Ancient Studies

Thanks to the pyramids of Giza, the treasure of Tutankhamun, and other remains of royal activity, pharaonic Egypt is justly famous for its monuments and material culture. Equally fascinating, if less well known, however, are the towns, fortresses, cultic centers, domestic spaces, and non-elite cemeteries that have been excavated over the past 200 years or so. The archaeology of Nubia is also little known but fascinating on many levels. This course will focus on what archaeology can reveal about life as it was experienced by individuals of all social classes. Through a combination of broad surveys and case studies of some of Egypt and Nubia’s most culturally indicative and intriguing sites, we will explore issues such as the origins of inequality, state formation and its effects, the uneasy mix of state-planned settlements and village life, urbanism, domestic and community worship, gendered spaces, ethnicity and colonialism, religious revolution and evolution, bureaucracy, private enterprise, and the effects of governmental collapse on life and death in ancient Egypt and Nubia.

Overview of Greek and Roman literature. Close analysis of selected texts from the major genres accompanied by lectures on literary history. Topics include the context out of which the genres arose, the suitability of various modern critical approaches to the ancient texts, the problem of translation, and the transmission of the classical authors and their influence on modern literature.

Since the content of the course changes from year to year, it may be taken in consecutive years.

Readings in Greek literature from Homer to the 4th century B.C.

This seminar aims to provide students in the post-baccalaureate certificate program with opportunities 1) to (re-)familiarize themselves with a selection of major texts from classical antiquity, which will be read in English, 2) to become acquainted with scholarship on these texts and with scholarly writing in general, 3) to write analytically about these texts and the interpretations posed about them in contemporary scholarship, and 4) to read in the original language selected passages of one of the texts in small tutorial groups, which will meet every week for an additional hour with members of the faculty.

This is the first semester of a year-long course designed for students wishing to learn Greek as it is written and spoken in Greece today. As well as learning the skills necessary to read texts of moderate difficulty and converse on a wide range of topics, students explore Modern Greece's cultural landscape from "parea" to poetry to politics. Special attention will be paid to Greek New York. How do "our", "American", "Greek-American" definitions of language and culture differ from "their", "Greek" ones?

Latin literature from the beginning to early Augustan times.

Latin literature from Augustus to 600 C.E.

This course is intended to complement Latin V3012: Augustan Poetry in providing students I a transition between the elementary, grammatical study of Latin texts to a more fluent understanding of complex literary style.  Latin V3013 will largely concentrate on different styles of writing, particularly narrative, invective, and argument.  Text will be drawn primarily from Cicero’s orations, with some readings form his rhetorical works.

This seminar aims to provide students in the post-baccalaureate certificate program with opportunities 1) to (re-)familiarize themselves with a selection of major texts from classical antiquity, which will be read in English, 2) to become acquainted with scholarship on these texts and with scholarly writing in general, 3) to write analytically about these texts and the interpretations posed about them in contemporary scholarship, and 4) to read in the original language selected passages of one of the texts in small tutorial groups, which will meet every week for an additional hour with members of the faculty.