Study Abroad

Majors or minors can, with the help of the faculty, easily complete their program in the classics at Loyola while studying for a semester or a year abroad. Below are some programs of special interest to classicists. Recently classics majors have studied in Athens, Greece; Rome, Italy; Leuven, Belgium; Newcastle, UK; Auckland, New Zealand; and Melbourne, Australia. Classics students have been very successful in winning grants from the Center for the Humanities for summer study abroad.

• Academic Year Programs (Available one or two semesters)
• Summer Programs
• Scholarships and Grants
• Past Recipients 

Academic Year Programs

American College of Greece in Athens, Greece

American College of Greece is the new program available to Loyola students. About 350 students from more than 50 countries study at ACG each academic year, taking advantage of the College’s location in the epicenter of one of the world’s most historic and beautiful lands, and the global recognition of its degrees. Athens is a unique setting for an American college abroad, affording a backdrop for academic investigation like no other. Here the liberal arts were born, thinkers grappled with the practical and the existential, and for the first time ordinary citizens earned the right to elect their representatives. The International Programs Website has more information on the Athens program.

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Leuven, Belgium

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven is a full Loyola program to which students can take their Loyola financial aid to study for junior year. The University is known especially for its philosophy and theology departments, and students are encouraged to take these requirements there. Its location in Leuven, Belgium allows easy access to classical sites and museums on the continent: indeed, trips to Rome and Paris and Cologne are regular features of the program. Trips to Britain to view the incomparable classics collection at the British Museum in London are also strongly encouraged. One recent Leuven student reports that she saw 14 European capitals in 10 months during her time in Leuven. Courses in classical civilization are available in Leuven and there is the possibility of taking a year of Biblical Greek in Leuven (equivalent to GK 101 and 102). Contact a member of our faculty if you have any questions. The International Programs Website has more information on the Leuven program.

Top of the page

Loyola University Maryland in Rome, Italy

Loyola’s program in Rome is run in conjunction with Catholic University of America. Students live with Italian families and take courses together in English. Courses vary from year to year but typically include courses in the core Humanities. Whenever possible, courses connect to, and take advantage of, the marvelous city of Rome. For example, in the Spring of 2012, the core Theology course focused on the decoration of various churches in Rome and how the decorative cycle reflected changes in the liturgy. Classics students in Rome have the opportunity to take Independent Study courses in Latin and/or Greek and so can keep up with their languages. The International Programs website has more information on the Rome program. 

Top of the page  

The University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in Newcastle, UK 

The University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne is a full Loyola program to which students can take their Loyola financial aid to study for junior year. The University offers a full range of courses in its classics department and department of archaeology and is an excellent choice for classics majors, especially those interested in material culture. The program offers many opportunities for fieldwork. Furthermore, Newcastle is close to Hadrian's Wall which also offers archaeological opportunities. In addition, its location allows easy access to other classical sites in Britain and the incomparable classical collections of the British Museum in London as well as the possibility of traveling to sites and museums on the continent. The International Programs website has more information on the program in Leuven.

Top of the page

Non-Loyola Programs

The Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome in Rome, Italy

The Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome is the premier undergraduate program for classical studies abroad. The "Centro" offers a semester or year long program in Rome that includes courses in Greek, Latin and the Art, Archaeology, and History of Rome. Courses in Renaissance/Baroque Art and in Italian are also available. Students divide their time between classroom work and field trips to the major monuments of Rome, where they often get to go "behind the fence" to see excavations or museum displays inaccessible to mere tourists. The program also includes guided trips to the sites of Paestum, Pompeii and Sicily.

Students at the Centro live together in a 4-story building on the Janiculum hill across the Tibur (and only a 10-minute bus ride) from downtown Rome.

Loyola is a member institution of the Consortium of Colleges and Universities that runs the centro. As such, our students have a priority on admission to the program. The Centro is not a Loyola program and so Loyola students can not take their Loyola financial aid to it, but there is financial aid available from the Centro, which our students have been successful in obtaining, and Loyola students can attend and retain their housing eligibility.

