfy the MA Program and the PhD Program fieldwork requirements must take place in the geographical compass of and concentrate on the period of the student’s primary culture area and for at least one of these two field seasons the student must be substantially engaged in survey or excavation.

2.6. Modern research languages requirement

In order to undertake research in classical archaeology a scholar should be able to consult literature written in at least three modern languages - English, French, and German. Scholars of Greek archaeology should also be able to consult scholarly literature in Modern Greek, while scholars of Roman archaeology should also be able to consult scholarly literature in Italian. The student is required to demonstrate his or her ability to read scholarly literature written in two of these languages - German and either French or Modern Greek in the case of students with Greek archaeology as their primary culture area, and German and either French or Italian in the case of those with Roman archaeology as their primary culture area. This is done according to the Graduate Council’s Option 1, which allows the student to fulfill the requirement either by passing an exam in each of the two languages or by passing an exam in one of the two languages and completing specified coursework in the other. (For a detailed exposition of the Graduate Council’s Option 1, including the option of satisfying the requirement to demonstrate command of one of the two languages through coursework, see Graduate Degree Policy: Foreign Language Requirement.

Exams are set by the student’s PA according to the Graduate Council’s Option 1 guidelines. The student may sit for an exam in a specific language as often as one time per semester until passing, up to a maximum of three times. Failure to pass an exam in a specific language three times constitutes grounds for separation from the Program. A student who has fulfilled the modern research language requirement in the MA Program can apply this result toward the fulfillment of the requirement to pass an exam in that same language for the PhD.

Exam format: Ninety-minute translation exam consisting of one passage on an archaeological topic, with the student having the option of translating ca. 300 words without the use of a dictionary or ca. 500 words with the use of a dictionary.

Exam evaluation: The exam is evaluated by the student’s PA and two other members of the faculty of the Department chosen by the GA. They can each award a grade of pass or fail, and confer to determine the overall grade in the event of a split evaluation. In order to be awarded a grade of pass the translation must represent a complete and accurate rendering of the passage.

2.7. Ancient languages requirement

A classical archaeologist should have substantial mastery of the two principal languages of the Greco-Roman world, namely Ancient Greek and Latin. There are three reasons for this: 1) a scholar cannot have an adequate general understanding of the Greek and Roman cultures without some substantial knowledge of their principal languages; 2) a scholar must be able to consult texts in these two languages in the original in order to undertake research in classical archaeology; and 3) a scholar must be able to teach at least one of these two languages at the undergraduate level in order to qualify for a substantial portion of the college/university positions in classical archaeology in the USA and elsewhere.

2.7.1. Primary culture area language requirement

The student is required to demonstrate the ability to translate the principal language of his/her primary culture area and familiarity with the literature written in this language in either of two different ways:

1. Completion of the two-semester graduate survey of literature in that language (either Classics 201A and 201B for Ancient Greek or Classics 202A and 202B for Latin) with a grade of A- or better.
2. Passing a translation exam consisting of passages drawn from a reading list of works in that language. The student composes the reading list in consultation with his/her PA. This should comprise the equivalent of at least 800 Oxford Classical Text pages representing at least eight different authors. The exam is set by a committee consisting of the student’s PA and two other members of the faculty of the Department of Classics selected by the student’s PA. The student may sit for his/her primary culture area language exam as often as one time per semester until passing, up to a maximum of three times. Failure to pass the exam three times constitutes grounds for separation from the program.

Exam format: Three-hour translation exam consisting of four passages (ca. 20 lines each) by four different authors, normally two prose and two verse. Use of dictionary not permitted.

Exam evaluation: The exam is evaluated by the three members of the exam committee. They can each award a grade of pass or fail, and confer to determine the overall grade in the event of a split vote. In order to be awarded a grade of pass the student’s translation of at least three of the four passages must be effectively free of substantial errors.

2.7.2. Secondary culture area language requirement

The student must complete one semester of the two-semester graduate survey of literature in the principal language of his/her secondary culture area (either Classics 201A and 201B for Ancient Greek or Classics 202A and 202B for Latin) with a grade of A- or better or one senior-level language course in that language with a grade of B+ or better.

