D. Alex Walthall

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

Say "Ancient Greece", and the words conjure up timeless images of shining white temples among olive trees, bronze-armored heroes, and bearded philosophers discussing the nature of the universe. Our popular vision of the ancient Greeks makes them seem both familiar and irrelevant to the modern world. In fact, however, Greek culture is deeply alien to our own, and at the same time surprisingly relevant. On the one hand, ancient Greek society is just as confusing, shocking, and easy to misinterpret as any other culture is for an outside observer -- even more so, because we are separated from it not only by space but by time. On the other hand, we have the Greeks to thank for much of the way we think today about politics, art, science, and the meaning of life.

This course is meant to introduce students to this complex and intriguing culture and to its legacy in our own society. We will look at ancient Greece on its own terms through the examination of primary sources of all types -- literary, artistic, archaeological -- in an attempt to develop a more detailed and nuanced understanding of Ancient Greek society and culture between the Bronze Age and the Hellenistic period. We will also place the discussion of these sources in the context of the shifting meaning of Ancient Greece in the modern world, from the Homeric romanticism of Heinrich Schliemann to the meaning of democracy in the 21st century. Within a roughly chronological framework, lectures will examine Greek literature to discover what the Greeks said about themselves; Greek art and archaeology to understand how people lived and to hear the voices of those -- women, children, slaves, foreigners and outsiders -- who left no written testimony; and modern controversies to see what the Greeks say about us.

Fulfills the Visual and Performing Arts requirement.

Carries the Global Cultures flag.

Fulfills the Cultural Expression, Human Experience, & Thought Course area requirement.

C C 380 Seminar in Classical Archaeology:

Topics given in recent years include methods and theory, Greek and Roman Naples, landscape archaeology, and Hellenistic and Roman Egypt.

This course introduces students to the rich material and historical record of the Mediterranean’s largest island. Over the course of the semester, we will examine Sicily’s long and dynamic history from the earliest prehistoric settlements to the establishment of the Norman kingdom by Roger II. The island’s central location in the western Mediterranean—not to mention its famed agricultural resources—made Sicily a nexus of cultural contact (and conflict!) throughout antiquity and the medieval period.

In-class discussion will focus on questions of change, recurrence, and continuity as viewed within the dual frames of archaeology and history. To accomplish this goal, the course will move between a diachronic historical approach and discussion of thematic topics, including (1) interrogating narratives of conquest and colonization, (2) unpacking issues of identity, hybridity and ethnicity, (3) exploring violence and vitality in the agrarian sphere, (4) defining royal power through art and architecture, and (5) navigating the natural landscapes of the island. Emphasis will be placed on examining ways in which material culture can supplement surviving historical sources.

This course is an introduction to the art, architecture, and archaeology of the ancient Romans from the beginnings of the city of Rome in the early Iron Age to late antiquity.  It focuses on major developments in Roman material culture, particularly artworks, buildings, and cities.  Material will be presented chronologically and students will see and evaluate artifacts in light of their cultural precedents.  After completing this course, students will be able to understand major Roman sites, monuments, and artworks in their cultural and chronological context and to offer an analysis based on art-historical and archaeological principles.

This course carries a Global Cultures flag and fulfills the Visual and Performing Arts requirement.  It also fulfills the Cultural Expression, Human Experience, & Thought Course area requirement.

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

C C 380 Seminar in Classical Archaeology:

Topics given in recent years include methods and theory, Greek and Roman Naples, landscape archaeology, and Hellenistic and Roman Egypt.

This course is an introduction to the art, architecture, and archaeology of the ancient Romans from the beginnings of the city of Rome in the early Iron Age to late antiquity.  It focuses on major developments in Roman material culture, particularly artworks, buildings, and cities.  Material will be presented chronologically and students will see and evaluate artifacts in light of their cultural precedents.  After completing this course, students will be able to understand major Roman sites, monuments, and artworks in their cultural and chronological context and to offer an analysis based on art-historical and archaeological principles.

