Study Abroad
Classics students at Boston College have the unique opportunity to study abroad in Greece or in Italy through several programs, especially the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome and the College Year in Athens program. In recent years, students have also taken part in archaeological digs during the summer.
Programs
For a full list of study abroad opportunities, visit the Boston College Office of Global Education. Before committing to any program, students should consult with a faculty member about how the program will intersect with the requirements of the major.
Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome (fall or spring semester)
The Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome is sponsored by a consortium of some 90 American universities and is administered by the foreign study office at Duke University. The Centro (as it is called for short) provides a highly focused, one-semester program designed to acquaint students with the city of Rome, while maintaining continuity with the major programs of the students' home universities. Students live and take meals at a common site in the heart of Rome.
The Centro has a limited curriculum, for practical purposes aimed at Classics majors and Art History majors. Its signature double-credit course, entitled "The Ancient City," uses Rome itself as a living laboratory. It is supplemented by field trips to other sites in Italy and Sicily; otherwise, it offers intermediate and advanced courses in Latin and Greek, courses in Italian art, and instruction in Italian.
Admission is competitive (about 35 students are accepted each term). Students need to have some background in ancient history as well as in Latin and Greek language. Boston College has been fortunate to place a number of students in the Centro over the past 10 years. For more information please email Professor Kendra Eshleman.
Segesta, Sicily. Photo credit: Nicole McCutcheon '17 (ICCS)
College Year in Athens (all year)
The College Year in Athens program is available all year. It offers study tracks in Ancient Greek Civilization and in East Mediterranean Studies, as well as instruction in Modern Greek language. Students live in apartments in the Kolonaki section of Athens. One meal a day is served, plus breakfast on field trips. The program "offers its students the opportunity to experience daily life in a European capital city while providing the academic tools that enable them to understand Greece and the world of the Eastern Mediterranean."
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis until the program is filled. About 100 students a year participate. For more information please email Professor Kendra Eshleman.
Jake Froelich '17 on Aegina (College Year in Athens)
The Paideia Institute (summer and winter break)
The Paideia Institute offers the Living Latin in Rome program, an intensive Latin experience in which students read Latin texts linked to an important physical monument or places in the city of Rome, which the program visits on scheduled weekly site visits; there is also a winter break program that reads Medieval Latin in Paris.
Paideia Living Latin tour at the Pantheon. Photo credit: Logan Wren '15, MA '18
American School of Classical Studies in Athens (summer)
The summer session at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens is an intensive 6-week Summer Session limited to 20 participants. It's based at the ASCSA campus in central Athens, but "travels throughout Greece, from the Peloponnesus in the south to Thessaloniki in the north, and even the island of Crete. The itinerary includes not only well-known archaeological sites and museums but also amazing places off the beaten track."
Danielle Gaudet '18 on the Acropolis in Athens (ASCSA Summer Program)