Courses

ARCH B101 Introduction to Egyptian and Near Eastern Archaeology

Fall 2025

A historical survey of the archaeology and art of the ancient Near East and Egypt.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward: Africana Studies; Museum Studies.

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ARCH B102 Introduction to Classical Archaeology

Spring 2026

A historical survey of the archaeology and art of Greece, Etruria, and Rome.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward: Classical Culture and Society; Classical Studies; History of Art; Museum Studies.

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ARCH B203 Building the Polis: Ancient Greek Cities and Sanctuaries

Not offered 2025-26

A study of the co-development of the Greek city-states and their sanctuaries. Archaeological evidence is surveyed in its historic context. The political formation of the city-state and the role of religion is presented, and the political, economic, and religious institutions of the city-states are explored with a focus on regional variations in timelines of development, building styles, and connectivity. The logistics of building construction, religious travel, and interregional influences will also be addressed.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward: Classical Languages; Classical Studies; Classics; Growth and Structure of Cities; Museum Studies.

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ARCH B204 Animals in the Ancient Greek World

Not offered 2025-26

This course focuses on perceptions of animals in ancient Greece from the Geometric to the Classical periods. It examines representations of animals in painting, sculpture, and the minor arts, the treatment of animals as attested in the archaeological record, and how these types of evidence relate to the featuring of animals in contemporary poetry, tragedy, comedy, and medical and philosophical writings. By analyzing this rich body of evidence, the course develops a context in which participants gain insight into the ways ancient Greeks perceived, represented, and treated animals. Juxtaposing the importance of animals in modern society, as attested, for example, by their roles as pets, agents of healing, diplomatic gifts, and even as subjects of specialized studies such as animal law and animal geographies, the course also serves to expand awareness of attitudes towards animals in our own society as well as that of ancient Greece.

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ARCH B210 Daily Life in Ancient Egypt

Not offered 2025-26

In this course, learn about life growing up and getting old in ancient Egypt through their everyday food and drink including ancient recipes and massive factory installations for brewing beer, their clothing and adornment, education, household religion and the real beliefs of your average Egyptian often quite different from the religion sponsored by the pharaoh and the state. Learn about their illnesses and their medical treatments, types of jobs and complaints about lazy coworkers, life in the workmen's village of the great pyramid and the valley of the Kings, curses against enemies, disowning misbehaving adult children and even their leisure and playtime through games, sports, toys, and pets. This course will assess the diverse lives of a laborer, slave, foreigner, high-ranking official, pharaoh and more throughout Egypt from 2600 BC- 1080 BC in the village Lahun, the Egyptian capital Tell el-Amarna, the temple town in South Abydos, and the workman's village for the Giza pyramids and the Valley of the Kings. It will examine Egyptian life through artifacts including ivory wands and birthing bricks for childbirth, children's toys, weapons and tools, amulets, and more; tomb scenes of daily life; and societal values through fairy tales, love poetry, legal documents, letters, scribal training practice texts, work attendance rosters, and ostraca.

Writing Attentive

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

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ARCH B212 Visual Culture of the Ancient Mediterranean

Not offered 2025-26

This course explores the visual culture of the ancient Mediterranean world from the second millennium BCE to early Roman times. Drawing from an extensive variety of extant evidence that includes monuments, sculpture, paintings, mosaics, and artifacts deriving from culturally and geographically distinct areas, such as the Minoan world, Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Phoenicia, Cyprus, Greece, Macedonia, Italy, Tunisia, and Spain, the course explores how such evidence may have been viewed and experienced and how it may have, in turn, shaped the visual culture of the well-interconnected ancient Mediterranean world. Focusing on selected examples of evidence, including its materials, style, and methods of production, the course will also consider how past and current scholarly attitudes, approaches, and terminology have affected the understanding and interpretation of this evidence.

Writing Attentive

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward: Classical Languages; Classical Studies; Classics.

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ARCH B214 The Archaeology of Agricultural Revolutions in Western Asia

Not offered 2025-26

This course examines the archaeology of one of the most fundamental shifts to have occurred in human society in the last 12,000 years, the origins of agriculture. Via assigned readings, class work and lectures we will consider the varied factors which led (or did not lead) to the adoption of agriculture, questioning what the core building blocks of agricultural life were across Western Asia and exploring societies that did not experience these changes. We will also discuss the impacts these developments have had, and continue to have, on modern society and culture in the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. Themes covered will include societal organization, identity (gender, ethnicity, culture, personhood etc.), communication, and the relationships between humans, animals, and the environment. The class will also begin to address the relationships between colonialism and archaeology in Western Asia and explore what the future of a post-colonial and anti-racist archaeology looks like in this region.

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ARCH B215 Classical Art

Not offered 2025-26

A survey of the visual arts of ancient Greece and Rome from the Bronze Age through Late Imperial times (circa 3000 B.C.E. to 300 C.E.). Major categories of artistic production are examined in historical and social context, including interactions with neighboring areas and cultures; methodological and interpretive issues are highlighted.

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ARCH B222 Alexander the Great

Not offered 2025-26

This course examines the life, personality, career, and military achievements of Alexander the Great, as well as the extraordinary reception of his legacy in antiquity and through modern times. It uses historical, archaeological and art-historical evidence to reconstruct a comprehensive picture of Alexander's cultural background and examines the real and imaginary features of his life and afterlife as they developed in the Hellenistic and Roman worlds, Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and succeeding periods in both Europe and Asia. Special attention is also placed on the appeal that Alexander's life and achievements have generated and continue to retain in modern popular visual culture as evidenced from documentary films and motion pictures.

