printer friendly pageCLASSICS 115: Virtual Italy (ENGLISH 115, HISTORY 238C, ITALIAN 115)
Classical Italy attracted thousands of travelers throughout the 1700s. Referring to their journey as the "Grand Tour," travelers pursued intellectual passions, promoted careers, and satisfied wanderlust, all while collecting antiquities to fill museums and estates back home. What can computational approaches tell us about who traveled, where and why? We will read travel accounts; experiment with parsing; and visualize historical data. Final projects to form credited contributions to the Grand Tour Project, a cutting-edge digital platform. No prior programming experience necessary.
Terms: Win, Sum
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
Instructors:
Ceserani, G. (PI)
;
Lamar, A. (TA)
CLASSICS 125: The Hindu Epics and the Ethics of Dharma (RELIGST 123)
The two great Hindu Epics, the Mahabharata and Ramayana, offer a sustained reflection on the nature of virtuous living in the face of insoluble ethical dilemmas. Their treatment of the concept of dharma, understood simultaneously as ethical action and the universal order that upholds the cosmos, lies at the heart of both Gandhian non-violent resistance and communalist interreligious conflict. This course will focus on a reading of selections from the Epics in English translation, supplemented with a consideration of how the texts have been interpreted in South Asian literary history and contemporary politics and public life in India.
Last offered: Spring 2019
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
CLASSICS 126: The archaeology of death
Death is a universal human experience, but one that evokes a wide range of cultural and material responses. Archaeologists have used mortuary and bioarchaeological evidence to try to understand topics as diverse as paleodemography, human health and disease, social structure and inequalities, ritual, and identity and personhood. As such, the archaeology of death has become a locus for lively debates about archaeological interpretation. Furthermore, the study of human remains and mortuary contexts raises a set of complex ethical and political issues. We will explore these themes using a range of archaeological and anthropological case studies from different times and places.
Last offered: Winter 2020
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
CLASSICS 130: The Grandeur of Epic: Poetry, Narrative, and World from Homer to Evolutionary Biology
Explores the mystery and power of epic. This ancient word, which at its root means "what is spoken," first classified certain traditions of archaic Greek poetry, especially Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. It now appears everywhere from slang to contemporary scientific discourse. Though some might dismiss its proliferation as an accident of everyday speech, the course will take the phenomenon of "epic" seriously, asking what it is about this oldest of genres that continues to inspire our collective imagination. Readings will include works of epic as well as theoretical and philosophical works on narrative, religion, and science. We will read substantial selections from the Iliad, Hesiod's poems, the Hebrew Bible, the Gospels, Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, J.R.R. Tolkien's Silmarillion, and Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea.
Last offered: Spring 2019
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
CLASSICS 136: The Greek Invention of Mathematics
How was mathematics invented? A survey of the main creative ideas of ancient Greek mathematics. Among the issues explored are the axiomatic system of Euclid's Elements, the origins of the calculus in Greek measurements of solids and surfaces, and Archimedes' creation of mathematical physics. We will provide proofs of ancient theorems, and also learn how such theorems are even known today thanks to the recovery of ancient manuscripts.
