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Classical & Archaeological Studies at Kent examines the textual and material evidence for a wide cross-section of the ancient world and includes three convergent research and teaching pathways: ancient history, classical literature, and archaeology.
A PhD in Classical & Archaeological Studies enables you to undertake a substantial piece of supervised research in the subject that makes an original contribution to knowledge and is worthy of publication.
A PhD, also known as a doctorate, is a requirement for a career as an academic or researcher. In addition, it has become a qualification valued by many employers who recognise the skills and commitment a PhD requires. Employers also recognise that a PhD indicates excellent research capabilities, discipline and communication skills.
Over the duration of the PhD, you produce an original piece of research of up to 100,000 words. Previous doctoral theses have included ‘Virgo to Virago: Medea in the Silver Age’, ‘Aristophanes and Euripides: A Palimpsestuous Relationship’, ‘Aspects of Ecphrastic Technique in Ovid's Metamorphoses’, ‘In Search of "The People of La Manche": A Comparative Study of Funerary Practices in the Transmanche Region during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age (2500 BC-1500 BC)’.
The Department of Classical & Archaeological Studies offers supervision from world-class academics with expertise in a wide range of disciplines, able to support and guide you through your research. Your progress is carefully monitored to ensure that you are on track to produce a thesis valued by the academic community. Throughout your programme, you are able to attend and contribute to research seminars, workshops, and research and transferable skills training courses.
You may be eligible for a fully-funded PhD scholarship to support your studies with us. The PhD in Classical and Archaeological Studies at Kent can be funded through the Consortium for the Humanities and the Arts South-East England (CHASE) collaborative doctoral partnerships. Please indicate in your application if you want to be considered , and explain your eligibility. For the full list of scholarships available within the School, please see our postgraduate funding page.
Classical & Archaeological Studies operates as a department of the Division of Arts and Humanities, in addition to the informal links with staff in the rest of the University researching medieval history, the history of science, and social anthropology. We have good partnerships with high-profile universities and organisations such as the Universities of Ghent and Lille 3, the Flemish Heritage Institute, UCLA, the Free University of Amsterdam and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).
We offer bursaries to enable students to participate in departmental fieldwork projects for three weeks at a time, covering travel, food and accommodation. Typically, around 30 students each year have been placed on research and training excavations in Britain, Italy (including Ostia, port of Rome) and Greece, relating to sites of Bronze Age Greek (Minoan), Iron Age, Roman, Late Antique and Anglo-Saxon date.
A first or upper-second class BA honours degree or equivalent in a relevant subject, and 65% (or equivalent) or above in an MA programme or equivalent in a relevant subject.
All applicants are considered on an individual basis and additional qualifications, professional qualifications and relevant experience may also be taken into account when considering applications.
Please see our International Student website for entry requirements by country and other relevant information. Due to visa restrictions, students who require a student visa to study cannot study part-time unless undertaking a distance or blended-learning programme with no on-campus provision.
The University requires all non-native speakers of English to reach a minimum standard of proficiency in written and spoken English before beginning a postgraduate degree. Certain subjects require a higher level.
For detailed information see our English language requirements web pages.
Please note that if you are required to meet an English language condition, we offer a number of pre-sessional courses in English for Academic Purposes through Kent International Pathways.
Duration: 3 to 4 years full-time, 5 to 6 years part-time
Assessment is through a combination of assignments, coursework and examinations.
The 2023/24 annual tuition fees for this course are:
For details of when and how to pay fees and charges, please see our Student Finance Guide.
For students continuing on this programme fees will increase year on year by no more than RPI + 3% in each academic year of study except where regulated.* If you are uncertain about your fee status please contact information@kent.ac.uk.
The University will assess your fee status as part of the application process. If you are uncertain about your fee status you may wish to seek advice from UKCISA before applying.
Find out more about general additional costs that you may pay when studying at Kent.
Search our scholarships finder for possible funding opportunities. You may find it helpful to look at both:
We have a range of subject-specific awards and scholarships for academic, sporting and musical achievement.
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In the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021, 100% of our Classics research was classified as ‘world-leading’ for impact. In addition, 85% of our research and over 80% of our research publications were classified as 'world leading' or 'internationally excellent'.
Following the REF 2021, Classics at Kent was ranked 6th in the UK in the Times Higher Education.
The Department of CLAS is a lively intellectual community that prizes collaboration and thrives on interdisciplinarity. Our main areas of research are the following.
Our specialists cover a vast swathe of the ancient world, from the Eastern Mediterranean to Italy to North Western Europe and the British Isles, and from prehistory to the early Middle Ages. Colleagues have worked extensively on landscapes and urbanism, religious sites, archeoastronomy, ceramics, artefacts and objects, and the archaeology of gender. We are active in fieldwork, work closely with museums, and are a major voice in international debates about cultural heritage preservation. Our research is supported by a specialised archaeology technician.