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ARCH B228 The Archaeology of Iran: From the Neolithic to Alexander the Great

Fall 2025

This course examines the archaeology of Iran from circa 6000 BC to the coming of Alexander the Great at the end of the fourth century BC. Through the course we examine the beginnings of agriculture, pastoralism and sedentary settlement in the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods; Bronze Age interaction between Iran, Mesopotamia, south Asia and the Arabian Gulf; developments within the Iron Age; and the emergence of the Achaemenid Empire (538-332BC).

Writing Attentive

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

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ARCH B229 Visual Culture of the Ancient Near East

Spring 2026

This course examines the visual culture of the Ancient Near East based on an extensive body of architectural, sculptural, and pictorial evidence dating from prehistoric times through the fifth century BCE. We will explore how a variety of surviving art, artifacts, sculpture, monuments, and architecture deriving from geographically distinct areas of the ancient Near East, such as Mesopotamia, the Eastern Mediterranean, Anatolia, and Iran, may have been viewed and experienced in their historical contexts, including the contribution of ancient materials and technologies of production in shaping this viewing and experience. By focusing on selected examples of diverse evidence, we will also consider how past and current scholarly methods and approaches, many of them art-historical, archaeological, and architectural in aim, have affected the understanding and interpretation of this evidence. In doing so, we will pay special attention to critical terms such as aesthetics, style, narrative, representation, and agency.

Writing Attentive

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Counts Toward: History of Art; Museum Studies.

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ARCH B233 Topics in Archaeological Principles and Methods

Section 001 (Fall 2024): Fieldwork
Section 001 (Fall 2025): Fieldwork

Fall 2025

This topic course explores methods used in Archaeology. Course content varies.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

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ARCH B235 Death and Burial in the Ancient Near East

Not offered 2025-26

Death is a shared human experience; however, it provokes a huge variety of responses; from the ad hoc and hasty burial of the deceased through to elaborate and lengthy funerary rituals. One of the most direct forms of evidence we have as archaeologists for the people who lived thousands of years ago are burials. The Ancient Near East also offers a rich corpus of textual and visual material, which can be used to explore the ways in which ancient societies conceptualized and thought about death, from the nature of the afterlife to the role of malevolent or helpful ghosts.

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ARCH B237 Art and Archaeology of Central Asia

Not offered 2025-26

Exploring the rich and vibrant cultural heritage of Central Asia, this course delves into the region's history, art, and archaeology spanning from the third millennium BCE to the eighth century CE. Central Asia, constituting the territory between western China and eastern Iran, served as the heartland of the ancient Silk Road. Despite its significance, the region's history and culture often remain shrouded in mystery, largely unknown to the academic community. This course sheds light on topics related to Central Asia, such as state formation, nomadism, religious beliefs, trade, and arts and crafts production of Central Asia, while emphasizing the region's interconnectedness with the broader world.

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ARCH B240 Archaeology and History of Ancient Mesopotamia

Not offered 2025-26

A survey of the material culture of ancient Mesopotamia, modern Iraq, from the earliest phases of state formation (circa 3500 B.C.E.) through the Achaemenid Persian occupation of the Near East (circa 331 B.C.E.). Emphasis will be on art, artifacts, monuments, religion, kingship, and the cuneiform tradition. The survival of the cultural legacy of Mesopotamia into later ancient and Islamic traditions will also be addressed.

Writing Attentive

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward: History of Art.

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ARCH B242 Colonies and Colonization in the Ancient Mediterranean

Not offered 2025-26

This course focuses on the character and consequences of colonization, colonialism, and imperialism in the ancient Mediterranean. Using archaeological and textual evidence, we will examine the history, practice, and physical manifestations of colonization from the earliest Phoenician and Greek colonies through the imperial world of the Roman Empire. We will discuss a variety of approaches and frameworks used to explore the intersection of migration and mobility, colonization and colonialism, and imperial states and identities in the Classical world, and will explore the impact of these processes on the development of wider Mediterranean networks, identities, and histories.

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ARCH B244 Great Empires of the Ancient Near East

Not offered 2025-26

A survey of the history, material culture, political and religious ideologies of, and interactions among, the five great empires of the ancient Near East of the second and first millennia B.C.E.: New Kingdom Egypt, the Hittite Empire in Anatolia, the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires in Mesopotamia, and the Persian Empire in Iran.

Writing Attentive

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward: Growth and Structure of Cities; History; International Studies; Political Science.

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ARCH B246 Classical Antiquity in Movies

Not offered 2025-26

This course explores the visual representations and the narratives of the Graeco-Roman times on screen. From silent films to modern Hollywood productions through Netflix, Amazon, and other streaming services productions, students will discuss the impact of classical antiquity in the film-making industry. We will be looking into how the depiction of different aspects of the Greek and Roman past (literature, history, art, archaeology) are used (and misused) on screen and in which way these productions influence the way we understand the ancient world.

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ARCH B247 The World of Gilgamesh

Not offered 2025-26

This course explores how the people of ancient Mesopotamia perceive and comprehend the fundamental questions of human existence, such as the intricacies of life and death, gender and sexuality, the relationship between humans and the divine, and the definition of self-identity in relation to the outside world, through an examination of the literary works and archaeological remains from the ancient Near East. Guided by the epic tale of Gilgamesh, the legendary king of Uruk in Mesopotamian mythology, we will journey back to the mesmerizing world of the fourth and third millennium BCE, when human civilizations first emerged and thrived. This course offers an immersive experience, enabling students to unleash their intellectual creativity through dramatic performances and curation of a digital exhibit showcasing early Mesopotamian civilization.