2.8. Methodology requirement

The student is required to demonstrate mastery of some method or set of related methods regularly employed in research in classical archaeology (e.g., numismatics, pottery analysis, faunal analysis, CAD, GIS, materials characterization, art historical methodology, or epigraphy). This can be done in any one of three different ways:

1. Satisfactory completion of a graduate course that focuses substantially on this method. (This course may be offered through Classics, some other department at UC Berkeley, or at another institution.)
2. Completion of a graduate-level summer program that focuses substantially on this method (e.g., the Summer Program at the American Numismatic Society; the Summer Program in Roman Pottery at the American Academy in Rome).
3. Writing and submitting a ca. 20-25-page paper or the completion of an equivalent project that involves the application of this method. The paper/project may be a seminar project, stem from the student’s participation in a research project or summer study program, or represent an independent project. It may consist of work undertaken by the student prior to entry into the Program at the discretion of the GA. It is evaluated by the GA and a second member of the faculty, usually the student’s PA, to determine if it satisfies the requirement.

2.9. Teaching requirement

Each PhD student is required to teach for at least two semesters as a GSI at UC Berkeley. These two semesters are the guaranteed semesters provided by the Department, normally awarded in a student’s third year in the program. Students are encouraged to complete at least an additional two semesters of teaching, and the Program will make every effort to provide them the opportunity to achieve this in the course of their graduate education. Further, the Program will make every effort to provide each student the opportunity to serve as GSI for at least one semester for the introductory course in the archaeology of his/her primary culture area at UC Berkeley (Classics 17A Introduction to Greek Archaeology; Classics 17B Introduction to Roman Archaeology) and for at least one semester for a course in an ancient language (generally Latin).

A student must enroll in Teaching of Classics: Methods and Problems (Classics 301) for 4 units during his/her first semester as a GSI and fulfill the other requirements for a first-time GSI: attending the GSI Teaching Conference, the University and UAW Orientation, and completing the GSI Professional Standards and Ethics Online Course. A student who is serving as a GSI may take as many as 2 of the 12 units required for full-time status as Teaching Practicum (Classics 302) when enrolled in Classics 301, or as many as 6 units when not enrolled in Classics 301.

2.10. Preliminary Dissertation Prospectus

At the beginning of Year 3 in the PhD Program (Year 5 for the student continuing from the MA Program) the student must chose a Provisional Dissertation Supervising Committee consisting of his/her PA and two other members of the UC Berkeley Academic Senate whom the student judges will likely serve on his/her Dissertation Supervising Committee. Among the three should be the Dissertation Supervising Committee’s likely chair. (For the requirements and limitations regarding membership in the Dissertation Supervising Committee see Section 2.2.13.) Not later than Week 3 of the semester the student should submit to the committee a ca. five-page Preliminary Dissertation Prospectus that outlines the likely subject, scope, methods, and timeline that he/she has in mind for the dissertation and a ca. one-page core bibliography for such a project. The student should meet with the committee to discuss the prospectus and the student’s dissertation plans not later than Week 6.

2.11. General Exam requirement

In the semester following the semester in which the student completes all of the requirements described above (normally the student’s fifth or sixth semester in the PhD Program) and no later than Week 12 of that semester the student must take a General Exam. This exam is designed to evaluate the student’s general knowledge of classical archaeology and to assist him/her in defining a dissertation project. The exam has four parts, three of which concern the student’s primary culture area and one his/her secondary culture area. The student consults with his/her PA to formulate an Exam Committee consisting of the PA, who serves as committee chair, and two other Academic Senate members of the classical archaeology faculty - one with expertise in the student’s primary culture area and one with expertise in his/her secondary culture area. The student consults with the Exam Committee to establish the topics of the four parts of the exam and a course of independent reading that he/she will undertake to prepare for each of the parts. The topics of the three parts regarding the student’s primary culture area should each concern a different time period and one of these three should represent an area that the student anticipates he/she will address in his/her dissertation project. For a primary culture area in Greek archaeology the time periods recognized for the exam are the following: prehistoric, early historic, Classical, and Hellenistic. For a primary culture area in Roman archaeology these are the following: pre-Republican, Republican, early-/mid-imperial, and late-imperial. The student will generally spend the bulk of a semester preparing for the exam, enrolling for individual study credit (Classics 602) with his/her PA. If the student fails the exam he/she must take it again by no later than Week 12 of the following semester. A second failure constitutes grounds for separation from the Program.

Exam format: Three-hour essay exam consisting of four parts with two questions on each part. The student must write an essay on three of the eight questions of his/her choice, including one of the two questions on the secondary culture area part and with no more than one question from any one of the four parts. Exam evaluation: The exam is evaluated by the members of the Exam Committee. They can each award a grade of pass or fail, and confer to determine the overall grade in the event of a split vote.

