This course addresses the wide variety of social relations and cultural contexts in which mental health and mental illness are experienced in the twenty-first century. Our inquiry is structured around etiological/diagnostic concepts that have achieved a global presence in popular culture and clinical care: trauma, addiction, stress, depression, neurodiversity. We will learn where and how these concepts arose; how they have changed over time and place; how they operate in clinical vis-à-vis "lay" contexts of assessment and care; and how they shape our self-understanding, our social interactions, and our relation to expertise and institutions.

This course introduces the student to the art of the Byzantine Empire from ca. 800 to ca. 1200. Byzantine art has often been opposed to the traditions of western naturalism, and as such has been an undervalued or little-known adjunct to the story of medieval art. In order to develop a more sophisticated understanding of our visual evidence, this course will stress the function of this art within the broader setting of this society. Art theory, the notions of empire and holiness, the burdens of the past and the realities of contemporary praxis will be brought to bear upon our various analyses of material from all media.

Archaeology is a visual discipline: it searches for material evidence of the human past and presents its discoveries with an array of graphic media. This hybrid studio/seminar combines training in drawing as an observational tool for excavation with critical analysis of visual media based on archaeological and art historical theory. Build your drawing portfolio with hands-on study of artifacts from the University's collections, delve into archives, and learn digital recording tools. What are the challenges of reconstructing fragmentary evidence? Do drawings shape our perception of the past?

This course examines the representation of the Cosmos and of Creation narratives in the arts of Late Antiquity. While its focus will be the illumination of manuscripts of the Book of Genesis, attention will also be paid to competing Late Antique cosmologies, particularly the revival of interest in Plato's Timaeus. In addition to considering the implications of the varied manners in which the Genesis narrative is visualized, the course will investigate how the Jewish-Christian definition of a created cosmos conditioned understanding of one's being in the world and the ethical life.

"What is a Classic?" asks what goes into the making of a classic text. It focuses on four, monumental poems from the ancient Mediterranean and Near East: Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, and Gilgamesh, which are discussed through comparison across traditions, ranging as far as Chinese poetry. Students will consider possible definitions and constituents of a classic, while also reflecting on the processes of chance, valorization, and exclusion that go into the formation of a canon. Topics will include transmission, commentary, translation, religion, race, colonization, empire, and world literature.

An introduction to the classical myths in their cultural context and in their wider application to human concerns (such as creation, sex and gender, identity, transformation, and death). The course will offer a who's who of the ancient imaginative world, study the main ancient sources of well known stories, and introduce modern approaches to analyzing myths.

This seminar will consider how travel could and did take place in the Roman empire during the first century. A close reading of the Acts of the Apostles will afford insights into the experiences of Paul of Tarsus on his journeys around the Mediterranean as he engaged in economic activities and spread new religious ideas. Topics will include modes and seasons of travel, dangers and challenges on land and sea, interactions with Roman government officials and soldiers in various provinces, how to meet and greet the locals, building networks of contacts for future visits, and how to plan and finance an ambitious expedition abroad.

This course will examine the origins, evolution and organization of the democratic system in Athens, and address some of the most controversial questions about the topic: To what extent was Athens democratic? What were the links between Athenian democracy and its aggressive imperialism? What are the similarities and differences between ancient and modern ideas of democracy?

A survey of major literary forms and works from the Archaic to the Greco-Roman period.

An interdisciplinary, diachronic, and critical study of the senses in the ancient world. Explores how a variety of senses might be recovered from the past and assesses the possibilities and limitations of sensory approaches. Surveys the types of primary evidence that might be used, weighs the possibilities for objective interpretation, and considers the reasons for regional and chronological variation. Senses examined in their social, political, and cultural contexts and with attention to conceptions of bodies, perception, and ontology. Strengths and weaknesses of the secondary literature on the topic evaluated.

Introduction to Greek historical and comparative grammar, including a survey of dialects from Mycenaen to the koiné. We focus on early literary dialects, including inscriptions. We give special attention to early epic, primarily Homeric linguistics and poetics. The course offers ample time to explore whatever topics in the history of the Greek language are of particular interest to whoever is enrolled.

Ruled from Constantinople (ancient Byzantium and present-day Istanbul), the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire survived the collapse of the Western Roman Empire by over a millennium. This state on the crossroads of Europe and Asia was Roman in law, civil administration, and military tradition, but predominantly Greek in language, and Eastern Christian in religion. The course explores one of the greatest civilisations the world has known, tracing the experiences of its majority and minority groups through the dramatic centuries of the Islamic conquests, Iconoclasm, and the Crusades, until its final fall to the Ottoman Turks.

