History department leadership addresses concerns from CLARE students

By Hannah Caparino, April 10 2026—

The Department of History (HTST) will be experiencing multiple changes in the next two to three years as the Department of Classics and Religion (CLARE) will be closing on July 1 2026. Programs within CLARE will be moved into the Department of History, including Greek and Roman Studies (GRST), Ancient and Medieval History (ANME) and Greek and Latin Studies. At a student consultation; CLARE Undergraduate Program Director, James Hume, HTST Department Head, Paul Chastko and HTST Undergraduate Chair, Hendrik Kraay addressed student questions regarding the faculty changes.

Since the announcement that CLARE will be closing in July, the administration team is looking to gather feedback from current students. At the consultation, Kraay, Hume and Chatsko discussed which professors will be working in the HTST department and how HTST will become responsible for the consolidated programs.

“Seven members of the CLARE faculty will be moving to the history department. […] At that point, on the first of July 2026, the Department of History then assumes responsibility for administering the AMNE program, the Greek and Roman Studies and the Greek and Latin courses,” said Kraay.

Following the announcement that seven staff members will be part of the HTST department, Kraay described how CLARE courses will be incorporated into the Department of History. Aside from the integration of these courses, the history department will include courses and staff who specialise in history of other parts of the world.

“There’s a bunch of other changes coming in History, and that’s where we opened this up a little bit,” said Kraay. “We’ve had a lot of changes in personnel in the department. We’ve hired historians of Africa, South Asia [and the] Middle East. There’s other faculty members transferring into history or teaching assignments. […] So we’ll be offering quite a number of new courses in areas that we haven’t actually been offering courses before.”

Due to the upcoming closure, students who are part of the Classics Department are faced with the decision to major in HTST, or major in HTST and declare a concentration in Medieval Studies. The shift into the History department poses a problem for individuals as they may be forced to extend their period of study in order to fulfill the required courses for the History major. While the HTST stream is fairly simple, current students enrolled in CLARE would need to take extra time to accommodate HTST courses into their schedules on top of the classics courses they may need for the concentration.

The concentration in Ancient and Medieval studies is outlined similarly to a minor degree, a student can obtain this through taking a certain amount of courses to achieve this concentration. The required number of courses needed for the minor degree ranges from 10 to 27 courses, with nine or 12 courses at the 400 level and one class at the 500 level. It is unclear at this moment what courses are mandatory to declare the concentration, only the initial plan has been provided. 

With these changes, students who will be continuing their studies into the 2026/2027 term will still have the ability to participate in GRST courses, but fewer AMNE courses. The new changes that Kraay had mentioned, more specifically the increased faculty, introduction of new courses and the concentration in Ancient and Medieval Studies, will be implemented in the 2027/2028 school year, positing two options of study for CLARE students.

“The one option; [you] can complete your existing program, requirements and complete your degree as you originally started it. There will be change into the courses, so some new courses will be countable toward your degree. Other courses may no longer be available. But we will be […] working with you to make sure that all the courses that you can take, that are eligible for the degrees, you could be aware of them and able to take them,” said Kraay. 

Kraay follows up with the second option which can delay a student’s progress.

“But you can choose to change your major, […] or take a history minor and declare if you’re taking the major, then the concentration into medieval studies. And then you would have to complete all the history requirements. So you might not have done some of those, you might have already done them and it would be very seamless. So those are things that each case will be individual, and we can’t really advise you in general, but those are the two choices that you’ll have,” he said.

With the closure of the CLARE department, the admission process for the masters and PhD in classics are unchanged. The application process for these higher level programs is a source of worry for current undergraduate students due to the class changes that will take place when various courses become consolidated within the HTST department. When asked about this, the HTST leadership had assured students that the HTST courses offered in the 2027-2028 year will still be the relevant courses to succeed. In the 2027-2028 year, HTST will be offering classics courses which will be integrated into the HTST program.

The enrollment in the honours program is currently uncertain with the ongoing consolidation, but starting in 2027-2028; students who want to take part in any honours program would have to apply to take part in the history honours stream. 

The future of the HTST is still undergoing a transition period with CLARE’s closure. Information on the upcoming changes can be found on the CLARE website and questions can be addressed by filling out an online form.