The Department of Classics at the University of Reading announced that the Postgraduate Latin Summer School will run again in 2015.  This is an intensive five-week course in Latin, usually offered at both beginners and intermediate levels.  It is aimed at final year undergraduates or those who have already graduated, and it is ideal for those who wish to develop Latin in order to teach or research.

This year’s Summer School will take place on 6 July 2015-7 August 2015.

The announcement reads:

This Summer School is open to students who have graduated or are in their final year of a BA. This is an ideal course for those planning to do postgraduate work or to pursue a career in Classics teaching.

Contents

The Summer School will begin with a welcome lunch at 12 noon on 6 July 2015. On each week day after, there will be four hours of classes – two in the morning and two in the afternoon.  Students are expected to put in around four hours of private study each day.

We expect to run two groups, beginners and intermediate, but this will depend partly on demand.

Special Seminars

On Wednesday afternoons there will be a special seminar led by a member of academic staff in the Classics Department at Reading. These seminars take place in the Ure Museum in the Classics Department.

Staff

The Summer School will be taught by Dr Luke Houghton

Cost

The price of the course is £500; we have kept costs down for five years running because we are committed to making this Summer School accessible to those who need it. The cost includes the five-week course, but excludes accommodation, travel, meals, and course books. If you would like to be considered for a part-bursary, please indicate so in your application to the Summer School.

Accommodation

Self-catering accommodation a few minutes’ walk from the campus will be available. Accommodation fees per week will range from £110 to £160. To discuss accommodation options, please contact Stay@Reading, http://www.reading.ac.uk/stay.

Refreshments

Lunch and dinner are not provided as part of the summer school, but there are plenty of cafes on campus, or you can bring sandwiches. Tea and coffee making facilities will be available in the Classics Department.

Facilities

The Summer School will be based in room G40 in the HumSS building (building 1 on the campus map: http://www.reading.ac.uk/web/FILES/UORMap_Whiteknightscampus_BW_01.11.pdf.

Students attending the Summer School will have access to the resources room in the Classics Department, room G40, as well as to the Ure Museum in the Department. They will also be able to access the university library throughout their time in Reading. They will also be able to enjoy the friendly, green campus of the University, including the state-of-the-art SportsPark.

Student Comments from past years

I can quickly and, with a high level of accuracy, decipher the meanings of any intermediate level Latin text, thanks to the constant exercises and tools provided by our lecturer. Moreover, if helped by dictionaries and grammar, I can say that I could face almost any Latin text, even the originals. Thanks to this course, Latin is no longer an obscure setting to me, and I expect these new skills will be of great help for my future research, as well as a source of creativity for the analytic approach I intend to give to my future work on contrastive linguistics.

The course not only offered teaching, but also a variety of other activities. We attended two very interesting talks (one on Roman Britain and the other on language learning in the Ancient world), both presented by members of Reading’s Classics staff. We also visited the archaeological excavation at Roman Silchester and were given a very interesting tour of the Ure Archaeological Museum. These events helped put Latin into context.

‘I have a much firmer grasp of grammar and sentence structure. More importantly, I have a greater confidence in my own ability and a greater readiness to fight through whatever text I need to read.

I believe that as a group we made an enormous progress in our Latin knowledge this summer … I managed not only to improve my way of teaching Latin but also to communicate with different people, exchange ideas and make some precious friends!

I am now also able to research and write an article for publication on the uses of Latin words in a glossary, something I could not have done before attending this Latin summer school. Overall, it has enabled me to progress in my academic career, at a time when I need it most.

To  apply for the School please contact Professor Barbara Goff: [email protected]. Please send Prof. Goff an email in which you give your contact details, your institutional affiliation if any, your experience with Latin if any, and the name of an academic referee. If you wish to be considered for a part-bursary, please attach a separate letter.

The Summer School is supported by the Institute of Classical Studies, the Classical Association and The Roman Society  We expect to be able to offer part-bursaries.