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ARCH B249 The Archaeology of Urban Revolutions in Western Asia

Not offered 2025-26

This course examines the archaeology of one of the most fundamental developments to have occurred in human society in the last 6,000 years, the origins of cities. Via assigned readings, class work and lectures we will consider the varied factors which led (or did not lead) to the emergence of cities, questioning what cities were (and are) and how they functioned in the ancient world. We will explore different trajectories towards urbanism that can be identified in the archaeological record and consider societies that did not experience these changes. By exploring processes and practices over the long-term, students will address issues of inequality in the earliest urban societies, developing an understanding of how axes of power and difference interacted to produce inequalities and hierarchies. We will also discuss the impacts these developments have had, and continue to have, on modern society and culture in the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. Themes covered will include the 'urban revolution', rurality and urbanism, urban planning and growth, houses and households, communication and mobility, climate and environment, power and inequality.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Power, Inequity, and Justice (PIJ)

Counts Toward: Growth and Structure of Cities.

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ARCH B250 Digital Archaeology

Not offered 2025-26

This course covers the innovative changes that have been brought about in Archaeology and Heritage Studies by new technologies and methodological approaches. Remote sensing data analysis, augmented reality, machine learning software, online collaborative platforms, and 3D tools are revolutionizing the way in which data is collected, managed, conserved, and disseminated. A combination of a survey of cutting-edge digital methods and applications, select case studies from Eurasia, and hands-on sessions enables students to gain a good understanding of the potential of digital tools. Prerequisite: ARCH B233.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

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ARCH B252 Pompeii

Not offered 2025-26

Introduces students to a nearly intact archaeological site whose destruction by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 C.E. was recorded by contemporaries. The discovery of Pompeii in the mid-1700s had an enormous impact on 18th- and 19th-century views of the Roman past as well as styles and preferences of the modern era. Informs students in classical antiquity, urban life, city structure, residential architecture, home decoration and furnishing, wall painting, minor arts and craft and mercantile activities within a Roman city.

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward: Classical Languages; Classical Studies; Classics; Growth and Structure of Cities; History of Art; Museum Studies.

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ARCH B253 Gender Archaeology in Pre-Islamic Western Asia

Not offered 2025-26

This course explores the intersections of gender and archaeology in Western Asia during the pre-Islamic periods. It examines how diverse social groups use multiple means to construct, perform, and negotiate gender, sex, identities. The course discusses gender's intricate relationship with class, sexuality, and religion through analysis of texts, visual representations, spatial organization, and other material traces of the past. Grounded in the tradition of gender archaeology, this course draws on various discourses and interpretive frameworks to offer new archaeological approaches for understanding and discussing gender dynamics in both past and present societies.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Power, Inequity, and Justice (PIJ)

Counts Toward: Gender Sexuality Studies.

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ARCH B254 Cleopatra

Not offered 2025-26

This course examines the life and rule of Cleopatra VII, the last queen of Ptolemaic Egypt, and the reception of her legacy in the Early Roman Empire and the western world from the Renaissance to modern times. The first part of the course explores extant literary evidence regarding the upbringing, education, and rule of Cleopatra within the contexts of Egyptian and Ptolemaic cultures, her relationships with Julius Caesar and Marc Antony, her conflict with Octavian, and her death by suicide in 30 BCE. The second part examines constructions of Cleopatra in Roman literature, her iconography in surviving art, and her contributions to and influence on both Ptolemaic and Roman art. A detailed account is also provided of the afterlife of Cleopatra in the literature, visual arts, scholarship, and film of both Europe and the United States, extending from the papal courts of Renaissance Italy and Shakespearean drama, to Thomas Jefferson's art collection at Monticello and Joseph Mankiewicz's 1963 epic film, Cleopatra.

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ARCH B256 Classical Myths in Art and in the Sky

Spring 2026

This course explores Greek and Roman mythology using an archaeological and art historical approach, focusing on the ways in which the traditional tales of the gods and heroes were depicted, developed and transmitted in the visual arts such as vase painting and architectural sculpture, as well as projected into the natural environment.

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward: Classical Culture and Society; History of Art; Museum Studies.

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ARCH B260 Daily Life in Ancient Greece and Rome

Not offered 2025-26

The often-praised achievements of the classical cultures arose from the realities of day-to-day life. This course surveys the rich body of material and textual evidence pertaining to how ancient Greeks and Romans -- famous and obscure alike -- lived and died. Topics include housing, food, clothing, work, leisure, and family and social life.

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ARCH B265 Landscape Archaeology

Fall 2025

This course explores the principles and methodologies of landscape archaeology, examining how past communities have consciously and unconsciously shaped their environments and physical space. Through a combination of archaeological and historical evidence, students will investigate the cultural, economic, religious, and social practices that influenced landscape organization and the construction and maintenance of space in the ancient world. The course will also examine how natural surroundings have, in turn, shaped and modified socio-economic structures, and symbolic expressions. Focusing on the Mediterranean and South-West Asia, primarily, the course also aims to equipping students with both theoretical knowledge and practical skills essential for understanding the long-terms dynamics and the complex relationship between people and their environments across time and space.

Writing Attentive

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Power, Inequity, and Justice (PIJ)

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ARCH B301 Greek Vase-Painting

Fall 2025

This course is an introduction to the world of painted pottery of the Greek world, from the 10th to the 4th centuries B.C.E. We will interpret these images from an art-historical and socio-economic viewpoint. We will also explore how these images relate to other forms of representation. Prerequisite: one course in classical archaeology or permission of instructor.

Counts Toward: Classical Studies; Classics; History of Art.

