As one of the first academic units created with the founding of the University of Wisconsin in 1850, the Department of Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies has enjoyed a long tradition of excellence in philological scholarship, literary criticism, archaeology, and ancient history. At the graduate level, the department offers the Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy in Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies. Students may follow one of two courses of study, Classical Languages and Literatures or Hebrew Bible. The primary goal of the program is to familiarize students with the core linguistic, historical, and philological aspects of Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies. Students also learn to conduct original research in such varied areas as Gender Studies, Literary Theory, Translation Studies, and Classical Reception under the guidance of established scholars in these areas. In addition to specified course work, students participate in directed readings with individual faculty members in their areas of specialization and gain valuable professional experience teaching in courses on the languages, literature, and culture of the ancient world. Additional work may be done in allied fields such as Archaeology, Art History, Linguistics, Comparative Literature, History, Philosophy, and Political Science. Affiliated faculty in many of these fields regularly offer courses to our students, supervise theses and dissertations, and participate in departmental activities.