Last offered: Autumn 2018
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
CLASSICS 138: The Use and Abuse of Prehistory (ANTHRO 131A, ARCHLGY 131)
To borrow Glyn Daniel¿s phrase, the ¿Idea of Prehistory,¿ invokes notions of deep time, human origins, and mysterious monuments. While the origins of prehistoric research in the 19th century were connected to the emerging sciences of geology, evolution, and archaeology, they were just as intertwined with nation-state building, colonialism, and race science. This course examines the development of prehistory through a thematic and critical lens. How have Western conceptualizations of time and writing affected the definition and study of prehistory? What are some of the colonial legacies in both research agendas and museum collections? Do new methods always provide new answers? What role has gender played in prehistoric interpretation? Drawing from case studies in the Mediterranean, the Americas, Europe, and Africa, we will explore various archaeological approaches to prehistory from the late 19th century to the present, as well as how the idea of prehistory itself has evolved, expanded, or been abandoned altogether.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
Instructors:
Duray, A. (PI)
CLASSICS 151: Ten Things: An Archaeology of Design (ARCHLGY 151)
Connections among science, technology, society and culture by examining the design of a prehistoric hand axe, Egyptian pyramid, ancient Greek perfume jar, medieval castle, Wedgewood teapot, Edison's electric light bulb, computer mouse, Sony Walkman, supersonic aircraft, and BMW Mini. Interdisciplinary perspectives include archaeology, cultural anthropology, science studies, history and sociology of technology, cognitive science, and evolutionary psychology.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
Instructors:
Shanks, M. (PI)
;
Lamar, A. (TA)
CLASSICS 161: Introduction to Greek Art I: The Archaic Period (ARTHIST 101)
The class considers the development of Greek art from 1000-480 and poses the question, how Greek was Greek art? In the beginning, as Greece emerges from 200 years of Dark Ages, their art is cautious, conservative and more abstract than life-like, closer to Calder than Michelangelo. While Homer describes the rippling muscles (and egos) of Bronze Age heroes, his fellow painters and sculptors prefer abstraction. This changes in the 7th century, when travel to and trade with the Near East transform Greek culture. What had been an insular society becomes cosmopolitan, enriched by the sophisticated artistic traditions of lands beyond the Aegean "frog pond." Imported Near Eastern bronzes and ivories awaken Greek artists to a wider range of subjects, techniques and ambitions. Later in the century, Greeks in Egypt learn to quarry and carve hard stone from Egyptian masters. Throughout the 6th century, Greek artists absorb what they had borrowed, compete with one another, defy their teachers, test the tolerance of the gods and eventually produce works of art that speak with a Greek accent. By the end of the archaic period, images of gods and mortals bear little trace of alien influence or imprint, yet without the contributions of Egypt and the Near East, Greek art as we know it would have been unthinkable.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Maxmin, J. (PI)
CLASSICS 162: Introduction to Greek Art II: The Classical Period (ARTHIST 102)
The class begins with the art, architecture and political ideals of Periclean Athens, from the emergence of the city as the political and cultural center of Greece in 450 to its defeat in the Peloponnesian War in 404. It then considers how the Athenians (shell-shocked from war and three outbreaks of plague) and the rest of 4th century Greece rebuild their lives and the monuments that define them. Earlier 5th century traditions endure, with subtle changes, in the work of sculptors such as Kephisodotos. Less subtle are the outlook and output of his son Praxiteles. In collaboration with Phryne, his muse and mistress, Praxiteles challenged the canons and constraints of the past with the first female nude in the history of Greek sculpture. His gender-bending gods and men were equally audacious, their shiny surfaces reflecting Plato's discussion of Eros and androgyny. Scopas was also a man of his time, but pursued different interests. Drawn to the interior lives of men and woman, his tormented Trojan War heroes and victims are still scarred by memories of the Peloponnesian War, and a world away from the serene faces of the Parthenon. His Maenad, who has left this world for another, belongs to the same years as Euripides' Bacchae and, at the same time, anticipates the torsion and turbulence of Bernini and the Italian Baroque. The history and visual culture of these years remind us that we are not alone, that the Greeks grappled as we do with the inevitability and consequences of war, disease and inner daemons.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Maxmin, J. (PI)
CLASSICS 163: Artists, Athletes, Courtesans and Crooks (ARTHIST 203)
The seminar examines a range of topics devoted to the makers of Greek art and artifacts, the men and women who used them in life and the afterlife, and the miscreants - from Lord Elgin to contemporary tomb-looters and dealers - whose deeds have damaged, deracinated and desecrated temples, sculptures and grave goods. Readings include ancient texts in translation, books and articles by classicists and art historians, legal texts and lively page-turners. Students will discuss weekly readings, give brief slide lectures and a final presentation on a topic of their choice, which need not be confined to the ancient Mediterranean.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Maxmin, J. (PI)
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