The Department is widely known for offering students an academically rigorous program in the primary Classical languages, as well as extensive experience in the teaching of the languages and cultures of Greece and Rome. Our faculty are wide-ranging in their areas of expertise, with particular strengths in the fields of Greek and Roman drama, women and gender studies, late antiquity and the reception of the Classical world. We provide encouragement, guidance and material support for students to pursue original research, attend conferences, deliver papers and prepare their work for publication. Currently, all graduate students in residence are supported financially with tuition waivers and either fellowships or teaching assistantships.

The Resources of the campus include a library of eleven million volumes. The Classics Library, located in the Main Library building, houses one of the three finest collections in the country for the study of the Classical world and provides a convenient, self-contained space for pursuing research and interacting with faculty and students. In addition, museums on campus are the home of one of the most important collections of South Italian pottery in North America, a large collection of Greek and Roman coins, and thousands of artifacts from the ancient Near East, Egypt and the Greco-Roman world.

The Community of Champaign–Urbana is an attractive place to live. Easily accessible to Chicago, St. Louis and Indianapolis, Champaign–Urbana has a cost of living at least 15% below the US average. The area in which the university is located is served by an award-winning mass transit service and features neighborhoods that have received national recognition from organizations such as the American Planning Association and the National Arbor Day Foundation. Champaign–Urbana is the host to a number of regular art, music and film festivals, and the cultural life of the community is enriched by the presence on campus of the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, one of the finest performing arts centers in the country.