The Departments of Classics and Theology at the University of Notre Dame offer a 2-year funded MAs in Early Christian Studies. The program is rather small (we typically accept 2 or 3 applicants per year); we work very close with our students and have a stellar record for placing them in top PhD programs (e.g. some alumni are currently pursuing a doctorate at Oxford, Princeton, Yale and Columbia).
Application deadline February 1.
The M.A. degree in Early Christian Studies (ECS) is a two-year interdisciplinary program offered jointly by the Departments of Classics and Theology (which is ranked number one in the States), with the participation of faculty in several other departments. The program is designed to prepare beginning graduate students for the advanced study of early Christianity and late antiquity in various disciplines and areas of interest. The program is multidisciplinary in its course offerings but interdisciplinary in its basic orientation. It provides training in philology, theology, history, liturgy, art history and philosophy. In addition, students pursue advanced studies in at least two ancient languages relevant for early Christianity (typically, Latin and/or Greek and/or Syriac and/or Hebrew and/or Arabic). Each student develops a curriculum to meet individual needs in consultation with the director of the ECS program and other faculty advisers.
Over a dozen regular and concurrent faculty of the Department of Classics offer specialties in a wide range of fields covering Greek and Latin literature, Greek and Roman culture and history,
linguistics, archaeology, and material culture from Archaic Greece through Late Antiquity, as well as the reception of antiquity in various forms.
Our students benefit from the rich and round intellectual environment created by strong graduate programs at Notre Dame, such as the M.A. in Classics, the Ph.D. in the Medieval Institute, the Ph.D. in Philosophy (which offers ancient philosophy), the Ph.D. in Political Science (with expertise in ancient political theory), and the M.T.S. and Ph.D. in Theology (with strengths in late antiquity and patristics). There is also a recently-established group for Byzantine Studies.
Typically, ECS students organize a Conference on Early Christian Studies every other year,
For inquiries, please contact Prof. Hildegund Müller, hmuller@nd.edu ,
Director of Graduate Studies.