Autumn

Ancient Greek: for thousands of years, people have learned this language to go deeper into the thoughts and worlds of Plato, Homer, Sappho, and Early Christianity and more. In this course sequence, you too can begin to learn this language. GREK 101 introduces the study of Ancient Greek. Course work involves reading practice, writing individual sentences and coherent stories, formal study of grammar and vocabulary, and other linguistic skills as necessary. Throughout the course, students will encounter authentic Ancient Greek texts. Students who complete this course will be able to understand simple sentences and combine them into larger units of meaning. This course is appropriate for students who have never studied Greek before.

This course seeks to explore the cultural and social history of the city of Thessaloniki in northern Greece from antiquity to the present. As a city of diverse populations, Thessaloniki constituted a melting pot of cultures and a hub for economic activities for a major part of its history. The course will be discussion-based and bring into dialogue textual and material evidence that illustrates various topics of the history of Thessaloniki. Among those topics, we will examine Thessaloniki’s foundation, its relationship with other cities in the Hellenistic world, the formation of (ethnic) identity in Macedonia, its Christianization, its archaeological landscape, the multicultural civic identity and the construction of other (Greek, Jewish, Roman, Slavic, Ottoman), immigration movements, economy and commerce. We will explore a spectrum of historical themes, but our focus will range:  We will delve into the intricate stories of personalities, monuments, and objects. Yet, our ultimate aim will be to step back and analyze broader phenomena in their longue durée.

If the current resurgence of interest in ethnic studies is a direct reflection of a contemporary upsurge in ethnic conflict throughout the world, it remains the case that notions of peoplehood and belonging have been of periodic importance throughout history. This course will study the various expressions of Greek identity within shifting political, social and cultural contexts from prehistory to the present day, though with a strong emphasis on classical antiquity. Particular attention will be given to theoretical issues such as anthropological definitions of ethnicity, the difference between ethnic and cultural identities, methods for studying ethnicity in historical societies, and the intersection of ethnicity with politics.

Martial’s epigrams can be funny, obscene, groveling, literary, outrageous, illuminating, and more.  In this course we’ll read a selection from the many volumes he wrote, starting with the fascinating Liber de Spectaculis describing apparent snuff plays. We will be using the epigrams as a window into different aspects of first century imperial Roman culture, including doctors, criminal justice, mythology, misogyny, city life, intertextuality, sexuality, obscenity, politics, and more.  Please be aware that he can be very vulgar.

We shall read extended selections from poetry writers of recognized importance to the Latin tradition. Our sampling of texts will emphasize writers of the Late Republic and Early Principate.

Athanasius was born and reared in Alexandria where he received a thorough classical education. He eventually became secretary to the bishop Alexander, with whom he attended the Council of Nicaea in 325 and whom he succeeded as bishop of Alexandria in 328. For the rest of his life, both in his theological writings and in his turbulent ecclesiastical career, he was a fervent advocate for the Nicene formulations, resisting Arianism at every turn. His most famous work, the De Incarnatione, expounds how Jesus the Word, by becoming flesh, restores to fallen humans the image of God in which they were created. We will read a good part (about 60 pages) of this celebrated treatise with attention to Athanasius’ straightforward Greek style, his portrait of the logos, and his enduring contribution to Trinitarian theology.

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.

Ancient Carthage, the semitic empire brought down by a series of wars with Rome, has loomed large across many fields, leaving its imprint through archeology, history, literature, commerce, politics, and more—even if very little has survived of its own literature.  Vergil used Carthaginian Dido, improbably, as his etiology for the Punic Wars, and the Romans spoke derogatively of “Punica fides” as part of their hostile propaganda.  But for us, the city affords a chance to consider the many lenses through which historians and artists have seen this powerful Tyrian settlement in North Africa, whose army was most likely made up of native Libyans, Iberians, Phoenicians, and even Greeks.

The Research seminar is co-taught by two faculty members with different field interests; drawing on its methodological pluralism, the seminar approaches the topic through historical, archaeological, and literary sources and modes of analysis, and surveys issues of method and the history of scholarship on the chosen topic (in this case, Carthage).  We will have a few visitors in class.  The second quarter is reserved for the researching and writing by students of article-length seminar papers, and we will meet regularly to workshop the papers-in-progress.

This course seeks to explore the cultural and social history of the city of Thessaloniki in northern Greece from antiquity to the present. As a city of diverse populations, Thessaloniki constituted a melting pot of cultures and a hub for economic activities for a major part of its history. The course will be discussion-based and bring into dialogue textual and material evidence that illustrates various topics of the history of Thessaloniki. Among those topics, we will examine Thessaloniki’s foundation, its relationship with other cities in the Hellenistic world, the formation of (ethnic) identity in Macedonia, its Christianization, its archaeological landscape, the multicultural civic identity and the construction of other (Greek, Jewish, Roman, Slavic, Ottoman), immigration movements, economy and commerce. We will explore a spectrum of historical themes, but our focus will range:  We will delve into the intricate stories of personalities, monuments, and objects. Yet, our ultimate aim will be to step back and analyze broader phenomena in their longue durée.

If the current resurgence of interest in ethnic studies is a direct reflection of a contemporary upsurge in ethnic conflict throughout the world, it remains the case that notions of peoplehood and belonging have been of periodic importance throughout history. This course will study the various expressions of Greek identity within shifting political, social and cultural contexts from prehistory to the present day, though with a strong emphasis on classical antiquity. Particular attention will be given to theoretical issues such as anthropological definitions of ethnicity, the difference between ethnic and cultural identities, methods for studying ethnicity in historical societies, and the intersection of ethnicity with politics.