Classics Information | Classics Programs | Classics Courses
Classics
College of Liberal Arts
Department Chair
Peter Lowentrout
Department Office
McIntosh Humanities Building (MHB), Room 517
Telephone / Fax
(562) 985-4239 / (562) 985-4863
Website
www.csulb.edu/depts/complit/
Professors
Conrad Barrett, Douglas Domingo-ForastŽ
Associate Professors
Kathryn Chew, Paul Scotton
Administrative Support Coordinator
Lisa Behrendt
Students desiring information should contact the department office for an appointment with the advisor.
Classics includes the study of the languages, the literatures and the civilizations of the ancient Greeks and Romans and the peoples with whom they had contact. Classics offers the Bachelor of Arts in Classics and minors in Classical Studies, Latin, and Greek. Within the Classics major two options are offered, Roman Civilization and Greek Civilization.
Classics, along with rhetoric, made up undergraduate education in Europe and the Americas from the Renaissance to the late nineteenth century. Today classical studies remains a practical liberal arts major for developing critical thinking skills, for understanding the core of Western civilization, for developing facility with English, and for cultivating aesthetic and moral sensitivity. Classics majors are often successful in law, government service, business, secondary and elementary education, library science and medicine. Students interested in graduate school in either Classics or Classical Archaeology should consult with the departmental advisor as early as possible in their academic careers.
The department recommends that some time be spent in either Italy or Greece on one of the many programs designed to familiarize students with the physical remains of these civilizations (College Year at Athens, the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, the Aegean Institute, the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome, etc.). Courses at one of these institutions may be substituted for CSULB courses with departmental approval.