Department of Mediterranean Studies
The Department of Mediterranean Studies (DMS) was founded in 1997 and began functioning in the academic year 1999-2000. It is part of the School of Humanities of the University of the Aegean.
Welcome to the School of Humanities
(a two-minutes spot on the School of Humanities)
The mission of the DMS, is to develop and promote the knowledge about the language, ancient and modern history, ancient civilization, economic and political structures of the Mediterranean countries, with particular emphasis on the south and south-eastern part of the Mediterranean area. In the first two years of study (1st – 4th semester) the courses are common for all students of the DMS and are divided into compulsory and optional ones. The study, teaching and research of these issues, which was attempted for the first time in an academic department of Greece, have given a unique and innovative character to the DMS. In the beginning of the fifth semester of study all students are required to choose one of the following three scientific divisions:
• Archaeology
• Linguistics of the South-Eastern Mediterranean Area
• International Relations and Organizations
The Department has six Laboratories:
• Laboratory of Archaeometry (Government Gazette Issue 177 vol. Α΄, 03.09.1999)
• Laboratory of Mediterranean Politics (Government Gazette Issue 177 vol. Α΄, 02.08.2000)
• Laboratory of Informatics (Government Gazette Issue235 vol. Α΄, 31.10.2000)
• Laboratory of Environmental Archeology (Government Gazette Issue 124 vol. Α΄, 04.06.2002)
• Laboratory of Linguistics (Government Gazette Issue 124 vol. Α’, 04.06.2002)
• Laboratory for the ancient world of the East Mediterranean (Government Gazette Issue 1910 vol. Β’ 8/9/2015)
The DMS conducts innovative research in all the sub-fields it specializes in, so as to offer high-quality studies to its students. Moreover, the studies offered by the DMS have a modern, dynamic and competitive character that provide to its graduates a strong scientific profile as opposed to other specialists (archeologists, linguists, international relations’ scientists) that come from equivalent departments.
In general, the DMS seeks to foster a spirit of modern tendencies and pioneering studies, focusing on training activities and expanding scientific horizons, challenging punditry and searching for empirically tested points of view. In today’s globalized world, the DMS aims at educating scientific personnel that will manage to effectively deal with the rapidly expanding and changing technological environment.
The high demands, as there are nowadays established in the geopolitical and the international economical level, call for interdisciplinary and insightful executives who will contribute to Mediterranean region development, especially in the fields of international economics, politics and diplomacy, languages, literature and the civilization of the South-Eastern Mediterranean region, as well as to the communication among different cultures.
Archaeology Division
The courses focus on the study of the ancient world of the Mediterranean from Prehistoric times until Late Byzantium with special emphasis on the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean during the Bronze Age, the Ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine Periods and the civilizations of ancient Egypt and the Near East. The students thus obtain a general view of the evolution in the culture and history of the peoples of the Eastern Mediterranean through archaeological remains and written sources of the past. The study of the ancient world is formulated by practical lessons, on-the-spot-training and excavations which supplement the theory as well as courses related to sciences which have greatly contributed to archaeology like Archaeometry and Environmental Archaeology.
The division of Archaeology runs three post-graduate programmes of studies:
• Archaeology of the East Mediterranean from the Prehistoric period to Late Antiquity: Greece, Egypt, Near East
• Applied Archaeological Sciences
• Theater as a social and political institution in the Mediterranean during antiquity.
Also runs the University of the Aegean Archaeological Research (excavation) at Kymissala, Rhodes.