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ARCH B304 Archaeology of Greek Religion

Not offered 2025-26

This course approaches the topic of ancient Greek religion by focusing on surviving archaeological, architectural, epigraphical, artistic and literary evidence that dates from the Archaic and Classical periods. By examining a wealth of diverse evidence that ranges, for example, from temple architecture, and feasting and banqueting equipment to inscriptions, statues, vase paintings, and descriptive texts, the course enables the participants to analyze the value and complexity of the archaeology of Greek religion and to recognize its significance for the reconstruction of daily life in ancient Greece. Special emphasis is placed on subjects such as the duties of priests and priestesses, the violence of animal sacrifice, the function of cult statues and votive offerings and also the important position of festivals and hero and mystery cults in ancient Greek religious thought and experience.

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ARCH B312 Bronze Age Internationalism

Not offered 2025-26

This course explores the rise and fall of the first international age in the eastern mediterranean. We will focus on the cultural and diplomatic connections between Egypt, Syria, Anatolia and the Aegean during the Bronze Age, c. 2000-1200BCE.. Prerequisites: ARCH B101 and 102; ARCH B101 and a 200-level ARCH course; or ARCH B102 and a 200-level ARCH course; or two 200-level ARCH courses; or permission by instructor.

Writing Attentive

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ARCH B314 Ancient Greek Seafaring and Shipwrecks

Not offered 2025-26

This course examines the diverse evidence for ancient Greek seafaring and shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea from prehistory to the beginning of the Roman Empire. By focusing on archaeological, literary, iconographic, and epigraphic evidence, the course explores ancient Greek, Phoenician, Etruscan, and Roman interconnections in the Mediterranean Sea, through special attention to trade routes, commerce, colonization, economy, naval and maritime technology, cultural interactions, sea exploration, and piracy.

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ARCH B316 Trade and Transport in the Ancient World

Not offered 2025-26

Issues of trade, commerce and production of export goods are addressed with regard to the Bronze Age and Iron Age cultures of Mesopotamia, Arabia, Iran and south Asia. Crucial to these systems is the development of means of transport via maritime routes and on land. Archaeological evidence for traded goods and shipwrecks is used to map the emergence of sea-faring across the Indian Ocean and Gulf.

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ARCH B317 Cultural Heritage and Endangered Archaeology

Not offered 2025-26

This course will examine how and why archaeological sites are 'endangered'. Primarily focusing on the Near East and North Africa (the MENA region), we will examine the different types of archaeological and heritage sites found across this broad region, and some of the threats and disturbances affecting them. We will consider how different interest groups and stakeholders view, value and present historical and archaeological sites to the general public, as well as the success of modern initiatives and projects to safeguard the heritage of the MENA region. Our research will consider the ethics of cultural preservation, as well as the issues and problems encountered by heritage specialists working in areas of modern conflict. Whilst not all damage can be prevented, the course will consider how different threats and disturbances might be mitigated. Prerequisite: Upper level 300-level course. Students should have completed at least two 100 level/200 level courses in either classical or near eastern archaeology.

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ARCH B328 The Roman Empire in South West Asia

Spring 2026

This course examines the impact - or lack thereof - the Roman Empire had on the visual and material culture in the Eastern Mediterranean and South-West Asia from the 2nd century BCE to the 5th century CE. To understand the local response to Rome's expansion, we study the complex political and social structures that were in place in these regions long before the arrival of Rome as well as the agents that continuously negotiated between Rome, local polities, and external factors (i.e., nomadic tribes). We will explore the multi-faceted world of the easternmost provinces of the Roman Empire with reference to archaeological, visual, and textual sources and adopt counter-narrative approaches to critically discuss the nature of colonial and imperial encounters. The completion of ARCH B101 (Egyptian and Near Eastern Archaeology) or 102 (Classical Archaeology) is a prerequisite for this course.

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ARCH B329 Archaeology and National Imagination in Modern Greece

Not offered 2025-26

This course explores the link between archaeology, antiquity and the national imagination in modern Greece from the establishment of the Greek state in the early nineteenth century to present times. Drawing from a variety of disciplines, including history, archaeology, art history, sociology, anthropology, ethnography, and political science, the course examines the pivotal role of archaeology and the classical past in the construction of national Greek identity. Special emphasis is placed on the concepts of Hellenism and nationalism, the European rediscovery of Greece in the Romantic era, and the connection between classical archaeology and Philhellenism from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. Additional topics of study include the presence of foreign archaeological schools in Greece, the Greek perception of archaeology, the politics of display in Greek museums, and the importance and power of specific ancient sites, monuments, and events, such as the Athenian Acropolis, the Parthenon, and the Olympic Games, in the construction and preservation of Greek national identity.

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ARCH B345 The Archaeology of Inequality

Not offered 2025-26

Archaeology offers a unique perspective to study and analyze how past inequalities developed over time, how they were maintained, negated, or transformed, and how societies responded to them or rejected them. Drawing upon different sets of data- including visual and material culture as well as bio-archaeological remains - and employing anthropological, social, and critical theory approaches, this course explores inequalities with reference to society, ethnicity, gender, and economy. We will use a wide range of case studies across the ancient Mediterranean, from Prehistory to Late Antiquity, to explore different trajectories of inequality and their manifestations in large-scale and long-term phenomena of war, economic crises, environmental transformation, and colonialism. Prerequisite(s): ARCH B101 and 102; or ARCH B101 and a 200-level ARCH course; or ARCH B102 and a 200-level ARCH course; or two 200-level ARCH courses

Course does not meet an Approach

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ARCH B347 Ancient Artifacts in the Bryn Mawr Special Collections

