Graduation Requirements

All University of Michigan students must register for each fall and winter semester from matriculation to degree completion, unless on an approved Leave of Absence or with Extramural Study status. Students who do not register will be presumed to have withdrawn and will be discontinued from the program. Once discontinued, students may reapply to the program by submitting the proper request and supporting documents to the IPAMAA office no later than April 1st. Their reinstatement would begin the following Fall term.

More information is available in the IPAMAA Handbook.

Students are required to demonstrate reading knowledge of two ancient languages (one of which must be ancient Greek or Latin) and two modern languages most relevant to their research (such as German, French, Italian, Turkish, Arabic, modern Greek, or other languages).

Competence in ancient Greek and Latin is determined by three-hour translation examinations in each language. Students will be tested only on passages drawn from the IPAMAA ancient Greek and Latin reading lists. The use of dictionaries is permitted. Students may also opt to fulfill one or both ancient language requirement by coursework: by passing an upper level undergraduate or graduate ancient Greek or Latin reading course (higher than LAT 410 or GREEK 410) with a minimum grade of B or better. The intent of the ancient language requirement is that students reach a professional level of competence enabling them to read, with accuracy, untranslated texts for research purposes.

Competence in modern langauges is determined by two-hour translation examinations in each language. Students will be tested on passages drawn from the scholarly literature on Classical art and archaeology. The use of dictionaries is permitted. Both modern language requirements must be fulfilled by examination. The purpose of the modern language requirement is to ensure that students have full access to scholarship in the other major academic languages besides English.

Examples of recent examinations in all the languages may be requested from the IPAMAA office.

Students are advised to take at least one language course or examination each semester until their language requirements are fulfilled. Students must fufil at least one ancient language requirement and pass a modern language examminaiton before they can be advanced to candidacy.  All remaining language requirements must be met before the end of a student's fifth year.

For full details of these examinations, including the works on the ancient Greek and Latin Reading lists, consult the IPAMAA Handbook.

All IPAMAA students are required to take an ancient history exam at the end of their first year. This exam covers both Greek and Roman history and is administered to all graduate students in both IPAMAA and Classical Studies. The exam lasts 4 hours, and includes both identification and essay sections. All IPAMAA students must pass the ancient history exam before taking their IPAMAA Qualifying Exams at the end of their second year. The reading list and the lists of terms and names on which the identification section of the exam is based is available on the Classics Department website, under the rubric: Ancient History Exam.

The performance of each student who enters the Program is evaluated by the entire Program Committee after three semesters of full-time enrollment. No student may proceed further on work for the Ph.D. without a favorable evaluation. Before evaluation by the Committee takes place, each professor with whom a student has worked is asked to evaluate his or her academic performance and capabilities as a Ph.D. candidate in the professor's field. A grade average of B+ is regarded as a minimum.

More information is available in the IPAMAA Handbook.

Knowledge of Classical Archaeology is tested in two rather different sets of examinations: the Qualifying Exams (normally taken towards the end of the second year) and the Preliminary exams (before the end of the third year). Students need to pass these exams in order to achieve Candidacy and move on to dissertation research.

The Qualifying Exams

The qualifying examinations are designed to test basic knowledge of the major sites, monuments, and scholarly trends in Aegean and Greek Art and Archaeology and Early Italian and Roman Art and Archaeology. The scope of these examinations is very broad, with the intention of guaranteeing that students attain a minimum level of information on which to base serious work at an early point in their graduate careers. Accordingly, students normally take the examinations at the end of their second year. To help prepare, students may enroll in graduate sections of the introductory surveys of Greek Art and Archaeology (CA 221) and Roman Art and Archaeology (CA 222).

The examinations will consist of two parts administered over two or three days: slide and term identification, and essay questions. The examinations are given at the end of the second year on days agreed between the Director and those students taking the exams.  The basic format of the exams is as follows:

Part 1: Slide and term identification (2 hours)

Slide Identification: (60 minutes) Students will be shown 10 slides in each of the three major fields (20 in total). All slides must be identified.

Term identification: (60 minutes) For each of the two major fields, students will be given 15 words or phrases, of which they will be required to identify and comment on 10. The words or phrases may include (but are not limited to) technical terminology and the names of objects, buildings, people, or places.

Part 2: Essay examinations (6 hours)

Part 2 consists of 3-hour exams in both major fields. Each field-exam will be divided into two sections.

Section 1: short essays (2 hours). Students will be asked to answer four essay questions out of a choice of six.

Section 2: long essay (1 hour). Students will be required to answer one question out of a choice of two.

Preparation for the Qualifying examinations:

Students will be provided with two reading lists, one for each of the major fields. These reading lists are meant as study-guides, reflecting to some degree the strengths of the IPAMAA faculty and resources. They are limited to scholarship available in English. For each field, they combine general surveys and handbooks, seminal studies and works by leading scholars, and selected examples of current research. Where appropriate, the reading lists indicate which sections or chapters of longer works are considered most important. Although the reading lists include many major works and themes in the scholarship of the ancient Mediterranean, they are not exhaustive, and exam questions will not usually be based around summarizing any one particular book or article. Rather, the lists are meant to help students begin the process of recognizing gaps in their training so that they can more effectively increase their knowledge in those areas to attain a broad understanding of the field.

In addition, samples of examination questions and slide lists from recent Qualifying Exams are available for inspection on request from the IPAMAA office.

The Preliminary Exams

The final set of exams in the Program consists of two Preliminary Examinations in Classical Art and Archaeology, taken only after all coursework and language requirements have been satisfied and the Qualifying Exams have been passed. The two 3-hour written exams, on topics chosen by the student, are intended to test ability in analyzing and synthesizing specific related bodies of archaeological material and in controlling relevant methodologies and bibliographies in depth.

An important function of these exams is to ease the often difficult transition from organized course work to independent dissertation research; indeed, preparation for them will normally constitute a major step in formulation of ideas for the Dissertation. Accordingly, students are urged to choose Preliminary exam topics in complementary areas and methodologies useful to their own research interests.

For these exams, the student must enlist a chair and form a Prelim committee by the beginning of the term following passage of the Qualifying Examinations.  After consulting with all the members of the committee, the student should then write two proposals  (one for each exam, usually 3-5 pages per proposal in length, not including bibliography) for submission to the committee by the end of the first month of the term (Sept. 30 for fall term, Jan. 31 for winter).  If the Prelim Committee accepts the proposals, they will then be forwarded it to the Executive Committee of IPAMAA for final approval at its next scheduled meeting.  If the Prelim Committee thinks the proposals need revisions, the student should complete these in a timely manner and resubmit to the Prelim Committee.