Topics in Ancient Rome

Catalog description

This course is a graduate seminar that explores topics in the disciplinary and interdisciplinary areas of ancient Roman studies. Topics and their corresponding historical contexts (i.e., Roman Republic or Empire) rotate each time the course is offered. Examples of topics include: Roman slavery; Roman interactions with other Mediterranean cultures; Roman urbanism; and Roman religion. In each case, the seminar places emphasis on: the reading and discussion of relevant primary sources (ideally with reference to the original ancient Mediterranean languages); the construction and critical review of a special area's bibliography; and the pursuit of an original research project, which identifies and addresses an important scholarly question raised in the seminar, and whose findings are presented in a paper suitable for a conference presentation or scholarly journal.