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The Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures offers advanced instruction and training in the languages and literatures of the Celtic-speaking peoples and administers programs leading to the PhD in Celtic Languages and Literatures. In this respect, it is unique in the United States.

PhD programs in the Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures can sometimes be specially arranged so as to combine Celtic with other subjects. (See Ad Hoc Degrees.) The Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures cooperates with other departments and committees in providing supplementary instruction for students who wish to work in Celtic as a special field.

Celtic is one subgroup of the Indo-European family of languages. Six Celtic languages have survived into the modern period: Cornish, Manx, Breton, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Welsh. The last four are still spoken. The oldest extant Irish and Welsh texts date from the sixth century, justifying the claim that they represent the oldest non-classical literatures of Europe. Heroic narratives in prose and verse, lyric poetry, tales of the Otherworld, and legendary history are all richly attested in the Celtic literatures. Celtic tradition has influenced both the Latin and the vernacular literatures of medieval Europe, being the source, e.g., of the Arthurian cycle.

The Harvard Celtic Studies program offers instruction in the following: Old, Middle, and Modern Irish; Middle and Modern Welsh; Scottish Gaelic; historical backgrounds of early Irish and Welsh; early, medieval, and modern Irish literature in Irish and in translation; early, medieval, and modern Welsh literature in Welsh and in translation; Irish and Welsh history and law in their social context; Celtic paganism; folklore; reading of Irish manuscripts. Courses in Breton and Cornish may be available from time to time. Consult Courses of Instruction for availability of courses in a given year.

While there is no undergraduate concentration in the department of Celtic Languages and Literatures, undergraduates are welcome to enroll in most department courses; in some instances permission of the instructor must be sought. Undergraduates concentrating in Folklore and Mythology may elect Celtic as an area specialization. Undergraduates may also petition the office of Special Concentrations to pursue a degree program in Celtic Languages and Literatures.

The general scope of the PhD program is outlined above in the preliminary paragraph under Master of Arts (AM). The program is designed not only to prepare students to do serious research in and teach at university level the Celtic languages and literatures, but also to be of sufficient general breadth to prepare students to teach broad courses on language or literature in liberal arts colleges.