44 courses with the subject CLAS, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
CLAS 120The Secret History of Words: The Greek and Latin Origins of English and Bio-Scientific Vocabulary1
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3This course explores the Greek and Latin origins of many English words and the specialized vocabulary in fields such as the biosciences and law. We will primarily analyze words in order to improve your comprehension of English, but will simultaneously learn about the languages and cultures of the ancient Mediterranean.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3Introduction to the study of ancient Greek civilization through its art, literature, history, religion, etc. Emphasis on the classical period.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3Introduction to Roman Civilization from Romulus to Constantine. Emphasis on social and cultural history, including literature, art, architecture, religion, and historiography in their cultural context.
Offered Alternating Fall Semester; Lecture hours:3Introduction to Near Eastern and Greco-Roman civilization through study of major urban centers. Seniors by permission of the instructor.
Offered Occasionally; Lecture hours:3Introduction to the basics of the Modern Greek language and culture; taught on site in Athens during the semester study abroad program in Athens.
Offered Occasionally; Lecture hours:3This course examines athletic cultures of Greece & Rome from Homer to the end of the (Western) Roman Empire. In order to gain insight into distinctive features of organized sport over time, students consider the mechanics and logistics of ancient events, taking up larger questions of cultural and theoretical interpretation through situating athletic practice within religious, social and political contexts.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3Study of the traditional tales of Greece and, to a lesser extent, the Near East and Rome; consideration and application of myth theory. Seniors by permission of the instructor.
Offered Occasionally; Lecture hours:3,Other:3Theban and Athenian myth traditions studied in their historical context and as cultural constructions expressing identity, religion, and regional opposition through literature, vase painting, and architecture.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3Greek history from the heroic Bronze age down through the Persian invasion, the flourishing of Classical Athens, and the Peloponnesian wars to the death of Socrates, focusing on political, social, and economic developments. Crosslisted as HIST 240.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3Roman history from Rome's foundations as a backwater village ca. 753 BCE, through its rise as a world-power to its fall in the fourth century CE, focusing on economic and political issues. Crosslisted as HIST 241.
Offered Alternate Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3An introduction to global environmental history of the preindustrial world through three thematic lenses: how the natural environment shaped patterns of human life, how ideologies toward nature shifted over time, and how human activities and ideologies reshaped the ancient landscape. Crosslisted as ENST 216.
Offered Alternate Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3Interpretive study of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and other epics chosen by the instructor (e.g., the Argonautica and Aeneid). Study may include epic works of later traditions.
Offered Occasionally; Lecture hours:3This course will investigate (ab)uses of ancient Greco-Roman material in various modern cultures, such as 19th-20th century Germany and modern China. We will consider the power of Greco-Roman Classics in global and Asian contexts and how to prevent abuses of that power.
Offered Occasionally; Lecture hours:3The ancients had numerous settings for conflict and competition: battlefields, stadia, and artistic patronage. This course explores the origin, content, and meaning of agonistic display.
Offered Occasionally; Lecture hours:3,Other:3Study of the historian's work alongside major cultural moments of the 5th century BCE, including the Persian and Peloponnesian wars, the Sophistic movement, the Athenian Empire, and the Aegean Sea as a cultural conduit.
Offered Alternating Fall Semester; Lecture hours:3Study of the transformation of classical Greek culture into a civilization dominating the Mediterranean world and its Eastern neighbors. Topics may include art, urban culture, politics, intellectual expressions, and religious innovation.
CLAS 235Dying for God: Martyrdom from Antigone to ISIS1
Offered Occasionally; Lecture hours:3Early Christians were attracted to dramatic narratives of suffering--whether about spectacular deaths in the arena or extreme self-denial in the desert. This course explores the world of martyrs and monks and considers how ancient ideals about pain, gender, and sexuality continue to influence Christian thinking about holiness and sainthood. Crosslisted as RELI 253 and WMST 245.
Offered Alternating Fall Semester; Lecture hours:3Study of late republican - early empire Rome, emphasizing the transition from the republic to empire, the role played by Augustus in this transition, the tension between East and West, and the crisis of morals.
Offered Occasionally; Lecture hours:4History and archaeology of Roman and Byzantine Greece; focus on culture through art, architecture, religion, politics, and regional studies. Taught on site and in Athens during the semester study abroad program in Athens.
Offered Alternate Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3Survey of the material culture, with emphasis on major architectural and artistic developments and their legacy to modern Western civilization. Crosslisted as ARTH 241.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3Survey of the material culture of the Greek world from the Bronze Age through the Hellenistic period. Crosslisted as ARTH 242.
Offered Alternate Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3Survey of the material culture of the Roman world from the Etruscans through the late Empire. Crosslisted as ARTH 243.