Africa, Europe and the Middle East meet at the Mediterranean. This course will look at two millennia of Mediterranean history to see how this sea has been both shared and contested. This course is organized around a geographical entity rather than a political framework such as a state. As such, environmental and maritime history will be a theme running throughout the course.

This course offers a history of Eastern Europe in the modern era, from the age of Enlightenment and the French revolution in the late 18th century through the present. It covers the territory between today's Italy and Russia, including Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Topics include: Enlightenment, Romanticism, nationalism, socialism, Zionism, fascism, Nazism, communism, the Holocaust, genocides, Cold War, and post-1991 Europe. The course will incorporate a variety of primary sources, including novels, memoirs, diaries, and the arts as well as several films.

The course will focus on the formation of the Christian West from Ireland to the Eastern Mediterranean until ca. 1000 CE. We will start with the insignificance of the Fall of Rome in 476 CE, to move on to much more fundamental changes in the Ancient and medieval world: the Christian revolution in the 4th century, the barbarian successor states in the fifth, their transformation into Christian kingdoms, or the emergence of new nations and states whose names are still on the map today and which all came to be held together by a shared culture defined by the Rise of Western Christendom in the first Millennium.

This course introduces and engages with historiographical questions central to our understanding of the Byzantine Empire from its inauguration in the fourth century to its fall in the fifteenth century. Sample sources - available in original and translation - are examined and analyzed using a variety of current methodological approaches. We consider aspects of political, economic, social, and cultural and intellectual history. The main areas of focus in a specific year will depend on the interests of the group. The aim is to provide students with concrete tools that will inform and strengthen their own research and teaching.

This course is intended for students with little or no previous knowledge of modern Greek. It focuses on the fundamentals of grammar and syntax, with parallel emphasis on reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Through sustained practice and a wide range of materials and activities, students are provided with skills and vocabulary necessary in order to understand and produce written texts and communicate effectively at an elementary level. With integrated references to various aspects of everyday life and experience, the course also serves as an introduction to modern Greek society and culture.

Course designed to develop proficiency by focusing on active vocabulary expansion, grammar and syntax not covered in the elementary sequence, and increased competence in reading, writing, listening comprehension, and oral communication. A wide range of materials and activities enable students to enhance and refine key language skills, while also gaining a deeper understanding of modern Greek society and culture.

What does it mean to trace a 3000-year history of Hellenism? This course takes a critical approach by examining the construction of narratives of identity, belonging, and continuity from antiquity through Byzantine and Ottoman periods to today. We explore the grounds on which claims to Greekness have been based-from language and culture to religion, race, and territory-while considering how these claims play into distinctions like east-west and civilization-barbarism. Our critical inquiry into the 3000-year history of Hellenism allows us to contend with the political and intellectual stakes of the very premise that such a history could exist.

This course investigates ancient architecture beyond the disciplinary boundaries of Art History and Civil Engineering. Students will master relevant elements of structural engineering to solve problems underlying the realization of large structures, including their design, materials, and construction. Students will also historically contextualize architecture, including the technological developments, sociological aspects, and aesthetic underlying these monuments. Course projects are based on collaborative group work. In fall 2024, this course will focus on the architecture of ancient Greece, including a planned trip to Athens.

This course examines musical culture at the geographical juncture of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. The busy exchange of people, goods, and ideas across the sea uniting these regions is reflected in the musical heterogeneity of the Mediterranean littoral. We consider how social and cultural forces and conditions within the Mediterranean - diaspora and migration; cosmopolitanism, commerce, and exchange; ethnic, religious, and linguistic difference - have historically shaped its music and musical communities.

The major Near Eastern diplomatic crises and the main developments in internal Near Eastern history. The focus will be upon the possible connections between diplomatic crises and the process of modernization. Oral reports and a short paper.

A study of Plato's last dialogue, Laws, with emphasis on understanding its philosophical doctrines and the ways they are developed and defended over the course of a long and complex literary composition. Topics addressed include the origin, goals, and proper formulation of law; virtue, education, and the ethical importance of art; freedom and the rule of law; and a detailed blueprint for the constitution and statutes of an ideal city. On many of these points readers familiar with the Republic may be surprised by what they find in the Laws.

The seminar studies Aristotle's views about causation and explanation in his Generation of Animals, focusing on Books 4 and 5. Special attention is paid to his ideas about the material cause in thinking about the roles of female parents and of the environment.