Hellenic Studies
- ART 207/HLS 207/CLA 207/ARC 211: Greek ArchitectureWhat makes a Greek temple ringed with marble columns "classical"? This course offers a historical overview of Greek architecture, case studies of landmark structures, and thematic explorations of how ancient religion, politics, and society shaped the built environment of the Aegean and broader Mediterranean. It also delves into the oldest surviving work of architecture theory and looks critically at the legacies of antiquity, particularly in the making of American self-image(s). Precepts include exercises in observation and experiments with ancient building materials (e.g. carving marble) and technologies.
- ART 316/HLS 316/CLA 213: The Formation of Christian ArtArt in late antiquity has often been characterized as an art in decline, but this judgment is relative, relying on standards formulated for art of other periods. Challenging this assumption, we will examine the distinct and powerful transformations within the visual culture of the period between the third and sixth centuries AD. This period witnesses the mutation of the institutions of the Roman Empire into those of the Christian Byzantine Empire. The fundamental change in religious identity that was the basis for this development directly impacted the art from that era that will be the focus of this course.
- ART 430/MED 430/HLS 430: Seminar. Medieval Art: Hagia Sophia: The Politics of Built SpaceOn July 10, 2020 the Turkish government ordered that Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, one of the great buildings of the world, be converted from a museum into a mosque. This building has served as an Orthodox and a Catholic cathedral, a mosque, and a museum. Each iteration can be read as an articulation of changing political and cultural circumstances that inscribe themselves in turn upon the fabric of this building. This course will map this changing history taking students from the fourth to the twenty-first century.
- ART 599/CLA 597/PAW 599/HLS 599: The Greek HouseA study of the archaeology of the Greek house (Early Archaic huts through Hellenistic palaces). Emphasis on the close reading of archaeological sites and assemblages and the integration of literary with material evidence. Topics include the discovery of houses, the identification of farms, the integration of the house with urban plans and natural landscapes, the organization and use of space, gender, domestic economies, and religious practice. Attention devoted to social, political, and regional dynamics; to the concept of the "private" in ancient Greece; and to questioning the heuristic value of the term "house."
- CLA 203/COM 217/HLS 201/TRA 203: What is a Classic?"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.
- CLA 212/HUM 212/GSS 212/HLS 212: Classical MythologyAn 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.
- CLA 506/HLS 506/COM 502/GER 507: Greek Tragedy: Oedipus: Tragedy, Philosophy, PsychoanalysisClose reading of Sophocles' Oedipus the King and sections of Oedipus at Colonus in dialogue with the history of thought on Greek tragedy. Authors may include Aristotle, Hegel, Hölderlin, Schelling, Nietzsche, Freud, Lacan, Arendt, Lévi-Strauss, Fanon, Vernant, Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari,Butler, Honig.
- CLA 547/PAW 503/HLS 547/HIS 557/ART 527: Problems in Ancient History: Naturalism and Anti-NaturalismThis seminar attempts to set the rise of naturalistic depictions in the visual arts (especially the individuated portrait) in the context of literary, philosophical, and medical traditions of the time (6th-4th centuries BCE). The focus and character of the discussions is both historical and historiographic.
- CLA 548/HLS 548/PAW 548/ART 532: Problems in Ancient History: Introduction to Ancient and Medieval NumismaticsA 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.
- CLA 565/HLS 565: Problems in Medieval Literature: Classical Reception in the Middle AgesThis course casts a wide net over Medieval literature, Greek and/or Latin, as well as in comparison with other medieval languages and cultures. Its aim is to furnish graduate students in a variety of fields, including Classics, History, Philosophy, Religion, and Art & Architecture, with proficiency in the primary texts of the Middle Ages, as well as the scholarship about medieval literary culture.
- HIS 555/HLS 555: Monotheism and Society from Constantine to Harun al-RashidThe goal of this seminar will be to introduce students to some of the most important ideas and debates surrounding the two major religious revolutions of Late Antiquity: the triumph of Christianity and the subsequent emergence and world conquests of Islam. The course will focus on extensive reading in both primary and secondary literature and students will be introduced to and trained in using major instrumenta studiorum for this period; texts may also be read in Greek, Syriac, and Arabic. No prior knowledge of Late Antiquity, Christianity, or Islam will be assumed.
- HLS 101/MOG 101: Elementary Modern Greek ITo set the foundations for acquiring a command of spoken and written Modern Greek. Equal emphasis will be given to speaking, reading, and writing.
- HLS 105/MOG 105: Intermediate Modern GreekTo improve the students' oral and written skills and introduce them to themes in the Hellenic tradition through readings in Modern Greek literature.
- NES 433/HIS 433/HLS 434: Imperialism and Reform in the Middle East and the BalkansThe 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.
- POL 301/CLA 301/HLS 303: Political Theory, Athens to AugustineA study of the fundamental questions of political theory as framed in the context of the institutions and writings of ancient Greek and Roman thinkers, from the classical period into late antiquity and the spread of Christianity in Rome. We will canvass the meaning of justice in Plato's "Republic", the definition of the citizen in Aristotle's "Politics", Cicero's reflections on the purpose of a commonwealth, and Augustine's challenge to those reflections and to the primacy of political life at all in light of divine purposes. Through these classic texts, we explore basic questions of constitutional ethics and politics.
- POL 553/HLS 552/CLA 553: Political Theory, Athens to Augustine: Graduate SeminarA study of fundamental questions of political theory framed in the context of the institutions and writings of ancient Greek and Roman thinkers, from the classical period into late antiquity and the spread of Christianity. Topics include the meaning of justice in Plato's Republic, the definition of the citizen in Aristotle's Politics, Cicero's reflections on the purpose of a commonwealth, and Augustine's challenge to those reflections and to the primacy of political life at all in light of divine purposes. We consider both the primary texts and secondary literature debates to equip students with a working mastery of this tradition.
- REL 251/HLS 251/MED 251: The New Testament and Christian OriginsHow did Jesus' earliest followers interpret his life and death? What were secret initiation rites and love feast gatherings about? How did women participate in leadership? How did the Roman government react to this movement and why did Jesus' followers suffer martyrdom? How did early Christians think about the end of the world, and what did they do when it did not happen? This course is an introduction to the Jesus movement in the context of the Roman Empire and early Judaism. We examine texts in the New Testament (the Christian Bible) and other relevant sources, such as lost gospels, Dead Sea scrolls, and aspects of material culture.