This course carries a Global Cultures flag and fulfills the Visual and Performing Arts requirement.  It also fulfills the Cultural Expression, Human Experience, & Thought Course area requirement.

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

This course will introduce students to the physical remains of Ancient Greek culture from the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic period.  The course will cover all sorts of archaeological evidence, from temples to vases to bones, but it will concentrate on the categories of architecture, sculpture, and painting (especially on ceramics). Through the examination and discussion of this evidence, students will develop a broad knowledge of Ancient Greek material culture, and a sophisticated understanding of the ways we can interpret it.  A focus on stylistic and formal changes and continuities in objects and monuments across time will help us look at long-term issues such as intercultural contact and sociopolitical development.  At the same time, in-depth treatments of particular remains and their contexts will address more specific questions of daily life, art, and ritual.

Fulfills the Visual and Performing Arts requirement.

Carries the Global Cultures flag.

Fulfills the Cultural Expression, Human Experience, & Thought Course area requirement.

This course continues the introduction to reading Ancient Greek begun in Greek 506.  Starting with a brief review, we shall complete the basic grammar and move on to read passages from various Greek authors.

Daily assignments covering grammar, vocabulary, composition, and translation will enable the diligent student to acquire a firm grasp of Attic Greek.  Regular attendance is essential.

Prerequisite:  Greek 506 or equivalent (i.e. one semester of Greek).

This course can be counted for partial fulfillment of foreign language requirements.

This course is an introduction to the art, architecture, and archaeology of the ancient Romans from the beginnings of the city of Rome in the early Iron Age to late antiquity.  It focuses on major developments in Roman material culture, particularly artworks, buildings, and cities.  Material will be presented chronologically and students will see and evaluate artifacts in light of their cultural precedents.  After completing this course, students will be able to understand major Roman sites, monuments, and artworks in their cultural and chronological context and to offer an analysis based on art-historical and archaeological principles.

This course carries a Global Cultures flag and fulfills the Visual and Performing Arts requirement.  It also fulfills the Cultural Expression, Human Experience, & Thought Course area requirement.

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

This course continues the introduction to reading Ancient Greek begun in Greek 506.  Starting with a brief review, we shall complete the basic grammar and move on to read passages from various Greek authors.

Daily assignments covering grammar, vocabulary, composition, and translation will enable the diligent student to acquire a firm grasp of Attic Greek.  Regular attendance is essential.

Prerequisite:  Greek 506 or equivalent (i.e. one semester of Greek).

This course can be counted for partial fulfillment of foreign language requirements.

This course is an introduction to the art, architecture, and archaeology of the ancient Romans from the beginnings of the city of Rome in the early Iron Age to late antiquity.  It focuses on major developments in Roman material culture, particularly artworks, buildings, and cities.  Material will be presented chronologically and students will see and evaluate artifacts in light of their cultural precedents.  After completing this course, students will be able to understand major Roman sites, monuments, and artworks in their cultural and chronological context and to offer an analysis based on art-historical and archaeological principles.

This course carries a Global Cultures flag and fulfills the Visual and Performing Arts requirement.  It also fulfills the Cultural Expression, Human Experience, & Thought Course area requirement.

This course brings participants into contact with the material culture of Hellenistic kingship and the principal kingdoms that developed following the death of Alexander III (i.e. Seleukid, Attalid, Ptolemaic, Antigonid). In each meeting we will focus on a different theme, discussing relevant scholarship and material evidence. Participants will leave the course having gained exposure to abiding questions and topics surrounding the study of Hellenistic kingdoms as well as to recent developments in the fields of Hellenistic history, archaeology, epigraphy, and numismatics.

Topics to be addressed in seminar include:

- defining a kingdom

- kings + cities

- public architecture + urbanism

- the “royal economy”: taxes and trade

- ruler cult- royal coinage: iconography and minting habits

- looking like a king: portraits and personalities

- writing like a king: royal letters