Classics at Oxford and Beyond

This week on CourseCast, I sat down with two classicists at very different stages of their academic journeys: Natalia, a PhD student working across ancient and early modern literature, and Ilaria, a first-year undergraduate reading Classics at Oxford. Together, they offer a grounded, honest account of what Classics actually is, how it is studied at Oxford and elsewhere, and why it remains an intellectually serious and surprisingly flexible degree.

The episode moves deliberately between levels of study. By pairing a first-year undergraduate with a doctoral researcher, it becomes possible to see both the immediate realities of tutorials, translations, and collections, and the longer-term questions about research, academia, and life after Classics.

The conversation unfolds in four broad stages:

Throughout, both guests return to a shared theme: Classics is demanding, but it rewards curiosity, patience, and sustained engagement in a way few other subjects do.

Ilaria is a first-year undergraduate Classicist at Worcester College, Oxford. Having studied Latin and Greek through GCSE and A-level, she speaks candidly about the transition to Oxford tutorials, the realities of workload, and the experience of being assessed through collections and language work in the first year.

Natalia is a PhD student whose research explores how a second-century Greek ‘fantasy’ text by Lucian of Samosata is reused and reimagined in early modern European literature. Having studied in Italy before moving through different academic systems, she brings a broader comparative perspective on Classics as a discipline and as a long-term academic path.

One of the central aims of the episode is to challenge the most common misconceptions about Classics. Both guests push back against the idea that the subject is limited to rote grammar learning or culturally irrelevant texts.

Natalia describes Classics as a foundational discipline for the humanities, encompassing language, literature, history, philosophy, medicine, and cultural history. Ilaria builds on this by stressing the field’s openness: new texts are still being discovered, older texts are being retranslated, and familiar authors are constantly reread in the light of new questions about gender, sexuality, power, and reception.

Rather than being static, Classics emerges as an expanding field, one where interpretation is never finished and where even the most canonical texts can yield new meanings.

Ilaria’s account of her first term at Oxford provides a concrete sense of what the degree looks like in practice. Weekly tutorials focus either on essays or translation, supported by lectures and language classes in Latin and Greek. While the grammar itself may be familiar from school, the level of precision and complexity increases quickly, particularly when translating literary texts.

On workload, she offers a refreshingly honest answer. The oft-cited ‘forty-hour week’ is not always the lived reality, especially early on, but the degree does require sustained independent work and careful time management. Treated like a full-time job, the workload is intense but manageable.

Natalia contrasts this with her experience in Italy, where Classics is taught primarily through long lecture courses with heavy reading and high-stakes exams. The absence of tutorials places greater emphasis on independent consolidation, while the sheer volume of material rewards consistency and endurance.

The episode also demystifies academic progression in Classics. Natalia explains that while a Bachelor’s degree opens many doors outside academia, postgraduate study is effectively essential for those who wish to remain in the discipline.

Her PhD research, which traces the afterlife of Lucian’s True History in early modern French and Scandinavian texts, highlights the diversity of approaches available within Classics. Her work sits at the intersection of ancient literature, reception studies, and comparative literary history, illustrating how far the field extends beyond straightforward translation or commentary.

Both guests address persistent stereotypes surrounding Classics: that it is elitist, irrelevant, or professionally useless. Instead, they emphasise its adaptability, the range of transferable skills it develops, and its capacity to evolve alongside modern scholarly concerns.

A particularly timely section of the conversation focuses on artificial intelligence. While AI tools may be permitted for limited tasks such as language correction, both guests are sceptical of its usefulness for genuine research or translation. The consensus is clear: Classics depends on close reading, judgement, and interpretative responsibility, none of which can be outsourced without undermining the discipline itself.

If there is one shared piece of advice, it is this: do not be intimidated. Applying to Oxford, or choosing Classics more generally, should not be treated as a referendum on personal worth. Rejection is often a matter of numbers rather than ability, and there are many excellent routes into the subject.

Equally, students are encouraged not to be put off by negative stereotypes. For those who genuinely enjoy the material, Classics offers intellectual depth, long-term satisfaction, and unexpected opportunities, both within and beyond academia.

This episode of CourseCast offers a clear-eyed, thoughtful introduction to Classics as it is actually studied today, from first-year tutorials to doctoral research. If you are considering Classics at Oxford, or are simply curious about what the subject involves, this conversation is a valuable starting point.

You can watch the full episode on YouTube now. If you enjoyed it, please like, subscribe, and share the podcast with anyone who might find it useful.