We explore art's roles in politics and religion from ca. 600-1300 CE in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The course introduces the arts of Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Judaism, and Islam; great courts and migratory societies; works made for private use and public display. Through narrative arc in lecture and precepts dedicated to artistic media, textual and material primary sources, and/or key intellectual themes, we consider how art participates in forming sacred and secular power. We explore how the work of 'art' in this period carries powers of its own, and how art shaped a multi-lingual, multi-confessional, multi-cultural medieval world.

An introduction to the history, methodologies, and theories of archaeology. The seminar discusses topics and problems drawn from a wide range of cultures and periods. Issues include trade and exchange; the origins of agriculture; cognitive archaeology (the study of the mind); biblical archaeology (the use of texts); artifacts in their cultural contexts; and the politics of the past. Emphasis on what constitutes archaeological evidence, how it may be used, and how archaeologists think.

The Greek experience from Alexander the Great through Cleopatra. An exploration of the dramatic expansion of the Greek world into Egypt and the Near East brought about by the conquests and achievements of Alexander. Study of the profound political, social, and intellectual changes that stemmed from the interaction of new cultures, and the entrance of Rome into the Greek world. Readings include history, biography, and inscriptions.

This course looks at the formation of a techne ("art" or "science") of medicine in fifth-century BCE Greece and debates about the theory and practice of healthcare in Greco-Roman antiquity. We look at early Greek medicine in relationship to established medical traditions in Egypt and Mesopotamia; medical discourses of human nature, gender, race, and the body; debates about the ethics of medical research; the relationship of the body to the mind; and the nature of "Greek" medicine as it travels to Alexandria, Rome and Baghdad. Readings drawn from primary sources as well as contemporary texts in medical humanities and bioethics.

This course introduces students to interdisciplinary methods for conceptualizing trauma in Ancient Greek and Roman texts. Using a range of theories about trauma and memory, we will consider how these concepts expand our interpretations of ancient texts. We will consider how ancient authors approached rhetorical, aesthetic, and ethical considerations involved in representing suffering, especially with the aim of making audiences "sympathetic," as well as social historical concerns with how trauma narratives shape group identity. Finally, we will look at how these texts have been used to address trauma therapeutically in contemporary contexts.

This discussion-based seminar will examine political, social, economic, and cultural factors that led to the collapse of a republican political system in Rome in the middle of the first century BCE. We will study the period from 146 BCE (the destruction of Carthage) to the assassination of Julius Caesar (44 BCE), which is the best documented time in all of antiquity, in light of primary sources of various kinds. This course will also consider why this historical era remained so fascinating for later generations, notably the American Founders. Students will be able to choose a topic to research for their oral report and final paper.

In this class you will learn about Roman encounters with the histories and peoples of the Middle East. In the first weeks, you will think about the legacy of Alexander the Great and the Macedonians in the Middle East and Central Asia. Then you will examine the shape and the devastating effects of Roman imperialism in the Middle East, as described by the peoples who experienced it. In the third part of the course, you will consider the limits of Roman expansion that were imposed by Iran's Parthian horse-lords. Finally, you will analyze how the Roman, Parthian, and Han empires became entangled across the Silk Roads, before the system collapsed.

This course studies Homer's Iliad, the single most important text of the Greek literary canon. The aim is to acquire fluency in Homeric Greek; to become familiar with the distinctive form and main themes of the Iliad; to gain a good grasp of Homeric scholarship; to place the Iliad within the wider context of early Greek poetry and Mediterranean storytelling more broadly; and to trace the more important stages of the poem's ancient reception.

Greek inscriptions provide especially valuable information on the political life, institutions and social structures of Greek society. The aim of the course is to give an introduction to the use of epigraphic documents in historical research. The sessions are devoted to the analysis of particular aspects of Greek society (e.g. relationships between city and country, king and city, Greeks and non-Greeks) on the basis of inscriptions from the Classical and Hellenistic periods.

A seminar covering the basic methodology of numismatics, including die, hoard and archaeological analysis as well as a survey of pre-modern coinages. The Western coinage tradition is covered, from its origins in the Greco-Persian world through classical and Hellenistic Greek coinage, Roman imperial and provincial issues, Parthian and Sasanian issues, the coinage of Byzantium, the Islamic world, and medieval and renaissance Europe. Students research and report on problems involving coinages related to their own areas of specialization. Open to undergraduates by permission of the instructor.