2.12. Oral Qualifying Exam requirement

The student who passes the General Exam is required to take an Oral Qualifying Exam not more than two weeks later. The Oral Qualifying Exam Committee consists of three Academic Senate members from Classics’ classical archaeology faculty, who are the same individuals as those who constituted the student’s General Exam Committee, plus an outside member, who is a member of the UC Berkeley Academic Senate but not a member of the Department of Classics faculty. Graduate Council policy excludes the same person from serving as chair of both a student’s Oral Qualifying Exam Committee and his/her Dissertation Supervising Committee, and the student should thus consult with the GA to determine which of the three inside members of the committee should serve as chair. The student chooses the outside member, consulting with the committee chair and the other two inside members. The outside member is provided a copy of the student’s General Exam at least one week prior to the date of the Oral Qualifying Exam so that he/she can review this prior to the latter exam. If the student fails the Oral Qualifying Exam he/she must take it again by no later than the end of the following semester. A second failure constitutes grounds for separation from the Program.

Exam format: Three-hour oral exam. The exam is attended by the student and the members of the Oral Qualifying Exam Committee. The four members of the committee question the student in turn for ca. 20 minutes each in an order determined by the student. They may examine the student on any aspect of classical archaeology, though will concentrate to a substantial extent on the questions on the General Exam (including both those answered by the student and those not answered by him/her).

Exam evaluation: Following the conclusion of the round of questioning the student exits the exam venue and the members of the committee indicate in turn their evaluation of the student’s performance, awarding a grade of pass, fail, or partial fail. The student is then readmitted to the venue and informed of his/her grade. When the members of the committee fail to agree on the student’s grade, the result is a split vote, which is reported as such to the Administrative Committee of the Graduate Council in accordance with Graduate Council policy.

2.13. Advancement to candidacy

The student files an Application for Advancement to Candidacy for Doctor of Philosophy form with Graduate Division prior to the beginning of the semester following the one in which he/she passes the Oral Qualifying Exam. Upon acceptance of this form by Graduate Division, the student is advanced to candidacy. If the Department submits a request to the Graduate Division, the student is nominated to the Academic Senate for award of the degree, Candidate in Philosophy (CPhil).

The application must contain a statement of the title of the proposed dissertation and nominate for approval a Dissertation Supervising Committee The Dissertation Supervising Committee, which oversees the student’s doctoral research, is comprised of at least three members: a chair, who is a member of the classical archaeology faculty and member of the UC Berkeley Academic Senate (and not the same person as that who served as chair of the student’s Oral Qualifying Exam Committee), a second inside member, who is also a member of the classical archaeology faculty, and an outside member, who is a member of the UC Berkeley Academic Senate but not a member of the Department of Classics faculty.

2.14. Dissertation requirement

Every student who has been advanced to candidacy is required to research and write a dissertation that is approved by all three members of his/her Dissertation Supervising Committee. The dissertation must be a substantial piece of original scholarship that demonstrates the student’s ability to bring archaeological theory and method to bear on a body of archaeological materials or data in order to elucidate a significant problem concerning his/her primary culture area. Completion of the dissertation should normally be accomplished in the course of two or, at most, three years.

No later than Week 4 of the student’s first semester as a PhD candidate he/she must compose a ca. 5-page Dissertation Prospectus that describes the subject, scope, methods, and timeline for the dissertation, appending a ca. 2-page bibliography, and submit this to the members of the committee for their review and comment. (This document may simply be a revision/updating of the student’s Preliminary Dissertation Prospectus.) The frequency with which the student subsequently confers with the members of the committee and provides them with drafts of portions of the manuscript for their review and comment is at the discretion of the student and the chair. The members of the committee must, however, be kept informed of the student's progress and must be consulted regarding any major changes of scope, direction or approach in the dissertation. Moreover, the student must complete the online Academic Progress Report (APR) and meet at least one time per year with the chair and at least one other member of the committee to discuss his/her progress. Subsequently, the chair completes the APR, informed by the substance of this meeting, and thus reports the student’s progress to the Graduate Division, per Graduate Council policy.

When the student and committee chair consider that the dissertation has been completed and no less than six weeks prior to the deadline for filing for the PhD degree (the last day of the semester) the student is required to submit a full draft of the dissertation to the members of the committee for their review and evaluation. The members of the committee must communicate to the student in writing any recommendations for revisions to this draft no less than three weeks prior to the filing deadline. The student must submit to the members of the committee a revised draft that takes into account their suggestions for revision no less than one week prior to the filing deadline. The members of the committee indicate their approval of the dissertation by signing its signature page.

2.15. Student reviews

Students who have been admitted directly to the PhD Program are subject to a review similar to the third semester review to which students in the MA Program are subjected. (See Section 2.1.8. above.)

