Courses Offered

HIST 4820/8826: Mesopotamia and Pre-Islamic Persia

The roots of the modern Western world are far older than either Greece or Rome.  This course begins in ancient Sumer and traces Ancient Near Eastern history down to Persia just before the conquests of Alexander the Great.  Writing, laws, engineering, algebra, zoos, libraries, and medicine…they had it all.

ART 4930/8936: Special Topics in Art History--Pop Antiquity

Troy, 300, Spartacus, Percy Jackson, HBO's Rome, Cleopatra—this class has it all!  Join us and see how Hollywood interprets the ancient world.  While the visual arts will be used as the foundation for discussion, film and television will be the major art form investigated. 

HIST 4910/8916: Byzantine Culture, 330-1453

Resplendently emanating from the fabled walled city of Constantinople, Byzantine civilization was the legitimate continuation of the Roman Empire in Christian form linking late antiquity to the Renaissance.  Defender of Christianity and preserver of the seeds of European civilization, the modern Western world owes a great debt to the Byzantines.  History 4910/8916 surveys the culture, tumultuous events, individuals, ultimate tragedy, and the legacy of Byzantium.

HIST 4910/8916: The Roman Family

Moving away from conventional political history to examine social structures, students will look at family organization, gender issues, and the physical context of day-to-day life in ancient Rome.  The class will follow the life cycle from conception through death, examining the range of specifically Roman responses to each change in the stages of life.

RELI 3130/8900: Women and the Bible

How were women characterized in the Hebrew Bible and Christian Testament?  How does learning the historical contexts in which these traditions developed help us to understand how women fit into them?  Data generated by archaeological excavations and other historical and anthropological inquiries—in addition to extracanonical textual sources—will be examined.

PHIL 3110: History of Ancient Philosophy

 A survey of philosophy from its beginning to the Middle Ages: pre-Socratics, Plato, Aristotle, Cynics, Epicureans, Stoics, Skeptics, and Neo-Platonists.

HIST 4840/8846: Alexander the Great and the Macedonian Origin

Alexander’s impact on both the ancient and modern worlds is far-reaching, and sometimes surprising.  Julius Caesar and Napoleon were jealous of him, George Patton believed he was him (via reincarnation), his strategy at the Battle of Gaugamela is still taught in military academies today, and such diverse artists as Rembrandt and Iron Maiden have produced works featuring him.  But who was the young conqueror behind the myth?