This class examines the relationship between law and society in the Roman and post-Roman worlds. We begin with the origins of Roman law in the ancient world, and end with the rediscovery of Roman law in the West in the 11th and 12th centuries. Over the course of the intervening millennium, we will focus on pivotal moments and key texts in the development of the legal cultures of the Roman and post-Roman worlds of Western Eurasia. Our goal will be to think about how law and law-like norms both shape and are shaped by society and social practices.

The seminar explores the transformation of the Roman World from the late ancient to the medieval West with a particular focus on Gregory of Tours and his world in the second half of the sixth century. The rich evidence allowd us to study the reconfiguration of the social, religious and political resources of the Roman world in the Frankish kingdoms of the sixth century and their transmission and reception allow us to explore the ongoing social, religious and political experimentation in the most enduring successor-state of the Western Roman empire.

This course consolidates and expands student knowledge of modern Greek acquired in HLS 101 by continuing to focus 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 to understand and produce written texts and communicate effectively at an elementary level, while being acquainted with key aspects of modern Greek society and culture.

This course is designed to develop proficiency by focusing on active vocabulary expansion, advanced grammar and syntax, and increased competence in reading, writing, listening comprehension, and oral communication. Students will enhance and refine their language skills, while also gaining a deeper understanding of modern Greek society and culture.

In this course we will read ten (mostly short) novels, originally written in Greek and translated into English, spanning nearly two millennia, with a view to exploring how fiction has served as a focal point for the exploration of Hellenism. The course is intended both for students seeking to fulfill the requirements for the Hellenic Studies Minor and those interested in cultural history and literature more broadly.

This interdisciplinary seminar examines death as a social process and a historical event. The first part focuses on death rituals in a variety of contexts: preparing and disposing of dead bodies, and mourning and commemorating the dead. Key texts address religion, rites of passage, symbolic efficacy, ontologies of personhood, and theologies of the soul. The second part explores the intersections of death with law, the state, and museums: forensic investigations, public commemorations, and curations of funerary objects and human remains, considered as means of public reckoning with death, especially in contexts of war and political violence.

The course begins with the fall of the Roman Empire in the West in 476 and ends with the collapse of the Eastern (or Byzantine) Empire in 1453. Among the topics addressed are the following: the western successor states, the birth and expansion of Islam, the Carolingian Empire, the Vikings, and the political entities of the High and Late Middle Ages. Due attention will also be paid to religious beliefs and devotional practices, economic change, cultural development, gender relations and other aspects of social history.

This course discusses the ideas and arguments of major ancient Greek and Roman philosophers and thereby introduces students to the history and continued relevance of the ancient period of western philosophy. Topics include the rise of cosmological speculation, the beginnings of philosophical ethics, Plato's moral theory and epistemology, Aristotle's philosophy of nature, metaphysics and ethics. The course ends with a survey of philosophical activity in the Hellenistic and late ancient periods.

We read central passages of Plato's Republic, and students present their work on selected parts of the text. Topics expected to be covered include: Art and poetry, education, belief and knowledge, the myth of Er, Glaucon's division of goods.

Who was Jesus of Nazareth and how do we know about him? Why did certain interpretations of his message win out over others? How did the small, illicit Christian movement grow to attract numerous followers, reshaping the social, political, sexual, and religious landscape of the Roman Empire and cultures worldwide? To explore these questions, we will study the earliest gospels, letters, Jewish and Roman historical sources, prison writings, martyr narratives, and papyrus documents, as well as scholarly interpretations of these texts. No matter your religious background, you will gain valuable insights and be able to contribute to the discussion.

The historiography of ancient Mediterranean religion has often been bound with concepts such as the self, individuation, and privatization. These concepts have been used to explain developments in a broad range of areas, including Christian asceticism, Rabbinic Halakhah, literary authorship, the reconfiguration of rituals, and images of the afterlife. The very definition of this period has been tied to how it presented a "new care of the self" or an "interiorization" of religion. This seminar considers the opportunities and challenges these concepts pose by examining scholarship on the period and the evidence it seeks to explain.