Not offered 2025-26

Centered on the question, how we can learn from and through objects, this course explores a selected corpus of artifacts from the ancient Mediterranean in the Bryn Mawr Special Collections with the aim to uncover how these objects were made and used and what they might have meant to their ancient users. Students will handle, study, and interpret a variety of artifacts made of clay, metal, stone, and glass, ranging from vessels, mirrors, and statuettes to mosaics and frescoes used originally in a variety of contexts of ancient Mediterranean daily life and spanning now their second-life as constituents of the Bryn Mawr Special Collections. Through close observation and analysis of the procurement and trade of the raw materials of these objects and their manufacturing techniques and decoration, including its themes, which extend from daily scenes and mythological tales to colorful abstract motifs and intriguing inscriptions, students will examine the use and function of these artifacts as evidence of meaningful ancient Mediterranean cultural thought, behavior, and experience. Interpretation will be based on close observation and active and experiential learning, through tactile engagement with these objects, comparing and contrasting them, studying their conservation, and inquiring, through deep critical thinking, archival work, and reflexivity, about their provenience, collecting, and digital itineraries. Prerequisites: ARCH B101 and B102.

Writing Attentive

Power, Inequity, and Justice (PIJ)

Counts Toward: Museum Studies.

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ARCH B352 Ancient Egyptian Archaeology

Not offered 2025-26

This course will examine two aspects of ancient Egyptian Archaeology. This first is the history of archaeological work in Egypt: tracing methodological developments, the impact of imperialism, colonialism, and race-based theories of the 19th and early 20th centuries on the development of archaeological thought, and where the field of archaeology in Egypt stands today. The second will examine settlements in ancient Egypt - from workmen's villages to planned "temple towns" to "lost cities" - in order to understand the built environment inhabited by the ancient Egyptians. Although the material that the ancient Egyptians used to build their homes, as well as their location in the flood-plain, often makes finding and studying settlements difficult, there are sources of evidence that can help us to rediscover where and how the ancient Egyptians lived, and allow us to reevaluate older theories about ancient Egyptian culture and society.

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ARCH B354 Money in the Ancient World

Spring 2026

In this course we shall investigate the ancient world through one of its most fundamental institutions: money. We will learn about different types of ancient money, including coinage, bullion, grain and credit, the various coins used by the Greeks and Romans (as well as other groups, such as ancient Mesopotamians, Persians, Indians and Jews), and about the different methods used to study them. The seminar takes an interdisciplinary approach to major topics in the history of money, including the origins of coinage, monetization, imitations and forgeries, debasement, trade, and the politics of issuing coins. We shall think about economics and social history, as well as the role played by coins in archaeology, and the complex ethical (and legal) issues surrounding the modern practice of coin collecting.

Counts Toward: Classics.

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ARCH B355 The Achaemenid Empire

Not offered 2025-26

This course explores the art, history, and archaeology of the Achaemenid Empire. Between 550 and 330 B.C., the Achaemenid kings of Iran controlled the largest and greatest empire the world has seen up until that time. By studying the art, architecture, politics, religion, burial customs, administration, economy, and warfare of Achaemenid Persia, the course offers a unique insight into the wealth, splendor, and diversity of one of the most powerful empires of the ancient Near East. Because the Achaemenid Empire exerted great influence on the ancient Mediterranean world, the contacts and conflict between ancient Greece and Persia will be also examined, from an ancient Greek perspective, in order to understand how this perspective contributed to the misapprehension of the Achaemenid Empire in modern Western thought.

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ARCH B357 The Hellenistic Age: Art in a Multicultural World

Fall 2025

Following the campaigns of Alexander, the Greeks spread across the Middle East as far as Egypt, Central Asia and India, where they encountered many cultures vastly different from their own. The result was the creation of a diverse, multicultural world, connected by shared elements such as the use of the Greek language, but in which every individual region and society was unique. This diversity is especially evident in the art produced in this period, where we see the Greek obsession with human form, preferably nude, mixing with older artistic traditions in Egypt and Mesopotamia that relied on hierarchy and repetition to perform their functions. In Italy the Romans adopted aspects of Greek art as a means of disrupting their rather stodgy political ideology, with mixed results, whereas in India Greek motifs, popular for reasons as yet unknown, were pressed into the service of Buddhism. In this course we shall examine the art of this dynamic period from ca. 300 to 30 BCE. It is organized geographically, beginning in the Greek mainland and moving across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe to Iran, Central Asia and India. We will focus especially on themes of interaction - how do old and new artistic traditions combine? - and identity - what did these combinations mean to the people who made and used them? - as well as on the roles of power and resistance. Prerequisites: ARCH B101 and 102; or ARCH B101 and a 200-level ARCH course; or ARCH B102 and a 200-level ARCH course; or two 200-level ARCH courses; or permission by instructor.

Counts Toward: Classics.

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ARCH B398 Senior Seminar in Classical Archaeology

A weekly seminar on topics to be determined with assigned readings and oral and written reports.

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ARCH B399 Senior Seminar

A weekly seminar on common topics with assigned readings and oral and written reports.

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ARCH B403 Supervised Work

Supervised Work

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ARCH B425 Praxis III: Independent Study

Note: Students are eligible to take up to two Praxis Fieldwork Seminars or Praxis Independent Studies during their time at Bryn Mawr.

Counts Toward: Praxis Program.

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ARCH B501 Greek Vase Painting

Fall 2025

This course is an introduction to the world of painted pottery of the Greek world, from the 10th to the 4th centuries B.C.E. We will interpret these images from an art-historical and socio-economic viewpoint. We will also explore how these images relate to other forms of representation. Prerequisite: one course in classical archaeology or permission of instructor.

