Evolving Curriculum

First-Year Experience:  Scribner Seminars

The Classics faculty contribute annually to the First-Year Experience, offering Scribner Seminars to first-year students on a variety of topics. Our Seminars include:
 
Democracy Inaction:  what does it mean to be democratic, from ancient Athens to contemporary America? (Prof. Arnush)

Myth Conceptions:  what is a myth? Or, rather, who makes myth and why? (Prof. Curley)
Den of Antiquities - The Illicit Market in Ancient Art: (also to be taught in London):  what is the difference between collecting and looting antiquities? What constitutes ownership of an art object? What distinguishes individual from museum collections? What are the ethical obligations of collectors? (Prof. Mechem)

Sex and the Ancient City:  what do we know about the sexual culture of ancient city dwellers? Do modern representations of sex in ancient cities bear any resemblance to the cultural and historical reality? What fantasies did the ancients themselves construct about sex in their cities, and do these fantasies cohere with our fantasies about them? (Prof. Murray)

Rome to the Raj -Imperial Ambitions of Greece, Rome, Britain, and the US: (London):  what constitutes an empire? How do empires come into and fade from existence? How do we assess their value? Why do nations continue to harbor imperial ambitions? (Prof. Arnush)

Semester Abroad:  Spring 2011

In 2011, Profs. Curley and Murray will offer a semester-long course on the construction of Rome – both the geographical layout, layering, and growth of the city over time as well as the reception of the city in the texts of ancient and modern authors. The on-campus course will continue in Italy early in the summer with tours of the ancient sites, the Vatican, major museums, churches, and other locales ripe with the historical and cultural layering that is the city’s hallmark.
 
New Courses in the Curriculum
 
The Ancient Novel:  a study of ancient prose fiction with a focus on its multi-cultural scope, the use of literature as entertainment, and the interplay of fictionality and historicity.

Race & Ethnicity in Ancient Greece:  how did the Greeks think about race and ethnicity, and how is that thinking relevant today?   
 
Rise of Athens:  a study of Greece with a focus on Athens from the Mycenaean age to the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War.
 
Athens, Alexander the Great, and Cleopatra:  a study of Greece from the Peloponnesian War to the end of Greek independence with the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE.
 
Rise of Rome:  a study of Rome from its foundation by Romulus to the end of the Republic and onset of the Roman empire.
 
Fall of Rome:  a study of Rome from the foundation of the empire by Augustus until the sack of the city of Rome and the empire's demise.