The department has extensive expertise on the languages, literature, and cultural history of the Greek and Roman worlds in a wide sense, ranging in time from Ancient Greece and Rome all the way up to the Byzantine Middle Ages. Research within the department has focused in particular on classical Greek drama, performance studies, mythology, ancient philosophy and science, Latin poetry, historiography, gender studies, early Christian literature, and the reception of Antiquity in later periods. We also have experts on palaeography, textual transmission, and fragmentary texts.
Ancient History at Kent is much more than Greece and Rome alone. Spanning from the Bronze Age to the Arab Conquest, our research covers the entire Ancient Mediterranean world, including Egypt and North Africa, the Phoenician / Punic world, Greece and Rome, the migrant groups of Late Antiquity (such as the Visigoths), and Byzantium. Our specialists have made important contributions to the understanding of social life in Late Pharaonic, Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Egypt; the politics of the Roman Republic; law and legal culture of the Roman Empire and its successors; Greek and Roman historiography; women and children in the ancient world; ancient religious practice; and ancient education. The department houses experts in numismatics, epigraphy, papyrology, and manuscript studies.
Kent’s world-class academics provide research students with excellent supervision. The academic staff in this school and their research interests are shown below. You are strongly encouraged to contact the school to discuss your proposed research and potential supervision prior to making an application. Please note, it is possible for students to be supervised by a member of academic staff from any of Kent’s schools, providing their expertise matches your research interests. Use our ‘find a supervisor’ search to search by staff member or keyword.
Full details of staff research interests can be found on the School's website.
Recent graduates have progressed to careers in a wide range of related professional and leadership areas, including national and local museums, teaching and senior roles with archaeological organisations (national government institutions, contracting units and trusts).
You undertake supervised research within the Department of Classical and Archaeological Studies, specialising in one of the topic(s) listed under research areas.
Each research student is assigned two internal supervisors who arrange the programme of study and research to suit individual interests. Staff have received research finance from sources including the British Academy, Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Leverhulme Trust, English Heritage, European Union funds and University sources. In the last couple of years, we have been awarded INSTAP funding totalling $30,000 and grants from the Mediterranean Archaeology Trust, UCLA and the Cotsen Foundation for Academic Research (€300,000).
The School has extensive literary holdings and many other facilities to support active research, and the Templeman Library also has excellent holdings in all our areas of research interest. This includes an extensive range of English and international periodicals, as well as specialist collections (the library of A S L Farquharson, specialising in the age of Marcus Aurelius, and generous donations from the libraries of Victor Ehrenberg in ancient social history, Anthony Snodgrass, Richard Reece and Jill Braithwaite in archaeology). We have access to Canterbury Cathedral Library, and to archaeological libraries and collections in Kent, such as the major collection of the Kent Archaeological Society, and first-rate connections with London and continental Europe. Kent is now the home of the Colin Renfrew Archive, a major resource for research on the history of archaeology, archaeological theory, prehistoric Orkney and the Aegean Bronze Age.
The Department has its own specialist technician, Lloyd Bosworth, who is widely experienced and skilled in landscape archaeology, geographic information systems (GIS), digital imaging and laser scanning, as well as geophysical surveying. He offers advice and training in the use of the archaeological equipment and has worked in Belgium, Ostia, Rome and Crete.
The University has recently invested in a range of new archaeological equipment including a Romer laser scanner, portable XRF machinery, resistivity and magnetometer survey machines, GPS and a photographic lab.
The University of Kent’s location is highly convenient for students who need to visit not only the British Library and other specialist libraries in London, but also the major libraries and research centres within Europe.
All postgraduate students in the the Division of Arts and Humanities have the opportunity to undertake both subject-specific training and training provided by the Graduate School. The School provides training workshops for all postgraduate students with teaching responsibilities, bringing together students from all its subject areas. Training courses are also offered by the Library and Computing Services, and by the Unit for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (UELT).
Individual training is offered in accordance with a student’s needs. We offer training in Greek and Latin languages at the appropriate level; and specialist skills training in epigraphy, papyrology, palaeography and Egyptology, artefact studies and fieldwork methods. Postgraduates have also gained experience by mounting their own independent seminar programme to discuss work in progress (in addition to taking part in staff/postgraduate research seminars).
Staff publish regularly and widely in journals, conference proceedings and books. Among others, they have recently contributed to: Acta Antiqua; European Journal of Archaeology; Latomus; Hermes; Les Études Classiques; Aegyptus; Annual Review of the British School at Rome; and American Journal of Archaeology.
Kent's Graduate School co-ordinates the Researcher Development Programme for research students, which includes workshops focused on research, specialist and transferable skills. The programme is mapped to the national Researcher Development Framework and covers a diverse range of topics, including subject-specific research skills, research management, personal effectiveness, communication skills, networking and teamworking, and career management skills.
Learn more about the application process or begin your application by clicking on a link below.
You will be able to choose your preferred year of entry once you have started your application. You can also save and return to your application at any time.
Postgraduate Office, School of European Culture and Languages
T: +44 (0)1227 827283
T: +44 (0)1227 823254
E: internationalstudent@kent.ac.uk
