The Graduate Certificate in Latin Studies, known as the Institute for Latin Studies, is a series of graduate courses focusing on Latin literature and language designed to provide anyone with a special interest in Latin with a thorough command of the Latin language in reading, writing and speaking, along with a wide exposure to the cultural riches of the Latin tradition in its totality. The core of the Institute consists of a minimum of three graduate courses in which Latin exclusively is the language of all teaching and instruction, all class activities, and all assignments, both written and oral. Those enrolled in the curriculum not only complete these Latin courses, but also take part in Latin-only activities not connected with official academic courses. These events include lunches and conversational workshops held several times a week. During the summers, Institute students have an excellent opportunity to take part in the 'conventicula Latina,' the well-known summer immersion workshops in spoken Latin held on the campus of UK. The Institute is founded on the conviction that maintaining an active dimension, namely speaking or written composition, or both, if one can manage it, should ideally be an accompaniment to one’s reading of Latin and cultivation of Latin for life. As far as the directors of the Institute are concerned, this is not merely a matter of pedagogy: it is a matter of forming and maintaining a close relationship with the Latin language. Helping our students to develop this relationship is our preoccupation in the Institute, and in our summer seminars.

Moreover the curriculum of the Institute for Latin Studies is composed of courses that feature the Latin literature of many different periods. Students in the Institute not only give close attention to Roman classical texts, but also study selected masterpieces of medieval, renaissance and modern Latin. The Institute’s curriculum presents Latin writings as the central literary tradition that molded the shape of western European culture (and its offshoots) for about two millennia, and the common link between many humanities disciplines. It highlights Latin as a multi-cultural and an interdisciplinary tradition.

A candidate who successfully completes 9 credit hours of Institute course work may earn a Graduate Certificate in Latin Studies.