Race & Ethnicity Greece/Rome

Catalog description

The course examines how the concepts of race and ethnic diversity are presented and debated in various Greek and Roman sources (literary as well as visual) and to what extent ancient thinking remains influential nowadays. The course explores a series of important ideas, including nation formation, ethnic superiority, and the use of anatomical, linguistic, and religious characteristics as criteria for ethnic and racial differentiation in the ancient Mediterranean world. The course also investigates the nexus between ancient racism and the social institutions and processes related to it, such as enslavement, colonization, migration, imperialism, assimilation, native revolts, and genocide.