Courses 2013-2014

Autumn 2013

  1. Seminar on Roman Religion (Classics 7893)—Fritz Graf
  2. Narratives of Origin: The Islamic Tradition (NELC 7501)--Parvaneh  Pourshariati

Spring 2014

  1. Classics 5401: Methodologies for the Study of Ancient Religions—Fritz Graf. The class – this year organized as a 3-hours seminar – studies the varying methodologies that have been used to study ancient religions between the rise of Academic religious studies and the early 21st century. Most of them followed paradigms that were developed for the general study of religions, such as the approaches of Durkheim, Max Weber, or Claude Levi-Strauss; a few developed their paradigm from the study of ancient Mediterranean religions, as did the so-called Cambridge school around Jane Ellen Harrison and James G. Frazer, or the Paris group around Jean-Pierre Vernant, or J.Z. Smith in Chicago. We will extensively read both the key theoretical texts and the texts that contested these methodologies.
  2. Greek 7890: New Testament Interpretation for Historians—Bert Harrill. The main goal of the course is a careful, close reading of the diverse New Testament writings, as well as some non-canonical texts, in their religious and cultural context of the Roman Empire, with attention to the history of research and current methodologies in the field.  
  3. NELC 5103: Manichean Middle Persia and Parthian (introduction to the language and seminar on Manichaeism—Kevin van Bladel
  4. History 7210: War, Narrative, and Religion in Late Antiquity--Tina Sessa.  This course will ask students to ponder how we might read (and re-read) familiar texts on late antique religious life and thought in new ways by paying closer attention to the texts’ relationship to war and warfare
  5. History of Art 8301/Classics 7881: Studies in Greek and Roman Art--Mark Fullerton. Constructions of the Past in Classical Art and Culture.  Please see the flyer.