Counts Toward: Classical Studies; Classics; History of Art.

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ARCH B504 Archaeology of Greek Religion

Not offered 2025-26

This course approaches the topic of ancient Greek religion by focusing on surviving archaeological, architectural, epigraphical, artistic and literary evidence that dates from the Archaic and Classical periods. By examining a wealth of diverse evidence that ranges, for example, from temple architecture, and feasting and banqueting equipment to inscriptions, statues, vase paintings, and descriptive texts, the course enables the participants to analyze the value and complexity of the archaeology of Greek religion and to recognize its significance for the reconstruction of daily life in ancient Greece. Special emphasis is placed on subjects such as the duties of priests and priestesses, the violence of animal sacrifice, the function of cult statues and votive offerings and also the important position of festivals and hero and mystery cults in ancient Greek religious thought and experience.

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ARCH B512 Bronze Age Internationalism

Not offered 2025-26

This course explores the rise and fall of the first international age in the eastern Mediterranean. We will focus on the cultural and diplomatic connections between Egypt, Syria, Anatolia and the Aegean during the Bronze Age, c. 2000-1200BCE.

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ARCH B514 Ancient Greek Seafaring and Shipwrecks

Not offered 2025-26

This course examines the diverse evidence for ancient Greek seafaring and shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea from prehistory to the beginning of the Roman Empire. By focusing on archaeological, literary, iconographic, and epigraphic evidence, the course explores ancient Greek, Phoenician, Etruscan, and Roman interconnections in the Mediterranean Sea, through special attention to trade routes, commerce, colonization, economy, naval and maritime technology, cultural interactions, sea exploration, and piracy.

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ARCH B516 Trade and Transport in the Ancient World

Not offered 2025-26

Issues of trade, commerce and production of export goods are addressed with regard to the Bronze Age and Iron Age cultures of Mesopotamia, Arabia, Iran and south Asia. Crucial to these systems is the development of means of transport via maritime routes and on land. Archaeological evidence for traded goods and shipwrecks is used to map the emergence of sea-faring across the Indian Ocean and Gulf while bio-archaeological data is employed to examine the transformative role that Bactrian and Dromedary camels played in ancient trade and transport.

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ARCH B517 Cultural Heritage and Endangered Archaeology

Not offered 2025-26

This course will examine how and why archaeological sites are 'endangered'. Primarily focusing on the Near East and North Africa (the MENA region), we will examine the different types of archaeological and heritage sites found across this broad region, and some of the threats and disturbances affecting them. We will consider how different interest groups and stakeholders view, value and present historical and archaeological sites to the general public, as well as the success of modern initiatives and projects to safeguard the heritage of the MENA region. Our research will consider the ethics of cultural preservation, as well as the issues and problems encountered by heritage specialists working in areas of modern conflict. Whilst not all damage can be prevented, the course will consider how different threats and disturbances might be mitigated.

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ARCH B524 Topics in Art and Archaeology of Iran

Not offered 2025-26

This course examines the relationships between texts and material culture of ancient Iran, following two lines of inquiry. First, it explores possible connections between the iconography on seals and carved stone objects from Bronze Age sites in southeastern Iran and certain fundamental themes in the Zoroastrian traditions embedded in the later Avestan texts. Second, it investigates the location of the ancient polity of Marhashi mentioned in ancient Mesopotamian texts. The course evaluates the likelihood that at least some roots of Avestan religious mythology can be traced back to the Bronze Age civilization of southeastern Iran. It also scrutinizes theories identifying Bronze Age sites in Kerman, southeastern Iran, or sites in western Central Asia such as Gonur Tepe in Turkmenistan as the location of Marhashi. The course adopts an interdisciplinary approach, engaging art historical, archaeological, historical and anthropological methods.

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ARCH B528 The Roman Empire in South West Asia

Spring 2026

This course examines the impact - or lack thereof - the Roman Empire had on the visual and material culture in the Eastern Mediterranean and South-West Asia from the 2nd century BCE to the 5th century CE. To understand the local response to Rome's expansion, we study the complex political and social structures that were in place in these regions long before the arrival of Rome as well as the agents that continuously negotiated between Rome, local polities, and external factors (i.e., nomadic tribes). We will explore the multi-faceted world of the easternmost provinces of the Roman Empire with reference to archaeological, visual, and textual sources and adopt counter-narrative approaches to critically discuss the nature of colonial and imperial encounters.

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ARCH B529 Archaeology and National Imagination in Modern Greece

Not offered 2025-26

This course explores the link between archaeology, antiquity and the national imagination in modern Greece from the establishment of the Greek state in the early nineteenth century to present times. Drawing from a variety of disciplines, including history, archaeology, art history, sociology, anthropology, ethnography, and political science, the course examines the pivotal role of archaeology and the classical past in the construction of national Greek identity. Special emphasis is placed on the concepts of Hellenism and nationalism, the European rediscovery of Greece in the Romantic era, and the connection between classical archaeology and Philhellenism from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. Additional topics of study include the presence of foreign archaeological schools in Greece, the Greek perception of archaeology, the politics of display in Greek museums, and the importance and power of specific ancient sites, monuments, and events, such as the Athenian Acropolis, the Parthenon, and the Olympic Games, in the construction and preservation of Greek national identity.

