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Department of Classical and Oriental Studies

Hunter College of the City University of New York

Hunter College is the hub of language studies in the CUNY system. More languages are taught here at Hunter and more students study languages at Hunter than on any other CUNY campus. Hunter's historic support of the study of foreign languages and literatures has produced not only the strongest programs in CUNY in both the traditional and less commonly taught languages, but a heightened visibility for Hunter both inside the university and in the larger academic world.

The Department of Classical and Oriental Studies consists of four programmatically discrete divisions: Classics, Chinese, Hebrew, and Russian. With 17 full-time faculty and approximately 20-25 adjunct faculty, the Department is able to offer eight B.A. programs. Hebrew, Russian, Chinese, and Arabic, as well as Latin, Greek, Latin and Greek, Classical Studies, and Classical Archaeology. In addition, the Department offers a three-year sequence in the Japanese language, and—in joint sponsorship with the Kosciuszko Foundation—a wide range of courses in Polish language, literature and culture. It is possible to do independent studies in Ukranian, and Arabic was added to the curriculum in Fall 2004. The Department participates in several interdepartmental programs, including Religion, Women's Studies, Comparative Literature, Honors, and Jewish Social Studies. On the graduate level, the Classics division offers an M.A. in the Teaching of Latin (M.A. in Adolescence Education Grades 7 - 12).

All the divisions of the Department have as their common goal the teaching of the foreign languages and literatures, traditionally viewed as one of the cornerstones of the liberal arts curriculum. This goal is met in several ways. Each of the languages helps fulfill the 12-credit (normally four-semester) foreign-language requirement. The six-credit requirement in literature may be satisfied in part by a course in literature in the original language or by a course in literature in translation. Undergraduate majors are given a solid grounding in foreign languages and literature study in order to prepare them both for careers in which they will use these skills and for further study on the graduate level. The Department serves the broader Hunter community as well by offering a wide variety of culture courses, ranging from Classical Mythology to Job, Ecclesiastes and the Human Predicament, and from Chinese Culture to Modern Russian Cinema. Each of the individual languages represented (Latin, Greek, Chinese, Hebrew, Russian, Polish, Japanese, Arabic) has been an important part of the curriculum. Because the Department of Classical and Oriental Studies provides such diversity and choice among several important languages and language families, we have 100 majors and some 2000 students enroll every semester in our seventy or more courses.

Department Chair: Tamara M. Green 

E-mail: tgreen@hunter.cuny.edu

Department Secretary: Millie Arias

E-mail: millie.arias@hunter.cuny.edu

 

 

Office:  Hunter West Building,  room 1425  Phone: 212-772-4960

DIVISIONS & PROGRAMS

 

 

Arabic Studies

Program Head: Christopher Stone

E-mail: cst@hunter.cuny.edu

Chinese Studies

Division Head: Der-lin Chao 

E-mail: dchao@hunter.cuny.edu

Classical Studies

Division Head: Tamara M. Green 

E-mail: tgreen@hunter.cuny.edu

Hebrew & Hebraic Studies

Division Head: Rivka Friedman

E-mail: rfriedma@hunter.cuny.edu

Japanese Studies

Advisor: Sue Kawashima

E-mail: skawashi@hunter.cuny.edu

Russian & Slavic Studies

Division Head: Alex Alexander 

E-mail: aalexand@hunter.cuny.edu

 

Webmaster:   Mary Anne Cartelli

E-mail: mcartell@hunter.cuny.edu

DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICAL AND ORIENTAL STUDIES
Hunter College of the City University of New York
695 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10065