CLAS

This seminar will study claims to Roman identity across cultures, regions, and periods. Who belonged to the Roman community at any time and who was excluded? How did foundation narratives, asylum, conquest, the expansion of citizenship, notions of ethnicity, processes of assimilation, and the passage of time shape the contours of groups who saw themselves as Roman? Literature in many genres and languages, and over many centuries, addresses these questions. The course will not be limited to the ancient Roman experience but will expand to include claims in the medieval West and especially the eastern Roman empire, aka Byzantium. A self-defined Roman community persisted there longer than elsewhere, in fact down to the present. Selected claims to be the new Romans in the medieval and modern West will also be examined. Students will read and discuss original sources (in Greek and Latin, depending on their language skills) and modern scholarship. MA students and undergraduate students (by instructor permission) are welcome.

This seminar will study claims to Roman identity across cultures, regions, and periods. Who belonged to the Roman community at any time and who was excluded? How did foundation narratives, asylum, conquest, the expansion of citizenship, notions of ethnicity, processes of assimilation, and the passage of time shape the contours of groups who saw themselves as Roman? Literature in many genres and languages, and over many centuries, addresses these questions. The course will not be limited to the ancient Roman experience but will expand to include claims in the medieval West and especially the eastern Roman empire, aka Byzantium. A self-defined Roman community persisted there longer than elsewhere, in fact down to the present. Selected claims to be the new Romans in the medieval and modern West will also be examined. Students will read and discuss original sources (in Greek and Latin, depending on their language skills) and modern scholarship. MA students and undergraduate students (by instructor permission) are welcome.

This course offers a survey of the fundamentals of pedagogy for the ancient language classroom with an emphasis on introductory and intermediate instruction. Topics include methods of language teaching, language skills and proficiency, modes of assessment, course design, textbook selection, educational technology, online resources, lesson planning, effective presentation, support materials, and the principles and practices of classroom management. Activities include the creation of sample materials and mock teaching. Students who successfully complete this course will acquire a foundation in language pedagogy and be well prepared for introductory and intermediate instruction in languages such as Latin and ancient Greek. 

This two-quarter seminar is focused on situations in which written texts of the Roman period combined with other forms of material reality to produce distinctive cultural institutions. For example, Rome’s Secular Games combined formal prayer and sacrifice with theatrical and musical events, declamation as public entertainment evolved out of training routines in the schools of rhetoric, and the resolution of civil disputes combined complex acts of narration, normative description, and improvisatory skill. The seminar is meant to acquaint graduate students with a variety of literary and subliterary texts (some of which are likely to be unfamiliar), and to provide a first orientation to the scholarly bibliographies concerned with them. For the purposes of this course, the social and material setting that generates texts calls for as careful study as the texts themselves. Ideally, this approach will lead to a fuller appreciation of Roman institutional forms than a focus on texts alone. Students take turns presenting weekly reports on readings from the syllabus during the Autumn Quarter. During the Winter Quarter they prepare a substantial research paper under the guidance of the Instructors, whose expertise is in Roman history and Roman literature respectively. 

This two-quarter seminar is focused on situations in which written texts of the Roman period combined with other forms of material reality to produce distinctive cultural institutions. For example, Rome’s Secular Games combined formal prayer and sacrifice with theatrical and musical events, declamation as public entertainment evolved out of training routines in the schools of rhetoric, and the resolution of civil disputes combined complex acts of narration, normative description, and improvisatory skill. The seminar is meant to acquaint graduate students with a variety of literary and subliterary texts (some of which are likely to be unfamiliar), and to provide a first orientation to the scholarly bibliographies concerned with them. For the purposes of this course, the social and material setting that generates texts calls for as careful study as the texts themselves. Ideally, this approach will lead to a fuller appreciation of Roman institutional forms than a focus on texts alone. Students take turns presenting weekly reports on readings from the syllabus during the Autumn Quarter. During the Winter Quarter they prepare a substantial research paper under the guidance of the Instructors, whose expertise is in Roman history and Roman literature respectively. 

A workshop for Classics students who have completed coursework and qualifying exams, it aims to provide practical assistance and a collaborative environment for students preparing the dissertation prospectus. It will meet bi-weekly for two quarters. 

This course examines the portrayal of female villains in Greek tragedy. We will read plays by the three major tragedians, focusing on their depictions of Clytemnestra, the Furies, Phaedra, Medea, and Helen, as it relates to questions of gender, mythmaking, power, and reception. We will discuss the societal dynamics and generic norms through which those characters emerge and we will explore their intertextual journey through myth and literature, ancient and modern. Key questions of the course include: What makes a woman evil? How is the evil female constructed through the writing, visuals, and performance of tragedy? What does it mean to present an evil female in a genre where all writers and actors are male? To what extent does tragedy shape and reflect the patriarchal structures of the Athenian society? All readings will be in English.

This course offers a survey of the fundamentals of pedagogy for the ancient language classroom with an emphasis on introductory and intermediate instruction.  Topics include methods of language teaching, language skills and proficiency, modes of assessment, course design, textbook selection, educational technology, online resources, lesson planning, effective presentation, support materials, and the principles and practices of classroom management.  Activities include the creation of sample materials and mock teaching.  Students who successfully complete this course will acquire a foundation in language pedagogy and be well prepared for introductory and intermediate instruction in languages such as Latin and ancient Greek.

Plutarch’s biographies and his writing on literature and morality stand in a long tradition. In this class we will read passages from Plutarch in Greek and compare them to similar texts, such as the relevant sections of Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Poetics. The aim is to evaluate Plutarch’s contribution to a literary critical tradition while also comparing his Greek to that of his predecessors.

Homer’s Odyssey describes the homecoming of Odysseus in a series of poignant, half-hidden, and sometimes misaligned reunions with his loved ones. In this course we will read in Greek many of the Odyssey’s homecoming scenes of the Odyssey, including all of Books 19 and 23. Our focus will be on how the poem depicts the complex character of Odysseus through its recognition (and misrecognition) scenes. Much of our conversation will center on Penelope, the mutual testing between her and her husband, and the degree to which we can attribute “like-mindedness” (homophrosyne) to their relationship.