MA Greek/Social & Public Policy

About this course

Ancient Greek is the language of Homer, Thucydides, Plato, and Aristotle, and its study opens direct access to the foundational texts of Western literature, philosophy, history, and science. The discipline develops extraordinary analytical precision alongside a deep engagement with a civilisation that has shaped European thought in ways that continue to reverberate in politics, ethics, aesthetics, and law. Social and public policy, meanwhile, is a contemporary and empirically grounded field concerned with how governments and public bodies design, implement, and evaluate the policies through which they attempt to address social challenges. Bringing them together creates a combination of remarkable depth: the long historical and philosophical perspective of classical studies alongside the analytical and policy-oriented thinking of the social sciences. At the University of Glasgow, this part-time programme allows you to pursue both disciplines seriously without requiring full-time commitment. You will read Homer and other Greek poets, Athenian tragedies and comedies, orators and historians, and philosophers such as Plato, developing your linguistic competence alongside your literary and cultural understanding. You will also learn about Greek political and social history, philosophy, religion, and art, situating the texts within the society that produced them. In the social and public policy strand, you will examine how contemporary policies are made and evaluated, drawing on sociology, economics, and political science to understand the social forces that shape modern governance. A year abroad is part of the programme, giving you the opportunity to study at a partner institution and to broaden your analytical and cultural perspectives. Graduates of this combination are well suited to careers in public policy, the civil service, law, research, journalism, heritage, and academia. Postgraduate routes include law conversion, public policy, classical studies, or social research.

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