Soon after the founding of the University of Wisconsin in 1848, the department was created as one of the first academic units at the university. The Department of Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies (CANES) 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 - Classics.<br><br>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.