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ARCH B545 The Archaeology of Inequality

Not offered 2025-26

Archaeology offers a unique perspective to study and analyze how past inequalities developed over time, how they were maintained, negated, or transformed, and how societies responded to them or rejected them. Drawing upon different sets of data- including visual and material culture as well as bio-archaeological remains - and employing anthropological, social, and critical theory approaches, this course explores inequalities with reference to society, ethnicity, gender, and economy. We will use a wide range of case studies across the ancient Mediterranean, from Prehistory to Late Antiquity, to explore different trajectories of inequality and their manifestations in large-scale and long-term phenomena of war, economic crises, environmental transformation, and colonialism.

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ARCH B547 Ancient Artifacts in the Bryn Mawr Special Collections

Not offered 2025-26

Centered on the question, how we can learn from and through objects, this course explores a selected corpus of artifacts from the ancient Mediterranean in the Bryn Mawr Special Collections with the aim to uncover how these objects were made and used and what they might have meant to their ancient users. Students will handle, study, and interpret a variety of artifacts made of clay, metal, stone, and glass, ranging from vessels, mirrors, and statuettes to mosaics and frescoes used originally in a variety of contexts of ancient Mediterranean daily life and spanning now their second-life as constituents of the Bryn Mawr Special Collections. Through close observation and analysis of the procurement and trade of the raw materials of these objects and their manufacturing techniques and decoration, including its themes, which extend from daily scenes and mythological tales to colorful abstract motifs and intriguing inscriptions, students will examine the use and function of these artifacts as evidence of meaningful ancient Mediterranean cultural thought, behavior, and experience. Interpretation will be based on close observation and active and experiential learning, through tactile engagement with these objects, comparing and contrasting them, studying their conservation, and inquiring, through deep critical thinking, archival work, and reflexivity, about their provenience, collecting, and digital itineraries.

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ARCH B552 Egyptian Architecture: New Kingdom

Not offered 2025-26

A proseminar that concentrates on the principles of ancient Egyptian monumental architecture with an emphasis on the New Kingdom. The primary focus of the course is temple design, but palaces, representative settlements, and examples of Graeco-Roman temples of the Nile Valley will also be dealt with.

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ARCH B554 Money in the Ancient World

Spring 2026

In this course we shall investigate the ancient world through one of its most fundamental institutions: money. We will learn about different types of ancient money, including coinage, bullion, grain and credit, the various coins used by the Greeks and Romans (as well as other groups, such as ancient Mesopotamians, Persians, Indians and Jews), and about the different methods used to study them. The seminar takes an interdisciplinary approach to major topics in the history of money, including the origins of coinage, monetization, imitations and forgeries, debasement, trade, and the politics of issuing coins. We shall think about economics and social history, as well as the role played by coins in archaeology, and the complex ethical (and legal) issues surrounding the modern practice of coin collecting.

Counts Toward: Classics.

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ARCH B555 The Achaemenid Empire

Not offered 2025-26

This course explores the art, history, and archaeology of the Achaemenid Empire. Between 550 and 330 B.C., the Achaemenid kings of Iran controlled the largest and greatest empire the world has seen up until that time. By studying the art, architecture, politics, religion, burial customs, administration, economy, and warfare of Achaemenid Persia, the course offers a unique insight into the wealth, splendor, and diversity of one of the most powerful empires of the ancient Near East. Because the Achaemenid Empire exerted great influence on the ancient Mediterranean world, the contacts and conflict between ancient Greece and Persia will be also examined, from an ancient Greek perspective, in order to understand how this perspective contributed to the misapprehension of the Achaemenid Empire in modern Western thought.

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ARCH B557 The Hellenistic Age: Art in a Multicultural World

Fall 2025

Following the campaigns of Alexander, the Greeks spread across the Middle East as far as Egypt, Central Asia and India, where they encountered many cultures vastly different from their own. The result was the creation of a diverse, multicultural world, connected by shared elements such as the use of the Greek language, but in which every individual region and society was unique. This diversity is especially evident in the art produced in this period, where we see the Greek obsession with human form, preferably nude, mixing with older artistic traditions in Egypt and Mesopotamia that relied on hierarchy and repetition to perform their functions. In Italy the Romans adopted aspects of Greek art as a means of disrupting their rather stodgy political ideology, with mixed results, whereas in India Greek motifs, popular for reasons as yet unknown, were pressed into the service of Buddhism. In this course we shall examine the art of this dynamic period from ca. 300 to 30 BCE. It is organized geographically, beginning in the Greek mainland and moving across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe to Iran, Central Asia and India. We will focus especially on themes of interaction - how do old and new artistic traditions combine? - and identity - what did these combinations mean to the people who made and used them? - as well as on the roles of power and resistance.

Counts Toward: Classics.

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ARCH B602 Graduate Intensive Survey

Fall 2025

This course introduces the art and archaeology of the ancient Near East and Egypt, from ca. 10,000 to 330 BCE. Supplementing the lectures, discussions, and readings of ARCH B101, graduate students will participate in an additional weekly discussion of methodological and interpretive issues and topical debates in the field, based on the reading of relevant case-studies and analyses.

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ARCH B603 Graduate Intensive Survey

Spring 2026

A historical survey of the archaeology and art of Greece, Etruria, and Rome.

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ARCH B672 Archaeology of Rubbish

Not offered 2025-26

This course explores a range of approaches to the study of waste and dirt as well as practices and processes of disposal and recycling in past and present societies. Particular attention will be paid to understanding and interpreting spacial disposal patterns, identifying votive deposits (bothroi), and analyzing the use of dirt(y waste) in negotiating social differences.

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ARCH B701 Supervised Work

Fall 2025, Spring 2026

Unit of supervised work

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ARCH B705 Curatorial Praxis

Not offered 2025-26

For students completing a curatorial internship only. Students on a F1 VISA require CPT authorization to engage in an internship off campus and must register for the course.

