Spring 2019
CLASS-GA 10002 Antiquity at Risk: Conflict Archaeology, Conservation, International Law and Cultural Heritage
Joan Connelly, Monday 4:15-6:15
This interdisciplinary course introduces students to a broad range of contemporary threats to the survival of ancient cultural heritage. It is ideal for those who are interested in the intersection of classical archaeology and art history with international law, science, conservation, ethics, public policy, and cultural resource management. Through careful examination of case studies, we investigate objects, monuments and sites that exemplify the greatest risks faced in preserving cultural heritage today. Material is presented the within the broader context of current global developments, especially those of armed conflict, environmental issues, urban growth, dam building, tourism, looting, and the international market in illicit antiquities. Special attention is paid to international cultural heritage laws and conventions, cases of repatriation and return of cultural materials, and current discussions of identity, cosmopolitism, and the “universal museum.”
Interested students should contact Professor Connelly: joan.connelly@nyu.edu
CLASS-GA 1005 Survey of Latin Literature
David Levene, Monday & Wednesday 2:00-3:15
We will be studying a number of Latin texts from the Augustan period to late antiquity. As well as reading and understanding the texts, we will be seeking to examine their place in the development of Latin literature; we will also be surveying a variety of critical approaches adopted by modern scholars, through close readings of key articles and books on the the different authors.
CLASS-GA 1012 Latin Prose Composition
David Konstan, Wednesday 6:30-8:30
This course offers an introduction to prose composition in Latin. The course will include a review of Latin syntax (based on the textbook, “Bradley’s Arnold,” which will be distributed as a pdf) and discussion of various prose styles, with a primary focus on Cicero. There will be weekly exercises in the translation of set passages, which will be examined for linguistic correctness and also style. Additional materials on particular points of style will be distributed in the course of the semester.
CLASS-GA 2965 Sophocles
Peter Meineck, Wednesday 4:15-6:15
In this seminar, we will be reading Sophocles' Philoctetes in Greek and paying particular attention to the playwright's dramaturgy, narrative structure, poetic imagery and inter-performative devices (inter-textualities). We will place the work within its cultural and performative contexts and examine, staging, masks, costumes, settings, music, dance, gestures, space, and the wider festival/cultic and social-political environments of the second half of fifth century BCE Athens. We will also look at receptions of Philoctetes since the 20th century. We will be using the following edition, which students will need to provide:
Seth L. Schein, Sophocles: Philoctetes. Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 2013.
CLASS-GA 3000 Augustine’s Confessions
Adam Becker, Tuesday 6:30-8:30
CUNY Graduate Center
In this seminar we will read and discuss large portions of the whole of Augustine’s Confessions (including the commonly ignored later books). Broader questions about the genre and context of the work will be addressed throughout, whereas certain topics will be introduced each week as they arise in given books (e.g Manichaeism in Bks 3-4; Neoplatonism in Bk 7). Topics of discussion will also depend on the different students’ interests (Classical, Late Antique, Medieval, literary, philosophical, theological, etc.). Good knowledge of Latin is required. Feel free to contact the instructor if you have any questions: adam.becker@nyu.edu
CLASS-GA 3001 Roman Family
Matthew Perry, Thursday 6:30-8:30
CUNY Graduate Center, Room TBA
Masters and slaves, wives and husbands, parents and children, patres familias and dependents, all dwelled and labored alongside each other within the Roman household. This seminar explores the form and function of the Roman household, considering the legal and social mechanisms making it one of the empire’s most powerful institutions. Engaging with critical topics such as gender, family, slavery, and status, readings will consist of primary sources (in translation), classic works of modern scholarship, and recent innovative studies (all available digitally through library collections).
CLASS-GA 3002.01 Ancient Science
Philip Thibodeau, Tuesday 4:15-6:15
CUNY Graduate Center, Room TBA
In this seminar we will explore the literature and culture of ancient Greek and Roman science. Each week we will study a text or collection of texts that exemplify one or more key themes. These themes will include: the origins of the secular worldview; changing conceptions of ‘nature’ (physis); the cognitive styles of technical texts; Near Eastern influences on Greek science; the translation of ideas from the Greek world to Rome; and the challenges of working with lost or incompletely preserved writings. Students will read both Greek and Latin works and representative items of scholarship. For a final project each seminar participant will translate into English and write an introduction to a short piece of ancient scientific writing which has never received such treatment before.
CLASS-GA 3003 Horace and the Tradition of Latin Lyric
Matthew McGowan, Thursday 4:15-6:15
CUNY Graduate Center, Room TBA
This course provides a survey of Horace’s Odes (Carmina) for the first two-thirds of the term. The final third will be dedicated to the reception of Horace and the tradition of Latin lyric from the early medieval period (Venantius Fortunatus, Alcuin, Notker Balbus) to the Italian Renaissance (Petrarch, Pontano, Filelfo, Poliziano, Marullo) and beyond (Joannes Secundus, Conrad Celtis). There will be weekly assignments in Latin and readings from secondary scholarship on which students will be asked to give at least one report. There will be a midterm exam and final research paper (usually on a topic related to the report), and texts will be provided at the beginning of the term for a small fee. Feel free to email me with questions about the course: mamcgowan@fordham.edu.
For courses at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, please click here.