Europe between the 14th and 16th centuries with special emphasis on Italy as the seat of the Renaissance. Topics include the city states, humanism, the Church in an age of Schism and secularization, Renaissance art, the New Monarchies and European exploration and imperialism.
Major institutions and trends in Europe from the breakup of the Roman World to the 14th century.
Major institutions and trends in Europe from the breakup of the Roman World to the 14th century.
This course focuses on Cleopatra VII (69-30 BCE), the last ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt and one of the best-known women in history and a key powerbroker during a period of important political change, one with enduring repercussions for the western world. She has been, however, deliberately memorialized as a "romantic" agent, a deployer of "feminine wiles", whose gender and political toolbox rightly doomed her efforts to failure. Students will interrogate the process of transforming a historical individual into an object lesson, a trope of femininity, and a cinematic legend, unpacking the messages crafted for a range of audiences and purposes by multiple creators, including Cleopatra herself. We begin with the historical background of the Hellenistic period, cosmopolitan and multicultural, focusing especially on the dynamism of women in the ideology of royal power and as image-makers in their own right, developing special forms for female authority and female patronage. A number of earlier Cleopatras establish context and particular precedents, creating official personae to engage effective interactions with fundamental groups; these include the resilient Ptolemaic queen Cleopatra II (r. 175-116 BCE) and Cleopatra Thea, token in a dynastic alliance who became Great Queen of Syria, dominating the Seleucid throne for a generation. Students will then sift through the evidence for Cleopatra VII, both the contentious (and largely hostile) material for her Mediterranean activities as well as the Egyptian record that may represent the specific efforts of the queen herself, utilizing then-ancient symbol and ritual to assert her legitimate imperial authority and structure her collaboration with major stakeholders in the Nile realm. The last section of the course looks to the lingering memory of Cleopatra long after her death, closely examining images in drama, art, and film to explore how the story of Cleopatra has been crafted and recrafted to represent different "truths" about sex, power, and identity.
This course will focus on the history of Rome under the emperors, from approximately the 40s B.C.E. to the deterioration of the western Empire in the fifth century C.E. Special emphasis will be given to concepts of power and how these play out in politics, spectacle, gender ideals, art and urban structures, and religious practices of the imperial period. Students will make use of the primary sources of evidence, both ancient texts and archaeological material, to increase their understanding of the ancient Romans and to gain greater familiarity with the techniques of the historian in analysis and communication.
This course will focus on the history of Rome as it expands from an archaic 8th century village to become the dominant power in the Mediterranean, through civil war and the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BCE. Although there is special focus on Roman power as it was distributed, manipulated, and claimed by citizens, warlords and demagogues, we will also be looking at social networks and the family, sub-elites and women, polytheism and ritual practice, the development of the city as a space for civic performances, as well as the dynamics of cultural interaction in the ancient Mediterranean. Students will concentrate throughout on the primary evidence (written and archaeological) and the ways in which historians use literary and material documentation to uncover different perspectives on the Roman past.
In this class, you will investigate a variety of topics related to people¿s lives in Classical Greece: democracy, economics, family life, gender, slavery, science, religion, and friendship. You will read and discuss ancient texts from the 4th century BCE ¿ histories, court speeches, how-to manuals, and philosophy ¿ in order to figure out for yourself what happened and how people lived.
By reading and discussing many different ancient texts, including philosophy, Jewish histories and literature, and, especially, papyri from Egypt, you will explore the social and cultural history of the eastern Mediterranean from Alexander the Great until the Roman conquest.
Beginning with Herodotus¿ history of the Persian Wars and concluding with Thucydides¿ account of the Peloponnesian War, you will read and discuss various types of ancient sources in order to write your own history of the growth of democracy, the spread of empire, and the persistence of war in Classical Greece.
Rise of Islam, creation of Islamic society, relationship of religion and politics.