Professor Taylor is a "Centrista," having spent the Spring of her Junior year at the Centro, and Professor McCreight served on the faculty during the academic year 2002-03. Loyola became a member of the managing committee of the Centro in 2001-2, and sent its first student to the Centro in the Spring of 2002. Most recently, Gavin Blasdel attended the Centro on the Gallassi-Beria scholarship in Fall 2010.

Top of the page

College Year in Athens in Athens, Greece

College Year in Athens offers a semester or year long study program based in Athens, Greece. There are two tracks of study, Ancient Greek Civilization and East Mediterranean Area Studies, each of which can be taken at three different levels, depending on preparation. The courses involve the disciplines of Classical Languages as well as Art History, History, Philosophy, Literature, Political Science, etc. Students need not be classics majors to attend. Students live in furnished apartments in the attractive Kolonaki area of Athens, and have the incomparable sites of Athens and Greece as their classroom.

College Year in Athens is not a Loyola program, so students cannot take their financial aid to the program, but some financial aid is available. In addition, students wishing to study at CYA will have to petition the study abroad department for its approval. Students interested in CYA should contact a classics faculty member for advice and help with the petition process. The petition process is worthwhile: in the Fall of 2005 the first student from Loyola will be enrolled in the program.

College Year in Athens also offers several different eight-week long summer sessions on various topics that change from year to year. In summer 2013 topics include Modern Greek (both in Athens and on the island of Paros), "The Archaeology of Greece: From Palace to City-State," "Discover a Greek Polis: Ancient Athens on Site," "Excavating in the Aegean: The Case of Despotiko, Paros," and "Life, Art and Society in Bronze Age and Classical Thera."

Top of the page

Summer Programs

The American School of Classical Studies in Athens

The American School of Classical Studies in Athens offers two summer-sessions each summer of approximately six weeks duration. The programs offer an intense introduction to the topography and monuments of Ancient, Byzantine and Modern Greece. From a base in Athens, students travel to most of the major sites and give two oral reports on topics assigned by the director. There are three extended trips outside of Athens. These generally include six days on Crete, 10 days in the Peloponnese and a week in Northern Greece, and normally cover ca. sixty sites and museums, including Knossos, Phaistos, Corinth, Isthmia, Nemea, Mycenae, Tiryns, Epidauros, Sparta, Mystra, Pylos, Bassai, Olympia, Thebes, Delphi, Thermopylae, Dimini and Sesklo, Vergina, Pella, and Olynthus. A limited number of scholarships are available from the School itself, and from other organizations. Eta Sigma Phi, the National Classics Honors Society awards scholarships for the American School's program available to Seniors for the summer after graduation and for several subsequent years. See also the Eta Sigma Phi Scholarship student’s account of his 2012 trip.

Top of the page

The American Academy in Rome

The American Academy in Rome offers a Classical Summer School, provides participants with a well-rounded introduction to the city of Rome and its environs. The Summer School involves daily visits to sites and museums in Rome as well as field trips to important sites nearby Rome such as the Etruscan sites of Cervetri and Tarquinia, Roman Palestrina, etc. Students at the Academy often have a chance to experience the ancient sites in way unavailable to tourists. When Dr. Taylor's husband was on the Academy summer session, students were encouraged to climb the outside of the dome of the Pantheon and peer inside the building through the oculus!

A limited number of scholarships to the Academy's programs are available from various Classical associations. Eta Sigma Phi, the National Classics Honors Society awards a scholarship to the Academy's program available to Seniors for the summer after graduation and for several subsequent years. 

Top of the page

The Vergilian Society at Cumae, Italy

The Virgilian Society, based in Cumae, just north of Naples, the site of one of the earliest Greek colonies in Italy offers various summer programs each year on a variety of topics both in Italy and elsewhere. In the summer of 2013, programs include "Gods, Myths and Sanctuaries of Asia Minor (Turkey)," "From Neapolis to Agragapolis: The Greco-Roman Bay of Naples," "Vergil the Poet and Medieval Wizard: Literary Magic."