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CITY B201 Introduction to GIS for Social and Environmental Analysis

Fall 2025, Spring 2026

This course is designed to introduce the foundations of GIS with emphasis on applications for social and environmental analysis. It deals with basic principles of GIS and its use in spatial analysis and information management. Ultimately, students will design and carry out research projects on topics of their own choosing. Prerequisite: At least sophomore standing and Quantitative Readiness are required (i.e.the quantitative readiness assessment or Quan B001).

Quantitative Readiness Required (QR)

Counts Toward: Classical & Near Eastern Arch; Data Science; Environmental Studies; Environmental Studies.

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GSEM B608 Material Geologies

Not offered 2025-26

This course mobilizes a humanistically informed approach to the study of geological materials, with a focus on late antique and medieval understandings of stones, minerals, metals, and land formation(s). Readings will encompass current perspectives on the diverse epistemologies of geology in the pre-modern world, from the magical and medicinal properties of gems, to the relation of stone and earth to concepts of empire, to mythologies of landscape and geomorphology. Students will explore primary textual sources such as ancient and medieval magical treatises, travel literature, and lapidaries, including works by Pliny the Elder, Procopius, Paul the Silentiary, and Michael Psellos. The course will also foreground visual and material culture, introducing students to both conventional and innovative methodologies and theoretical frameworks for exploring human understandings of the natural world from an interdisciplinary perspective. Students will work with Bryn Mawr's outstanding collection of geological samples and will learn fundamentals of mineral identification and crystallography. Final projects are expected to build from students' primary research interests and disciplinary investments. Course enrollment is limited to graduate students in the departments of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology; Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies; and History of Art.

Counts Toward: Classical & Near Eastern Arch; Classical Studies; History of Art.

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GSEM B619 Death and Beyond

Not offered 2025-26

The question of what happens after the moment of death has always fascinated humanity - at one moment there is a living person, the next only a corpse; where did the person go? Every culture struggles with these questions of death and afterlife - what does it mean to die and what happens after death? This seminar will examine a variety of types of evidence - archaeological, poetic, and philosophical - to uncover ideas of death and afterlife in some of the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean world, with particular attention to the similarities and differences between ideas of death and beyond in the cultures of Greece, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. Van Gennep's model of death as a rite de passage provides the basic structure for the class, which is divided into three sections, each concerned with one section of the transition: Dying - leaving the world of the living; Liminality - the transition between the worlds; and Afterlife - existence after death. This anthropological model allows us to analyze the different discourses about death and afterlife.

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GSEM B624 Greek Tragedy in Performance

Not offered 2025-26

In this seminar we will approach Greek dramatic texts from two angles: theoretically and experientially. On the one hand, we will be reading (in English translation) the tragedies of the three great playwrights of Classical Athens-Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides-while examining their treatment of myth, systems of metaphor and imagery, and the role of the chorus, as well as the relevance of Greek tragedy for subsequent centuries down to the present day. Special attention will be given to such themes as fate and predestination; relation between mortals and immortals; disability; euthanasia; slavery; and the impact of war on women and children. On the other, concurrent with our textual analysis, we will be reading Constantin Stanislavski, Michael Chekhov and other modern theater theorists. We will be applying these acting techniques to the texts in practice (i.e., performing them in class!) as we ask the question, What can be gained from stepping inside the plays and trying them on? No prior acting experience is necessary: just a curiosity about bringing ancient texts to life through the medium of one's body!

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GSEM B625 Dots and Loops: Form and Aesthetics Across Time and Media

Fall 2025

Though it has long been at the heart of aesthetic criticism, the subject of form as an axis of methodological inquiry has regained conspicuous popularity in recent years. Scholars working across, and at the intersection of, various media--including but not limited to material culture, visual art, sound, film, and literature--have been thinking through the ways that form both informs and is informed by what were considered its various antitheses, such as history, politics, and the material archive. The presumed extrication of external "context" was integral to a hermeneutic of form. This was a driving factor, for instance, in nineteenth-century formalism, used to construct coherent narratives surrounding Classical Antiquity through archaeological and art historical understandings of ornament and architecture. These interests continued with the inception of Russian literary Formalism in the early twentieth century, and then French narratology of the midcentury, for whom Homeric form was particularly important. This seminar will examine the various modes of formalist analysis that have emerged in contemporary criticism and their relationships to the formalisms that have come before, studying them alongside artworks across media and through various global histories. How can form speak across Art History, Classics, and Archaeology and to projects that vary widely in their temporal and geographic scopes, we will ask? What does attention to form yield for interdisciplinary scholars, specifically? What are the scope and limits of thinking with lines, dots, loops, circles, squares, parabolas, and shapes of any kind?

Counts Toward: Classical & Near Eastern Arch; Classical Studies; Classics; Classics; History of Art.

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GSEM B652 Interdepartmental Seminar: History and Memory

Not offered 2025-26

The seminar will begin by establishing the categories of history and memory, as they have been constituted across the humanistic disciplines, defining and refining the epistemological and ontological distinctions between the two. Readings will be drawn first from the writings of Nietzsche and Freud and then move to the work of Barthes, Caruth, Connerton, Foucault, Guha, Gundaker, La Capra, Margolit, Nora, Sebald, Todorov, and Yerushalmi. Once a grounding context is established, the second half of the seminar will be organized around a set of categories, ranging from the material to the theoretical, through which we will continue our explorations in history and memory, among them, the following: trauma, witness, archive, document, evidence, monument, memorial, relic, trace. It is here that we would each draw specifically on our own disciplinary formations and call upon students to do the same. The seminar would, of course, be open to all students in the graduate group.

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