Classics/Film & Television Studies

Classics and film and television studies is an unusual pairing that explores two of the most powerful narrative traditions in human culture. Classics involves the study of the literature, history, art, and material culture of ancient Greece and Rome, civilisations whose stories, myths, and dramatic forms have been retold, reimagined, and transformed across two thousand years of cultural history, including through cinema and television. Film and television studies examines the moving image as art, industry, and cultural force, asking how films and television programmes produce meaning and why they hold such power over their audiences.

At the University of Glasgow, this four-year, full-time programme develops your engagement with both disciplines in depth. You will read ancient texts in translation, with the opportunity to study Latin and Greek if you wish, and engage with the history, art, and culture of the ancient world alongside the study of film and television history, theory, and form. The connections between the ancient world and modern film are rich: from epic narratives, tragedy, and comedy to the images and characters of classical mythology that continue to appear in contemporary cinema.

A year abroad is available, giving you the opportunity to study in another country and to encounter both disciplines from a different perspective.

Graduates go on to careers in education, film and television production, screenwriting, criticism, broadcasting, cultural journalism, heritage, and the arts sector. The combination of classical knowledge and film literacy is particularly distinctive in roles that engage with cultural production, storytelling, and the transmission of ideas across time. Many graduates continue to postgraduate study in classics, film studies, or related fields, and some pursue academic careers in disciplines that sit at the intersection of ancient and modern culture.