ENROLL

Baird Jarman

Johannes M. Wietzke

From the beginnings of their civilization, the Greeks were aware that they inhabited just a small corner of a much larger world. How did they imagine faraway places and peoples? What did ancient maps look like? How much have Greek literature and science shaped later geographical thought and practice, from the Roman Empire to the European “Age of Exploration” to our own “Age of Google”? Drawing on various sources in translation, we will explore the literary and scientific frontiers of ancient geography and trace its legacy into the modern world.

Held for new first year students

Pierre Hecker

Crosslisted with ENGL 244

Cross-listed with ENGL 244.00

Pierre Hecker

Crosslisted with ENGL 144

William North

Arising over a period of two medieval centuries, the gothic cathedrals of Europe symbolize at once faith, political and economic power, local identity, and technological and artistic achievement. Later generations commemorated them in literature and art, destroyed them in their political and religious zeal, and restored them (and continue to restore them) out of different sort of political zeal as well as a sense of duty and opportunity to preserve a national and European cultural inheritance and tourist treasure. In this course, we seek to understand the cathedral and its enduring legacy in Europe, and especially in France, from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives and using a variety of media and sources. 

Austin Mason

Why did barbarians invade? Traders trade? Pilgrims travel? Vikings raid? Medieval Europe is sometimes caricatured as a world of small villages and strong traditions that saw little change between the cultural high-water marks of Rome and the Renaissance. In fact, this was a period of dynamic innovation, during which Europeans met many familiar challenges—environmental change, religious and cultural conflict, social and political competition—by traveling or migrating to seek new opportunities. This course will examine mobility and migration in northern Europe, and students will be introduced to diverse methodological approaches to their study by exploring historical and literary sources, archaeological evidence and scientific techniques involving DNA and isotopic analyses.

Held for new first year students

William North

This course examines the nature, theory, and functions of religious images in Byzantium and surrounding regions (Armenia, Coptic Egypt, Ethiopia, the Slavic world, and the Latin West) as well as the perspectives of those who criticized them. Special attention will be paid to debates over the nature of icon veneration within Byzantine society itself and across religious boundaries; the role of images in the cult of saints; and the role of icons in the formation of religious, social, and political identities. Projects in this class will support a special exhibition in Winter 2018. History 203 winter term 2018 will require History 202 Fall 2017.

Allison Murphy

This course will center on a close reading of two texts, Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, both of which address what is arguably the core concern in the ancient ethical tradition: the relationship between the morally good life and the happy life. In keeping with the ancient tendency to resist a sharp divide between the private and political spheres, we will examine the significance of Plato and Aristotle’s reflections on the good human life both for the individual and for the broader community.

Sonja Anderson

What is a perfect body, and how do you get one? What makes a body, or a mind, imperfect, and what can be done about it? How are human bodies different from animal, angelic, demonic, and divine bodies, and what happens when these bodies come into contact with each other? This course considers the breakdown (illness) and manipulation (magic and medicine) of the mind and body, particularly within premodern Christianity, Judaism, and Greco-Roman traditions. Through a series of close readings and discussions, this course interrogates the categories of illness, magic, and medicine in antiquity and in select instances today. Topics include demons, gender, relics, ancient magical techniques, eating, bodily resurrection, medicine and modernity, mental illness, and the certification of miracles.

Held for new first year students