A limited number of scholarships are available through the society for their programs. Eta Sigma Phi, the National Classics Honors Society also awards a Theodore Bedrick scholarship to the society’s programs. See the Eta Sigma Phi Scholarship student’s account of his 2012 trip.

Top of the page

College Year in Athens

College Year in Athens offers a semester or year long study program based in Athens, Greece. There are two tracks of study, Ancient Greek Civilization and East Mediterranean Area Studies, each of which can be taken at three different levels, depending on preparation. The courses involve the disciplines of Classical Languages as well as Art History, History, Philosophy, Literature, Political Science, etc. Students need not be classics majors to attend. Students live in furnished apartments in the attractive Kolonaki area of Athens, and have the incomparable sites of Athens and Greece as their classroom.

College Year in Athens is not a Loyola program, so students cannot take their financial aid to the program, but some financial aid is available. In addition, students wishing to study at CYA will have to petition the study abroad department for its approval. Students interested in CYA should contact a classics faculty member for advice and help with the petition process. The petition process is worthwhile: in the Fall of 2005 the first student from Loyola will be enrolled in the program.

College Year in Athens also offers several different eight-week long summer sessions on various topics that change from year to year. In summer 2013 topics include Modern Greek (both in Athens and on the island of Paros), "The Archaeology of Greece: From Palace to City-State," "Discover a Greek Polis: Ancient Athens on Site," "Excavating in the Aegean: The Case of Despotiko, Paros," and "Life, Art and Society in Bronze Age and Classical Thera."

Top of the page

Scholarships and Grants

Each year, the National Office of Eta Sigma Phi, the National Classics Honor Society, offers one scholarship to an Eta Sigma Phi member for the American Academy summer program, one scholarship for the summer program of the American School in Athens, and one scholarship for a summer program of the Vergilian Society. The scholarships to the Academy and the American School are available to students in the summer after graduation and for several subsequent summers. The scholarship to the Vergilian Society, however, is designed primarily for rising Juniors or Seniors.

Two types of summer grants are also available from the Loyola Center for the Humanities which can be used for summer study abroad.  The first, Stipends for Summer Study, offer students $5000 to allow them to participate in a summer study program. The criteria for the programs are very flexible and almost any course or program abroad devoted in some way to the study of the ancient world would qualify. Courses and programs can be found both at institutions specializing the in ancient world (that is, the American Academy in Rome, the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, College Year in Athens, the Vergilian Society, but courses can also be found at many foreign institutions. We have had a student take a summer course at the University of Thessaloniki in Greece, for example. Loyola students have taken summer courses at Bogazici University in Istanbul. Furthermore, there are many Classics summer study abroad programs. Harvard, for example, regularly runs a classics summer program in Olympia, Greece. Let your imagination take hold! The deadline for proposals is the last working day of March. Click here for a list of past winners for stipends for summer study and their travels.

The second, Student Summer Fellowships, grant students $4000 to allow them to work on a research project during the summer under the direction of a faculty mentor.  Such projects can be carried out abroad, and classics students have used these fellowships to attend summer programs abroad. A Classics graduate, for example, used two consecutive Student Summer Fellowships to support her research proposals on Greek Art and Archaeology at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. It should be possible, given a sufficiently compelling proposal, for a student to use a Student Summer Fellowship to support independent research in Rome, for example, while attending the American Academy Summer Program, or in Athens, while attending the summer program of the American School of Classical Studies (link to summer program). To date, all students from the Classics department that have submitted proposals to the Center for the Humanities have received Student Summer Fellowships. If you are interested in working with a faculty member on a summer project, run, don't walk, to your professor, and Let's Talk!!! The deadline for fellowship proposals is the last working day of February. Click here for a list of past winners of summer study fellowships and their projects.

Top of the page