All PhD program students are to be reviewed annually after the third semester review, usually early in the Spring semester, until they advance to candidacy, at which time they report annually on their progress through the APR to the chair of their Dissertation Supervising Committee and the GA.

2.16. Additional recommendations

For various recommendations pertinent to students in the PhD Program see Section 2.3 below.

2.17. Sample timeline

The following is a timeline showing a student’s hypothetical progress through the PhD Program. It assumes that the student will satisfy any requirements with a coursework option by that option; that he/she will not take any 2-unit graduate seminars towards the fulfilling of course requirements; and that he/she will need to pass an exam in one modern research language. This is meant to offer a general idea of what a program of study might look like. Any student’s actual program of study may depart from this scheme due to variation in course offerings in any given semester, availability of GSI positions in specific courses, student involvement in archaeological field projects, etc. The normative time to degree (NTD) for completion of the PhD is 7 years (= 14 semesters) from the time of a student’s initial enrollment at Berkeley, regardless of whether he/she entered into the MA Program or directly into the PhD Program. Note that a student’s timeline may well be lengthened by one year beyond the one presented here due to residence at one of the foreign schools, the holding of a teaching position with a foreign study program, or similar.

Year 1 (= Year 3 for students continuing from the MA Program)

Financial support: GSI both semesters

Semester 1 (Semester 5 for students continuing from the MA Program)

• Course 1: Seminar in archaeology of primary culture area (4 units)
• Course 2: Course in language/literature of secondary culture area (4 units)
• Course 3: GSI for course to be determined (Classics 302) (1 unit)
• Course 4: Teaching of Classics (Classics 301) (4 units)

Semester 2 (Semester 6)

• Course 1: Seminar in archaeology of secondary culture area (4 units)
• Course 2: Course in topic related to classical archaeology (4 units)
• Course 3: GSI for introduction to Roman archaeology (Classics 17B) or indeterminate course (Classics 302) (4 units)

Summer

Participation in archaeological fieldwork

Year 2 (Year 4)

Financial support: to be arranged (assumes GSI both semesters)

Semester 3 (Semester 7)

Third-semester review (for student entering directly into PhD Program)

Modern research language exam

• Course 1: Seminar in archaeology of primary culture area (4 units)
• Course 2: Survey of literature of primary culture area (Classics 201A or 202A) (4 units)
• Course 3: GSI for introduction to Greek archaeology (Classics 17A) or indeterminate course (Classics 302) (4 units)

 

Semester 4 (Semester 8)

Course 1: Course in topic related to classical archaeology (4 units)

Course 2: Survey of literature of primary culture area (Classics 201B or 202B) (4 units)

Course 3: GSI for Latin course or indeterminate course (Classics 302) (4 units)

Summer

Writing of Preliminary Dissertation Prospectus

Year 3 (Year 5)

Financial support: to be arranged (fellowship and/or GSI)

Semester 5 (Semester 9)

Submission of Preliminary Dissertation Prospectus

• Course 1: Course in topic related to classical archaeology (4 units)
• Course 2: Methodology course (4 units)
• Course 3: Elective or GSI for indeterminate course (4 units)

Semester 6 (Semester 10)

• Course 1: Course in topic related to classical archaeology (4 units)
• Course 2: Independent study (preparation for General Exam) (Classics 602) (4-7 units)
• Course 3: Elective or GSI for indeterminate course (1-4 units)

General Exam

Oral Qualifying Exam

Year 4 (Year 6)

Financial support: to be arranged (fellowship and/or GSI or external support)

Residence in Mediterranean (e.g., Athens or Rome)

Semester 7 (Semester 11)

Advancement to candidacy/receipt of CPhil

Formulation of/meeting with Dissertation Supervision Committee; submission of Dissertation Prospectus

Course 1: Dissertation research (Classics 298) (1-8 units)

 

Semester 8 (Semester 12)

Course 1: Dissertation research (Classics 298) (1-8 units)

Year 5 (Year 7)

Financial support: Doctoral Completion Fellowship.

Residence in Mediterranean (e.g., Athens or Rome)

Semester 9 (Semester 13)

Meeting with Dissertation Supervision Committee

Course 1: Dissertation research (Classics 298) (1-8 units)

Semester 10 (Semester 14)

Course 1: Dissertation research (Classics 298) (1-8 units)

Submission to Dissertation Supervision Committee of draft of dissertation

Revision of draft of dissertation and submission to Dissertation Supervision Committee of completed dissertation

Receipt of PhD