CLAS 244Magic and Mystery of the Ancient Mediterranean World1
Offered Occasionally; Lecture hours:3This course examines the literary and material culture of ancient Greece and Rome to understand their mystical and magical practices, from civic rituals to personal spells and curse tablets. Through study of these practices we will gain a unique perspective on ancient social culture.
Offered Alternate Fall and Spring; Lecture hours:3A detailed survey of the state of ancient technology by the time of the early Roman empire in its economic and social context. Topics include sources of power, mining and metallurgy, quarrying, land and sea transport, and the urban infrastructure.
Offered Either Fall or Spring,Topics course; Lecture hours:3; RepeatableStudy of a topic relating to the classical world and its tradition. Examples, slavery, women, religions, a historical period. May be repeated for credit when topic varies.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3An exploration of the earliest Christians through the writings that later became the New Testament. We will examine these sources in the context of their specific social and historical concerns and consider the complex process in which some writings were included in Christian scripture while others were rejected. Crosslisted as RELI 252.
Offered Occasionally; Lecture hours:3This course will introduce you to the ships, sailors, and navies of the ancient Mediterranean and of Greece and Rome in particular. We will analyze the evidence in ancient texts, shipwreck archaeology, and artistic representations.
Offered Spring or Summer; Lecture hours:Varies,Other:12Course varies by year as developed by either educational partner/vendor in Athens (and elsewhere) or by individual faculty, but the course generally covers at least one of the following activities under direct supervision of faculty member(s) and outside in-classroom offerings: directed academic travel, landscape/topographical study, archaeological survey, excavation, environmental and resource engagement, arts engagement, performance, laboratory-skills development or application.
Offered Occasionally; Lecture hours:3This course examines a range of archaeological methods and materials used to study diet, the economics of food, the politics of food distribution and consumption, feasting and religion, and the social significance of food in questions of gender, ethnicity and status in and around the ancient Mediterranean.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3This course explores the history, literature and material culture of Pompeii with the goal of better understanding daily life for all levels of society in the early Roman Empire. Crosslisted as ARTH 262.
Offered Either Fall or Spring,Topics course; Lecture hours:Varies; RepeatableTopics in classical civilization, to be chosen by the student. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.
Offered Both Fall and Spring; Lecture hours:VariesIndependent study and research leading to the writing of a thesis. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.
Offered Both Fall and Spring; Lecture hours:VariesIndependent study and research leading to the writing of a thesis. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.
Offered Occasionally; Lecture hours:4This seminar examines ancient story-craft across epic, historiography and the novel. We'll explore how and why ancient stories were told, their impact on contemporary and modern audiences and how narratives shape communities' self-understanding. Using critical frameworks, we'll analyze how ancient storytelling techniques influence modern fiction and political rhetoric, constructing—and sometimes distorting—our reality.
Offered Occasionally; Lecture hours:3This course explores the Iliad and its influence at great depth. Students will read the entire Iliad (in English) as well as related texts from Greece and Rome. Homer's depiction of war and its consequences will be compared to modern and ancient descriptions of warfare. Prerequisite: permission of instructor.
Offered Occasionally; Lecture hours:3An in-depth integrative study of Athens from the 6th - 4th centuries including its literature, arts, architecture, religion, philosophy, politics. Some background required.
CLAS 333After Alexander: Hellenistic Cultural Landscape1
Offered Occasionally; Lecture hours:3An interdisciplinary examination of the Hellenistic cultural landscape as a cultural, historic, ecological, and symbolic system. Includes discussion of the eastern Mediterranean and central Asia as a focus of confrontation between east and west over time. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.
Offered Occasionally; Lecture hours:3Seminar-style examination of the lives of women in antiquity both real and imagined, as attested in a variety of ancient media. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor. Crosslisted as WMST 334.
Offered Occasionally; Lecture hours:3Study of Graeco-Roman prose fiction, such as Apuleius' "Golden Ass', and Longus' 'Daphnis and Chloe', together with current scholarly literature. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.
CLAS 337Use and Abuse of the Past: Adaptation and Revision1
Offered Occasionally; Lecture hours:3This course examines the positive and negative ways that Greco-Roman history and culture are continually evoked in modern discourses by those who attempt to shape society, our concepts of culture, and our relationships with one another. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3This class will focus on the lived experience of women in ancient Rome, including women from Roman provinces, from the founding of the city through the early Empire—a period of about 900 years. Using literary, visual and archaeological evidence, we will examine issues of agency, participation and exclusion. Crosslisted as WMST 338.
Offered Either Fall or Spring,Topics course; Lecture hours:3; RepeatableStudy of a topic of importance in classics. Examples: a current problem, an important figure, a historical period. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.
