RESEARCH AT FSU
FSU Classics is at the forefront of research in Classical Studies. Its faculty lead a variety of research projects in all three fields of Classical Studies (Classical Philology, Ancient History, and Classical Archaeology), and its faculty have been awarded numerous fellowships with nationally and internationally recognized research organizations (including the Humboldt Foundation, American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, Center for Hellenic Studies, Loeb Library). Faculty research has been supported through major grants, including from the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Research in all areas of ancient Mediterranean culture and literature at FSU is interdisciplinary in nature—spanning the philological, theoretical, material, historical, and digital. Research conducted by faculty typically involves FSU students, and its faculty invest in developing FSU graduate students as junior researchers, with its students regularly presenting papers at professional conferences and developing publications.
FSU Classics boasts particular strengths in the field of Classical Archaeology. The Classical Archaeology faculty direct several major fieldwork projects located across the Mediterranean world. These projects involve not only the excavations of major sites (Cosa, Corinth, Cetamura del Chianti), but also regional landscape projects (Landscape Archaeology of Southwest Sardinia Project, Saronic Harbors Archaeological Research Project).
Archaeological Research
The Classics Department at Florida State supports an impressive range of cutting edge archaeological research on the greater ancient Mediterranean world, from the Neolithic to Late Antiquity. Faculty have published on the archaeology of Italy, Greece, Britain, France, Anatolia, the Near East, and the Black Sea regions. Faculty research reflects the full spectrum of current theoretical perspectives in the field of Mediterranean archaeology—from the humanist traditions of art history to anthropological perspectives on society and culture. This research is conducted on a range of archaeological remains (everyday material culture, the visual arts, and architecture) and therefore employs a range of methodological techniques (artifact studies, archaeometry, GIS, and architectural survey). The archaeology faculty also support active work in Digital Humanities, as well as research and training in Cultural Heritage Management and Museum Studies, with student internships such as the Bucher-Loewenstein Museum Internship. The department boasts strengths in research topics, including crafts production, economy, urbanism, rural landscapes, ritual and cult, and ancient imperialism.
The department supports several archaeological fieldwork projects directed by FSU faculty. These projects involve not only the excavations of major ancient sites (Cosa, Corinth, Cetamura del Chianti), but also regional landscape projects (Landscape Archaeology of Southwest Sardinia Project, Saronic Harbors Archaeological Research Project). The research conducted on these fieldwork projects has trained generations of archaeology students and helped to develop student research projects at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.
Florida State University is home to a large community of archaeologists, digital humanists, and art historians, and the Classics Archaeology faculty often work collaboratively with these colleagues in other departments and colleges through fieldwork and co-developed student projects.
Ancient Literature Research
FSU Classics offers full coverage of Greek and Latin literature of all periods (Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, Republican, and Imperial) and in all major genres (epic, lyric, drama, oratory, history, biography, and philosophy). Areas of strengths include Greek and Latin poetry (Francis Cairns, Virginia Lewis, Christopher Nappa, Tim Stover); Greek and Latin Drama (Virginia Lewis, Tim Stover); Attic Oratory (Jim Sickinger); Early Latin Literature (Jessica Clark), Ancient History (Jessica Clark, Trevor Luke, Jim Sickinger); Latin Biography and Historiography (Jessica Clark, Trevor Luke), Ancient Philosophy (Svetla Slaveva-Griffin). Complementary areas of expertise include Gender Studies (Virginia Lewis, Christopher Nappa), Greek Epigraphy (Jim Sickinger), Military History (Jessica Clark), Intertextuality (Christopher Nappa, Tim Stover), Medieval and Renaissance Latin (Francis Cairns), Religion (Trevor Luke, Svetla Slaveva-Griffin), Science and Medicine (Svetla Slaveva-Griffin). We have strong interdisciplinary relations with the faculty in the Departments of Religion (Religions of Western Antiquity), English, History, Modern Languages, Philosophy.
The faculty has served as editors of major reference resources: Brill’s Companion to Military Defeat in Ancient Mediterranean Society (Jessica Clark), Brill’s New Jacoby (Jim Sickinger), Oxford Bibliographies Online (Tim Stover), The Routledge Companion to Neoplatonism (Svetla Slaveva-Griffin). FSU Classics is also the home of the prestigious journals Histos (John Marincola) and Papers of the Langford Latin Seminar (Francis Cairns). Our graduate and undergraduate students have received national and university fellowship awards, have been recognized for outstanding conference papers, and have published in peer-reviewed journals in their fields.