ENROLL

Jordan R Rogers

Histories of the classical world often focus on the cultures of Greece and Rome, situated on the northern shores of the Mediterranean. But what can we discover if we ‘flip’ our map of the Mediterranean, putting African perspectives on top? In this class, we will engage with the artistic, literary, and archaeological evidence left to us by the Mediterranean societies of classical Africa, as well as the ways in which these societies are depicted by Greek and Roman sources. Topics covered include ancient Egypt, the colonial “middle ground” of North Africa, and other African cultures on the Mediterranean periphery.

Serena R Zabin

An enormous variety of people told stories of their lives in early America’s courtrooms. Trials from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are some of the best places for historians to learn about ordinary people and the world in which they lived. Enslaved Africans, pregnant women, wealthy men, and even transgender people were part of early American trials. Sometimes they were there to defend themselves, their lives, and their choices. Others were there as plaintiffs who tried to use the legal system to shape the world around them.  Emphasizing both history and law, this course will be based primarily on trial transcripts and other court papers from seventeenth- and eighteenth-century America.

Held for new first year students

Seungjoo Yoon

An introduction to the study of historical biography. Instead of what we heard or think about Confucius, we will examine what his contemporaries, both his supporters and critics, thought he was. Students will scrutinize various sources gleaned from archaeology, heroic narratives, and court debates, as well as the Analects to write their own biography of Confucius based on a particular historical context that created a persistent constitutional agenda in early China. Students will justify why they would call such a finding, in hindsight, "Confucian" in its formative days. Themes can be drawn from aspects of ritual, bureaucracy, speech and writing

Held for new first year students

William L North

In Late Antiquity (200-800 CE), certain men and women around the Mediterranean and beyond came to occupy a special place in the minds and lives of their contemporaries: they were known as holy men and women or saints. What led people to perceive someone as holy? What were the consequences of holiness for the persons themselves and the surrounding societies? When they intervene in their worlds, what are their sources of authority and power?  How did these holy figures relate to the established institutions--secular and religious--that surrounded them?  Working with a rich array of evidence, we will explore themes such as asceticism, embodied and verbal pedagogy, wealth and poverty, work, marginality, cultural difference, and protest/resistance. We will journey from the lands of Gaul, Italy, and Spain to North Africa and Egypt and the Holy Land, to Armenia and the Fertile Crescent.

Extra Time Required

Austin P Mason

This course explores the world of Early Medieval England from Rome's decline through the Norman Conquest (c.400-1066) through its material culture. These six centuries witnessed dramatic transformations, including waning Roman influence, changing environmental conditions, ethnic migrations, the coming of Christianity, the rise of kingdoms, and the emergence of new agricultural and economic regimes. We will look beyond the kings and priests at the top of society by analyzing objects people made and used, buildings they built, and human remains they buried alongside primary and secondary written sources. Students will practice writing history from, and experiment with (re)making, early English "things""